By Robert Croan Summer With the Symphony, South Florida Symphony Orchestra’s three monthly chamber music concerts — one program per month in Miami with a repeat in Fort Lauderdale — is virtually the only classical music to be heard here in the off-season. Showcasing the orchestra’s accomplished first-desk players, each event comprises two or three works for a total of … [Read more...]
Pires makes stellar showing at PB Symphony’s finale
By Márcio Bezerra After a disappointing cancelation last year, the audiences of the Palm Beaches finally were able to hear the esteemed Portuguese pianist Maria João Pires perform with the Palm Beach Symphony. The ensemble — completely reinvented since the arrival of Music Director Gerard Schwarz — presented its last performance of the season Monday night to an unusually … [Read more...]
311’s long fade from creativity mirrors SunFest’s slowdown
SunFest turned 40 years old this year, and the West Palm Beach institution slowed down accordingly within its new middle-aged bracket. What had previously been “Florida's largest waterfront music and art festival” was a five-day event for most of its existence, but downshifted to four days in 2018. On May 5-7, SunFest presented the first three-day format in its history — on … [Read more...]
Music of the Dead brings jazz group back alive
In 1998, a studio album called Blue Light Rain by the Grateful Dead tribute quartet Jazz Is Dead (www.facebook.com/JazzIsDead.Tour) turned both the jazz/fusion and Dead worlds on their collective ears. For that album’s 25th anniversary, and the 50th anniversary of the release of the 1973 Grateful Dead LP Wake of the Flood, a revamped Jazz Is Dead has returned from the … [Read more...]
Distinct personalities come to the fore in Jerusalem Quartet’s strong CMSPB closer
By Ava Figliuzzi The Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach closed its 10th annual season April 21 with the lauded Jerusalem Quartet. The Kravis Center’s Rinker Playhouse was filled out nicely for the Friday evening program of Felix Mendelssohn’s String Quartet No. 4 in E minor (Op. 44, No. 2) and Tchaikovsky’s First String Quartet (in D, Op. 11). Since their 1996 debut, the … [Read more...]
Master Chorale’s Verdi Requiem deeply satisfying
By Robert Croan You don’t have to be Christian, or even religious, to appreciate Giuseppe Verdi’s magnificent Requiem. The composer himself was essentially agnostic – something more significant when the work was composed in 1874, than it would be today. The effect of this great masterpiece for double choirs, four soloists and large orchestra, commemorating the death of … [Read more...]
Mr. Ho’s Orchestrotica promises out-of-the-box music-making at the Norton
In 1971, British comedy troupe Monty Python released And Now For Something Completely Different, its absurdist first feature film. Roughly 35 years later, percussionist Brian O'Neill formed Mr. Ho's Orchestrotica (orchestrotica.com), a group that's taken that title concept into musical terrain ever since. Featuring O'Neill on vibraphone and hand percussion, Geni Skendo … [Read more...]
West Palm drummer’s T’s Express sings jazz gospel of Corea, Hancock
In case you hadn't noticed, even though it's hard to miss, tribute acts have become all the rage by offering discounted versions of the material that lowest-common-denominator fans — especially of classic rock — can't seem to get more than enough of. As a result, tributes are sadly turning up in South Florida concert venues and clubs that in previous years booked much more … [Read more...]
PBO marks repertory milestone with sparkling ‘Falstaff’
By Márcio Bezerra It was well worth the wait: After 60 seasons, Palm Beach Opera finally staged Giuseppe Verdi’s last opera, Falstaff, in a remarkable production that will remain as one of the highest achievements of the (at times heroic) company’s history. Premiered at La Scala in Milan in 1893, the opera is not as popular as Verdi’s earlier output, not only because it … [Read more...]
NYGASP’s ‘The Mikado’ pleases, but not uniformly
By Robert Croan The New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players returned to Broward Center’s Au-Rene Theater on March 12 with a pleasant but uneven performance of The Mikado. It was more polished than the company’s 2020 touring performance of The Pirates of Penzance, but a reminder that South Florida currently lacks (and needs) a resident Savoyard company of our own. … [Read more...]