Today’s menu of visual entertainment encompasses literally everything thanks to digital technology, but even a complicated work of grand opera from more than a century ago still has the power to shock. Richard Strauss’s 1905 opera Salome, based on an Oscar Wilde play that was the last word in decadence at the time, also remains a formidable challenge for any house that wants … [Read more...]
Sister pianists dazzle in Four Arts concert
The piano has as one of its many benefits the ability to be orchestral, if not in color, at least in contrapuntal density and mass. Small wonder that in the days before recordings made actual orchestral performances available to people far from the concert hall, enthusiasts heard the symphonic works of their day by playing them at home in four-hand arrangements at one piano. … [Read more...]
Philadelphia Orchestra’s Kim returns for genial Symphonia program
David Kim came back to Boca Raton on Sunday, and he got the kind of warm reception and enthusiasm people give long-absent friends when they finally get to see them after many moons have passed. Kim brought his violin and avuncular professionalism to center stage as soloist and conductor with the Symphonia Boca Raton for a program of 19th- and 20th-century Romanticism that … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Jan. 12-14
Music: Renée Fleming sang her last Der Rosenkavalier at the Metropolitan Opera last year, but she hasn’t left off performing. Tomorrow night she returns to South Florida for a recital program with pianist Gerald Martin Moore at the Kravis Center. A couple years back she appeared at the Festival of the Arts Boca and featured rare verismo arias, and in previous iterations of this … [Read more...]
Trumpet competition at Lynn honors legacy of Roger Voisin
Every branch of music has its deities, and for classical trumpet players, one of the members of the pantheon was the Franco-American trumpeter, educator and conductor Roger Voisin. Voisin, who died in 2008 at 89, was born in France and moved to the U.S. as a boy when his father René joined the trumpet section of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1928. His son became the … [Read more...]
PB Symphony inaugurates chamber music series with program of overlooked American master
Even if you’re a devotee of classical music, you might never have heard of William Grant Still. It was different in Still’s own day. Music historians have long called Still (1895-1978) the dean of African-American classical composers, and that came out of his prominence, which began in the 1920s when he made his initial name as an arranger for leading bands in the new … [Read more...]
Schwarzes return to Symphonia, with striking world premiere in tow
Conductor Gerard Schwarz has become a regular guest of the Symphonia Boca Raton over the past three seasons, and his cellist son Julian has occasionally accompanied him. Both were on hand Dec. 10 for the opening concert of the Symphonia’s season at the Roberts Theater on the campus of St. Andrew’s School in Boca Raton, where the son gave the world premiere of a piece his … [Read more...]
Seraphic Fire adds richness, variety to sounds of Christmas
There have to be as many ways of exploring the music of the Christmas season as there are ways to celebrate the holiday, from indulging in the sounds of choirboys from a centuries-old English college to using Spotify or YouTube to find brand-new music for the year’s end. In the case of Seraphic Fire, you start with 13 expert singers and an adventurous approach, and you end … [Read more...]
Ballet Palm Beach’s ‘Nutcracker’ blossoms in new Kravis staging
Not all that long ago, Ballet Florida had established a tradition of an elaborate and beautiful production of The Nutcracker that audiences here looked forward to each Christmas season. That company is long gone, and along with it the Marie Hale version of Tchaikovsky’s ballet, which had a wonderful bit of stage business at the end with Marie and The Nutcracker Prince … [Read more...]
Serkin brings old-school taste, distinction to Mozart, Bach
We are living through a period of remarkable pianism, with terrific young players popping up everywhere you look and making impressive strides in rethinking concerts and willing new repertoire into being. But there is also a good deal of hype to go along with that, amplified enormously by the power of social media. And so it is something of a respite to encounter an artist … [Read more...]