The piano is easy to play badly, and hard to play well, and when it comes to playing well, there are a wide variety of approaches that could fit comfortably under that description. But true master pianists have one great attribute that others lack, and that’s control. When a player can control every element of his or her performance so that the interpretation comes vividly to … [Read more...]
Exuberant approach enlivens Euclid Quartet concert at Duncan
For all the praise that has been lavished on Franz Schubert’s shade for the past two centuries, his skill at string quartet writing is sometimes underappreciated. The earliest of his quartets are often dismissed as half-successful attempts at imitating Beethoven and Haydn, but I’ve yet to hear any quartet of his that didn’t contain some substantial moments of freshness and … [Read more...]
Organist Carpenter opens new musical paths for his instrument
Cameron Carpenter is on a mission to liberate the organ from the confines of the church, and bring this most hidebound of instruments into what he calls an “ecstatic future.” The brilliant young keyboardist and Peck’s bad boy of the organ world, who performs tonight at the Festival of the Arts Boca, is critical of the way the organ is understood in the world of music today, … [Read more...]
Showy Amadeus rocks Mizner audience at Boca Fest
As he strolled in from offstage, he looked for all the world like a kid on Christmas morning, dressed in gear that might have been raided from three or four different gifts, gazing around with wide-eyed wonder at the festive magic before him. But he was Amadeus Leopold, the young violinist born 26 years ago in Seoul as Han-bin Yoo, a greatly gifted prodigy and Itzhak Perlman … [Read more...]
Douglas masterful, RNO too plush at Kravis
Not so long ago, when the Russian National Orchestra was the house band at the Festival of the Arts Boca, one of the most notable things about the ensemble was its sheer muscle: Big orchestras tend to be plush and expansive, but this one had the striking force of an uncoiled snake. The young Vasily Petrenko was at the helm of the RNO this past Thursday in the second of two … [Read more...]
Merling Trio persuasive in Dvorak at Duncan
As the cellist Bruce Uchimura said, the world is a better place for having once had Antonin Dvořák in it. Uchimura, a member of the Kalamazoo, Mich.-based Merling Trio, offered his tribute to the great Czech Romantic composer during the trio’s appearance Wednesday afternoon on the Classical Café series at the Duncan Theatre’s Stage West. On the second half of that program, the … [Read more...]
Pianist Han makes bravura impression at Symphonia
The Third Piano Concerto of Beethoven is an indelible masterpiece, but it’s not the first choice a pianist would make for bravura display. And yet the young South Korean pianist Yoonie Han, simply by turning up the heat here and there Sunday afternoon, gave the work a bit more of the fire it must have had when it was new. And that made the Boca Raton Symphonia concert for … [Read more...]
Strong lead performances stand out in FGO’s ‘Flute’
Because of its high content of fantasy and madcappery, Die Zauberflöte has always offered its presenters an irresistible opportunity to take any number of theatrical risks, confident that Mozart can take it. He can, and while the just-closed Florida Grand Opera production of Mozart’s great 1791 singspiel played it relatively safe from that standpoint, it nevertheless … [Read more...]
Fine comedians, strong singers fire PBO’s ‘Cenerentola’
Sometimes there’s nothing quite as satisfying on stage as seeing a few good clowns do their best to make a Saturday night fly by. The Palm Beach Opera’s current production of Giaochino Rossini’s La Cenerentola has, in addition to a hugely impressive performance by the celebrated mezzo Vivica Genaux as the title character, some very fine comedy in its two and half hours. It’s … [Read more...]
Philadelphia Orchestra, Watts bring freshness to the warhorses
There is a celebrated sign on the road to the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont that reads: Caution: Musicians at Play. That phrase suggests not just performers enjoying themselves in their craft, but also expert musicians who can do whatever they want with the material at hand and keep it fresh. That feeling of easeful mastery was all over the Kravis Center on Wednesday … [Read more...]