Aside from Claudio Monteverdi’s operas, Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, which premiered in Vienna in 1762, is the earliest opera in regular repertory. Its abundance of graceful melody, compelling story and absence of the stiffness of the prevailing opera seria put it there, and not incidentally so did its use of orchestral accompaniment in the recitatives … [Read more...]
Quatuor Ébène’s jazz not as strong as its Haydn, Fauré
By Dennis D. Rooney Appearing March 11 under the auspices of the Society of the Four Arts , the four French players known as Quatuor Ébène presented a bifurcated program. The first half was wholly traditional: Franz Joseph Haydn’s Quartet in D minor (Op. 72, No. 2) and Gabriel Fauré’s late Quartet (in E minor, Op. 121). The second half was devoted to eight jazz pieces. … [Read more...]
Henschel Quartet plays seamless Mozart, Debussy at Flagler
By Dennis D. Rooney The Henschel Quartet is named for three of the group’s original members who, with cellist Mathias Beyer-Karlhøj, founded it in 1994. Two of the Henschel siblings remain, first violinist Christoph and violist Monika. Second violinist Catalin Desaga joined them in 2016. Christoph Henschel plays a 1721 Stradivarius; Desaga’s violin is by Jan Bobak, a … [Read more...]
The eternal beauty of Gluck’s ‘Orfeo’
By Robert Croan Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice is all things to all people. Prior to the great Baroque revival of the mid-20th century, it was the oldest opera in standard repertory. Since its world premiere in Vienna in 1762, the iconic work has been revised, reworked and tampered with so many times that the work as performed from one opera house to another … [Read more...]
Mizner Park’s symphony of outside noise muffles two fine soloists
By Dennis D. Rooney A concert featuring two young soloists with the Symphonia Boca Raton that took place in the closing days of this year’s Festival of the Arts Boca was themed “Russian Festival,” but might better have been styled “Festival of Extraneous Noises.” The Count de Hoernle Amphitheater is not a congenial environment for the performance of classical music. … [Read more...]
Faux Beatles get audience moving at Crest
By Dale King Four chaps from Liverpool visited the Crest Theatre in Delray Beach on Feb. 16 and, quadruple-handedly, recreated a piece of the global phenomenon that altered the world of music 50-plus years ago, a feat accomplished by — four other chaps from Liverpool. Meet the Mersey Beatles, childhood friends from that port community in northwest England, east of the … [Read more...]
Attacca Quartet shows its worth in Ligeti, Beethoven at Duncan
By Dennis D. Rooney It took only a few measures of Beethoven’s Quartet No. 6 (in B-flat major, Op. 18, No. 6) to explain the high rank among contemporary American string quartets of the Attacca Quartet, founded in 2003 and actively concertizing for a decade. In the opening work of their Duncan Stage West program Feb. 21, they excelled in its strongly rhythmic character … [Read more...]
Voices carry the day for a ‘Candide’ that tries too hard
The celebration of the Leonard Bernstein centenary is bringing a lot of the composer-conductor’s music back into the public eye, and last weekend at Palm Beach Opera, the company tackled Candide for the second production of its current season. Like all troubled theater works, Candide has had several iterations since its relatively unsuccessful 1956 debut, with multiple … [Read more...]
Violinist Koh shows mastery in Boca Museum recital
By Dennis D. Rooney Jennifer Koh, a Chicago native and alumna of Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute where she studied with Jaime Laredo and Felix Galimir, was heard in recital on two succeeding days in Palm Beach County. Her first appearance was in Boca Raton, the second at The Breakers in Palm Beach. Both events were presented under the auspices of the Chamber Music Society of … [Read more...]
Seraphic Fire’s ‘St. Matthew Passion’ simply glorious
By Robert Croan You don’t have to be a believer to be moved – overcome with emotion, even – by J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. Although Bach composed this work for a Lutheran Good Friday service in 1727, repeating it with revisions in subsequent years, it has survived as a concert work. Patrick Dupré Quigley, director of Seraphic Fire’s splendid South Florida … [Read more...]