It was fitting that in the first concert program after its founder’s passing, the Atlantic Classical Orchestra and a guest soloist could present an evening so full of life and eventful music-making. On Wednesday night at the Eissey Campus Theatre in Palm Beach Gardens, the young American violinist Sirena Huang gave the orchestra and its audience an astoundingly vital reading … [Read more...]
Pianist’s comedy needs stronger musicianship
There is a healthy tradition of clowning in classical music performance, as could be witnessed just this past Monday in New York when the splendid Chinese pianist Yuja Wang joined the British music-and-comedy duo of Igudesman and Joo for a night of general goofing around at Zankel Hall. Looking back a little bit further, we find compositional satire with Peter Schickele and … [Read more...]
Canada’s Gryphon Trio stellar at Flagler
The Gryphon Trio, a Canadian threesome that played the Flagler Museum music series in 2006, returned Feb. 5 to Whitehall with three works from the Austro-German canon. Violinist Annalee Patipatanakoon, cellist Roman Borys and pianist Jamie Parker offered music by Haydn, Beethoven and Brahms, playing the trios in chronological order, with Parker commenting as they went about … [Read more...]
Israel Philharmonic, Levi splendid in Bruckner at Kravis
By Dennis D. Rooney Zubin Mehta, longtime music director of the Israel Philharmonic, was originally scheduled to conduct at the Kravis on Feb. 5, but withdrew due to illness. His place was taken by Yoel Levi, the IPO’s first Israeli music director. A frequent guest conductor in the U. S., Levi, 68, was from 1978 to 1984 at the Cleveland Orchestra, initially as assistant … [Read more...]
Fine Arts Quartet, Rust offer rich program
By Dennis D. Rooney Roberta Rust, who is professor of piano and head of the piano department at Lynn University’s Conservatory of Music, joined the Fine Arts Quartet on Feb. 2 for a concert at the college’s Amarnick-Goldstein Concert Hall. Rust and the quartet teamed up for the Piano Quintet (in E-flat, Op. 44) by Robert Schumann. It was composed in 1842, the composer’s … [Read more...]
Horn concerto, soloist please on Lynn Phil program
By Dennis D. Rooney South Florida music lovers regard Lynn University’s Conservatory of Music as one of the area’s finest musical adornments. The Lynn Philharmonia, the student orchestra of the Conservatory, performed its fourth concert of this season Jan. 26 under the direction of the institution’s dean, Jon Robertson. The program opened with the Academic Festival … [Read more...]
FGO’s fresh, youthful ‘Figaro’ an object lesson in fun
By Robert Croan Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, seen in Broward Center’s Au-Rene Theater on Friday night, was a tribute to Florida Grand Opera’s excellent Young Artists Studio. Recent alumni took on three of the four leading roles, with all supporting characters assigned to current members of the program. Conducted with vigor by Andrew Bisantz and buoyantly staged by … [Read more...]
Lincoln Center duo brings week of Romantic music to Four Arts
It’s one thing to come and do a concert during the South Florida season, but it rises to another level when you’re able to bring your friends. This month at the Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach, the proprietors of New York’s Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the husband-and-wife team of cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han, will settle in for a week of … [Read more...]
Echols a gently winning Violetta in PB Opera’s ‘Traviata’
It’s a commonplace of Verdi scholarship that the composer’s “big three” operas of the early 1850s – Il Trovatore, Rigoletto and La Traviata – were game-changers for him in that they announced a consistent mature style in addition to introducing tunes so catchy they hold their popularity today. All of which is true, but it takes an especially sensitive and musical performance … [Read more...]
Mozart’s ‘Figaro’ speaks to a time of #MeToo
By Robert Croan Operagoers may think of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro as a quaint and old- fashioned, lighthearted comedy. That’s wrong, as audiences will learn when they attend Florida Grand Opera’s revival of the work, which opened at Miami’s Adrienne Arsht Center on Saturday. When Mozart composed his opera in 1786, the play that was its basis was considered so … [Read more...]