By Dennis D. Rooney It was a Saturday in the spring of 1957. I was at my high school, doing some sort of extracurricular project, which took place in the auditorium. The Glee Club director had put on a recording of music I didn’t recognize but whose sound and character were captivating. From time to time, someone would tap out one of the catchy rhythms that sprang up as … [Read more...]
Clarinetist, Palm Beach Symphony pay sublime tribute to Mozart
Into this crazed COVID world of variants popping up ad infinitum, there came a sublime evening of music-making given by the Palm Beach Symphony under the leadership of conductor Gerard Schwarz on Dec. 2 at their permanent new home: The Kravis Center. It was dedicated to four works written by Mozart in his last year of life, 1791. Each of the four pieces selected had special … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2021-22: The season in classical music
The classical season looks mostly normal this year, with COVID protocols in place and venues opening back up. There are a host of major artists and groups coming to the county this year, from established veterans to exciting new talents. Although some usual season players are missing as of this writing (the Flagler Museum has not yet said whether its chamber music series … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: May 3-5
Music: The very last concert Franz Joseph Haydn attended in his life was in March 1808, about a year before he died, when he was carried, seated on an armchair, into the University of Vienna to hear his oratorio The Creation, in a performance conducted by Antonio Salieri. Haydn was too ill to stay for the whole piece, but the reverence he was shown that day was due in part to … [Read more...]
At Lynn, a laudable ‘Te Deum,’ compelling Copland
We are going to be treated to a lot of Berlioz at the Lynn Philharmonia over the next year or so, thanks to the championing of the French composer by its director, Guillermo Figueroa. Truth to tell, Berlioz has already loomed large on Philharmonic programs. Figueroa has presented the song cycle Les Nuits d’Été and the dramatic symphony Romeo et Juliette in previous seasons, … [Read more...]
Palm Beach Symphony launches season with rich menu of “pops”
By Dennis D. Rooney The term “Pops Concert” suggests to some a program in some way inferior to the program of a symphony orchestra, which unfortunately sometimes has been true when an orchestra is asked to play arrangements of music not originally for orchestra. But the term also particularly applies to orchestral music of a lighter character that is not often programmed … [Read more...]
Master Chorale gives glorious account of Brahms’s ‘German Requiem’
By Clare Shore At the end of a grueling week, on an absolutely gorgeous spring Friday evening in South Florida, one is not always keen on driving 40 minutes to sit inside for an hour and a quarter listening to a large-scale piece of music. But that’s what I did, and I left Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale on May 4 renewed and refreshed by Master Chorale … [Read more...]
Master Chorale takes step forward with Duruflé, new work
As it begins its 15th season of concerts, the Master Chorale of South Florida has added another element to its music-making, that of commissioner of new work. On Sunday, the community chorale presented the first piece in what promises to be an annual series of new choral works with a setting of John Donne’s "Death Be Not Proud," composed by James Kallembach, who heads the … [Read more...]
Late review: Despite flaws, Berlioz ‘Roméo’ marks a Lynn milestone
Guillermo Figueroa has been an advocate of the music of Hector Berlioz for decades, and in his time as the conductor of the Lynn Philharmonia, he’s pursued that advocacy with presentations of major works by the composer. A season ago, it was the song cycle Les Nuits d’Éte, and on Feb. 25, it was his hard-to-classify “dramatic symphony,” Roméo et Juliette. Joined by three … [Read more...]
Berlioz’s epic take on ‘Romeo’ set for weekend at Lynn
Sitting at a table in a new Boca Raton diner, Guillermo Figueroa opens his cloth-bound, dark blue Bärenreiter edition of the music and points to a page, marked with various colored pencils. The score he’s pointing to, explaining the perils of this or that passage, is the playbook for this weekend, when the violinist and conductor will lead the Lynn Philharmonia, the Master … [Read more...]