The Escher String Quartet came to the Society of the Four Arts on Sunday, and everything about its performance was spotless and perfect. So spotless and so perfect, that at times it became bloodless, even while the foursome was demonstrating an astonishing display of musical excellence that was a triumph of instrumental wizardry and interpretive subtlety. This was a bigger … [Read more...]
Kim leads Symphonia in slightly ragged glory of Bach, Piazzolla
Last season at about this time, the Symphonia Boca Raton brought Philadelphia Orchestra concertmaster David Kim to the conductor’s podium for an evening of Baroque showpieces, and in so doing, brought a new kind of energy to the orchestra’s profile. Kim was back again for a similar style program Saturday night at the Eissey Campus Theatre at Palm Beach State College in Palm … [Read more...]
Chamber Music Society adds three-concert series at Eissey
For three seasons now, the Mar-a-Lago Club has been home to more than a presidential candidate’s ambitions. The Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach, which debuted in November 2013 in a 193-seat room at Donald Trump’s island mansion, has welcomed an impressive series of musicians to its series, many of them rising stars of the classical music world such as guitarist Miloš … [Read more...]
Pianist Korepanova shines in Schubert at Steinway Gallery
It was a quiet Sunday afternoon, just before rain and cool air finally gave our overheated state a gentle winter benediction, and inside at the Boca Steinway Gallery, an overflow crowd heard a fine recital of core piano repertory by a young Russian pianist. Asiya Korepanova, a native of Russia’s Udmurtia republic, earned her doctorate under Santiago Rodriguez at the University … [Read more...]
Toronto Symphony opens Florida tour
You know the season has arrived in South Florida when you start seeing cars with license plates from Canada joining you on the road. And starting tonight, a group of accomplished visitors from the Great White North comes to West Palm Beach as the Toronto Symphony Orchestra begins its first Florida tour in five years. Joined by the 20-year-old Canadian pianist sensation Jan … [Read more...]
Symphonia Boca Raton gets season off to boisterous start
An energized and muscular Symphonia Boca Raton opened its new season Sunday afternoon with a spirited appearance by a guest conductor and violin soloist who made the most of a mostly meat-and-potatoes program. Alastair Willis, who is closing his tenure this coming year as the conductor of the young Illinois Symphony (which plays in Springfield and Bloomington), led the … [Read more...]
Smart reset, fine voices make for delightful ‘Barber’ at FGO
Since 1990, Florida Grand Opera has revived Gioachino Rossini’s The Barber of Seville about every five years, and for this 75th anniversary season, the company has brought the opera back again on the eve of the work’s bicentenary. This most popular of Rossini’s operas (to the unfortunate general neglect of his more important dramatic operas, such as Otello) remains a marvelous … [Read more...]
Seraphic Fire, Sebastians team for splendid Charpentier, Handel
This week, Seraphic Fire heads to the Northeast for concerts in Washington, New York and Philadelphia, joined by the period orchestra The Sebastians, and the choir no doubt wants to give the best impression it can. If Saturday night’s concert at Miami Shores Presbyterian Church represents the quality of its calling card, audiences there will be delighted. For sheer technical … [Read more...]
Delray String Quartet, with new member, starts 12th season engagingly
The Delray String Quartet opened its 12th season this past weekend with a new member in the second violinist seat and a season of concerts full of unusual repertoire. The Uzbek violinist Valentin Mansurov, a familiar face to concertgoers in the area for several years now, has taken the chair occupied for years by Tomás Cotik, who in turn has joined Miami’s Amernet String … [Read more...]
Master Chorale opens with impressive Buxtehude, Mozart
Encrusted as it is with myth and the very real act of a tragically early death for its remarkable composer, the Requiem of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is sometimes hard to see clear, even with its continued popularity. But what it represents along with the meditation on last things that its text embodies is a splendid piece of sacred composition, at least for its first half — it … [Read more...]