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...]
Chang disappoints in uneven PB Symphony opener
By Dennis Rooney The Nov. 6 concert by the Palm Beach Symphony at the Kravis Center was the opening of the orchestra’s 49th season. Music director Gerard Schwarz was on the podium and violinist Sarah Chang was the soloist. The first work on the program was the afternoon’s best performance; an alert and sprightly account of Rounds for String Orchestra by David Diamond. … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2022-23: The season in classical music
There has been a profound change in the world of classical music over the past two or three years when it comes to programming. Although South Florida will still welcome touring orchestras bearing gifts of symphonic favorites, the post-George Floyd world has had a bracing effect on the kinds of music presented to today’s concertgoers. Programs now feature more Black and … [Read more...]
Palm Beach Symphony’s closing concert satisfies with Midori, Schuman
By Dennis D. Rooney The final program of this season’s Palm Beach Sympony Masterworks Series, which took place April 10 in the Kravis Center's Dreyfoos Hall, was well-balanced and enjoyed by the (largely un-masked) audience. Among the many important commissions made by conductor André Kostelanetz is William Schuman’s New England Triptych, subtitled "Three Pieces for … [Read more...]
PB Symphony’s Mahler and Beethoven a mixed bag at Kravis
By Dennis D. Rooney Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 is no longer a rarity in the concert hall, but some orchestras have yet to perform it, and that included the Palm Beach Symphony until its concert March 7 at the Kravis Center as this season’s fourth Masterworks program. The audience assembled in Dreyfoos Hall was expecting to hear the Portuguese pianist Maria João Pires … [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...]
PB Symphony’s opening Beethoven concert a mixed bag
By Dennis D. Rooney The year 2020 is the 250th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven, so we’re going to hear lots of his music this season. The Palm Beach Symphony and Music Director Gerard Schwarz chose to inaugurate its 46th season with an all-Beethoven program Dec. 8 at the Kravis Center. Horacio Gutiérrez was soloist in the opening Piano Concerto No. 4 … [Read more...]
Schwarz named director of Palm Beach Symphony; Spady Museum gets NEA grant
PALM BEACH — Gerard Schwarz, who led the Seattle Symphony to national prominence in his 26 years with the orchestra, has been named artistic and music director of the Palm Beach Symphony. Schwarz takes over from Spanish conductor Ramón Tebar, who has led the orchestra since 2009. This is the second South Florida appointment for Schwarz, who earlier this year was appointed to … [Read more...]
A fine night of clarinet quintets at CityPlace
The two canonical clarinet quintets, and there are really only two, attain that status at least in part because listening to them, one wonders why such a beautiful combination isn’t regularly attempted by composers everywhere. For now, no one’s done it better than Mozart in 1789 and Brahms in 1891, and it was their respective clarinet quintets that occupied a program of the … [Read more...]