If the Christmas season revives a rich body of American song for the holiday, it also is a door into the vast, centuries-old library of sacred choral music that amplifies the observance. Following by three days a concert by Miami’s Seraphic Fire that also explored ancient classical repertoire, the vocal quartet New York Polyphony made its first stop in Florida in seven years … [Read more...]
Two premieres add breadth to Seraphic Fire Christmas
Seraphic Fire’s Christmas concerts have become more than a South Florida tradition over the Miami choir’s 17 seasons. This year’s holiday program was first heard in Vermont and Connecticut at the beginning of the mnnth before the group returned home and opened a long series of Christmas concerts that will last through Dec. 16. The singers opened their Florida shows Thursday … [Read more...]
Soloist Bournaki, conductor Schwarz get Symphonia season off to smart start
The Canadian pianist Marika Bournaki made something of a splash back in 2012 with the release of a documentary about eight years of her young musical life as an emerging classical pianist. I am Not a Rock Star was an interesting look at the life of a talented child, and later woman, from the suburbs of Montreal who goes to Juilliard to pursue her dream of becoming a concert … [Read more...]
Seraphic Fire takes radiant journey of faith, with help of ABQ
There are many roads to God, as biblical tradition would have it, and during the Middle Ages, one of the most important literal paths to Christian devotion, as well as papal indulgence, was the road to Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain. It’s still a pilgrimage people take (including an American cellist, Dane Johansen, who traveled the 600-mile road in 2014 and … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2018-19: Classical music
It shouldn’t be surprising at this point, given South Florida’s deep connection to the Northeast, and New York City in particular, but this area can boast a season of classical music as rich as most other cities in the country, particularly in the first months of the year, when everyone likes to come to Florida to escape winter. Here’s a monthly look at what you can look … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2018-19: Opera
The folks at OperaBase tell us there are more than 25,000 live opera performances across the globe each year, which says something about the durability and resilience of this art form that first saw daylight in 16th-century Florence. Closer to home, the three major opera companies in this region – the Palm Beach and Florida Grand opera companies on the I-95 corridor, and the … [Read more...]
Miami Music Festival’s ‘Walküre’ sees directorial debut by composer’s descendant
Sitting alone deep in the ancient cedar forests on the Japanese island of Yukushima, Antoine Wagner came in direct contact with his quest for silence. “You spend three days living in a dense forest in tents, and then suddenly the guide says, ‘You have to stay here for an hour, someone will come get you,’” he said. “There’s not a single sound in the forest, and you feel like … [Read more...]
Summer season preview: Three classical festivals
Classical events during the high season are distinguished by big stars and ensembles coming through South Florida in times of chilly weather up north. And while the summer months have always had things going on if you knew where to look, these days there are bigger and more elaborate events that bring out the permanent residents. Here’s an overview: Palm Beach Chamber … [Read more...]
FGO’s ‘Florencia’ takes pleasant journey down faux-Puccini river
Continuing with her effort to modernize and update her company, Florida Grand Opera general director Susan Danis closes the troupe’s 77th season with Florencia en el Amazonas, the 1996 magic-realist opera by the late Mexican composer Daniel Catán. Although set in the grandeur of the Amazon River as a boat wends its way to the city of Manaus in northwestern Brazil, Florencia … [Read more...]
Young pianist makes persuasive case for Medtner
Americans have had a long love affair with the music of Russia, particularly that of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Works by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov, especially, are guaranteed box office today as they have been for decades. But there are other, less well-known Russian composers whose work, while perhaps not as immediate as those two composers, offer rewarding … [Read more...]