For several years now, the student orchestra at Lynn University has offered high-quality symphonic concerts for area patrons in the know, who show up reliably in substantial numbers. And they are rewarded for their loyalty. Each year, the Lynn Philharmonia gets a little better, as the conservatory programs at the Boca Raton college deepen, and a larger number of promising … [Read more...]
PB Pops paying tribute to the king of all film composers
Few American composers of any description have enjoyed the fame of John Williams, and even fewer have had their music become so familiar to a worldwide audience. It’s likely that almost anyone you run into could sing the opening theme of Star Wars (1977), for example, or imitate the deep, chopping bass figure that accompanies the great white shark of Jaws (1975). His music is … [Read more...]
Firm of Schwarz & Son lifts Boca Symphonia
Surely one of the best pieces of local musical news to be heard this past weekend is that Gerard Schwarz will be returning at some future date to lead a concert by the Boca Raton Symphonia. Schwarz, who led the Seattle Symphony from regional to stellar status in his 26 years as its music director, demonstrated in the Symphonia’s concert Sunday afternoon at the Roberts Theater … [Read more...]
Conductor Schwarz advocates for American music, cellist son
You can forgive Gerard Schwarz some special fatherly pride when he talks about his youngest son, Julian. They are, after all, in the same business. “He’s got tremendous gifts, and he’s had quite a bit of success already,” said Schwarz, an eminent American conductor who led the Seattle Symphony to major-league status over a 26-year directorship before stepping down in 2011. … [Read more...]
PBO’s ‘Traviata’ has impressive Violetta, Germont
Today’s opera singers are expected to be persuasive actors, and that can be a challenge given the very short dramatic trajectories their characters must ride in the pages of most libretti. In the case of Violetta Valéry, the doomed heroine of Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata, sopranos have enough splendid music that if their acting is less than persuasive, they can still make a … [Read more...]
Pianist Paremski plumbs depths of Rachmaninov
When it comes to the monumental Third Piano Concerto of Sergei Rachmaninov, the pianist Natasha Paremski comes by her affinity for it naturally. Born in Moscow, where she began piano studies at age 4 before emigrating to the United States with her family at age 8, Paremski’s family insisted on speaking and writing Russian, reading Russian books and watching Russian movies at … [Read more...]
Bernini Quartet masterful in Flagler program
String quartets these days are relatively big business, and listeners have many opportunities to hear live and recorded performances of masterworks (and otherwise) by fine ensembles from around the world. Most of the time we hear quartets with a modern edge, on instruments with metal strings whose sound cuts through the sonic murk of our noisy everyday. But when the string … [Read more...]
Dance companies reimagine Romeo, chronicle women in workplace
It would be difficult to count the number of different artistic adaptations of the story of Romeo and Juliet that have appeared since William Shakespeare’s play first trod the boards in the late 16th century. But its apparently permanent appeal likely stems from its central idea of an all-consuming love, and, well, that’s something we can all relate to. “It’s a tragic story, … [Read more...]
Orchestra’s ‘39’ concert steps up, sometimes eccentrically
As program-organizing gimmicks go, building one around a number is clever and useful, and for the Palm Beach Symphony, constructing its Sunday night program on “39” ― the group’s current anniversary year ― offered listeners an interesting variety of selections as well as a short course in the development of the Austro-German symphonic tradition. The concert in the Flagler … [Read more...]
Palm Beach Symphony season opens with high spirits, powerful playing
The Palm Beach Symphony opened a new era for itself Sunday afternoon with an effervescent, powerful concert of 20th-century orchestral works, performed by a newly restaffed ensemble that stands fair to carry out the group’s mission of expanded cultural influence. The group of musicians that took the stage of the Gubelmann Auditorium at Palm Beach’s Society of the Four Arts is … [Read more...]