The third free opera concert at the waterfront given by Palm Beach Opera was an artistic success. But who were the artists? Getting off to a good start with the national anthem and Bernstein’s Candide overture, conductor Greg Ritchey then introduced the wonderful Metropolitan Opera baritone Michael Chioldi and the next singer, Robert Watson, but forgot to name the other … [Read more...]
Cellist Peled gives exceptional tribute to Casals at PB Symphony
I have loved the sound of the cello since I heard a broadcast of Pablo Casals playing from the festival he founded in Puerto Rico. Subsequently I heard Sir John Barbirolli practicing the cello through an open window: we were neighbors in Manchester, England. At London’s Royal Festival Hall I was close enough to see every gesture of Jacqueline Du Pré, the day she rocketed to … [Read more...]
Marvelous Romeros, Munich SO should have had larger house
There couldn’t be a more refreshing matchup than a symphony orchestra and four brilliant guitarists, which is what I heard Saturday night at the Kravis Center when the Munich Symphony Orchestra of Germany joined forces with the eminent guitar-playing Romero family. Together with his father Celedonio Romero, and brothers Celin and Angel, Pepe Romero, the soloist Saturday night, … [Read more...]
Sparkling Weber, gritty Nielsen at Lynn Philharmonia
I have heard many student orchestras in my time. The Lynn Philharmonia’s third program this past weekend, which began with Dvořák’s Othello overture and ended with Carl Nielsen’s Fourth Symphony, surpassed all the others with disciplined playing that sounded very professional. Granted the enthusiasm of youth, with its high energy output, has much to do with what we heard, but … [Read more...]
Letter from Bard: Powerful production makes good case for ‘The Wreckers’
The Bard (College) Summerscape Festival at Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., has gained fame for digging up old operas and breathing new life into them. Dame Ethel Smyth’s 1906 opera, The Wreckers, ended its five-performance run in the magnificent Frank Gehry Theatre on Aug. 2, selling out to full houses. Leon Botstein, the artistic director and conductor of Summerscape, revived … [Read more...]
Letter from Tanglewood: Concert honors American masters
All music was once new. But in America, ever since Serge Koussevitzky founded the Berkshire Music Center on July 8, 1940, in Lenox, Mass., composers and their new music found a home for experimentation and performance. Randall Thompson’s Alleluia was the inaugural piece that balmy summer afternoon at Tanglewood, summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in July and August … [Read more...]
Masterful new concerto, rousing Beethoven make splendid farewell for ACO’s Robertson
Conductor Stewart Robertson’s final concert with the Atlantic Classical Orchestra at the Eissey Campus Theatre in Palm Beach Gardens on Tuesday afternoon was a memorable occasion. It had a world premiere of an excellent violin concerto, two “Scottish” works to celebrate the land of his birth, and a rousing performance of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony. Robertson was presented … [Read more...]
A Far Cry, Fleishers give rewarding program at Kravis
The main draw at the Kravis Center’s Regional Arts series on March 25 was, at first glance, pianist Leon Fleisher. Would he play with both hands, or just the left? At 36, almost 50 years ago, struck with focal dystonia in his right hand, his career might have ended. But trouper that he is, he focused on concertos written for the left hand and remained in the top tier of … [Read more...]
PB Symphony and Astanova end season in magnificent Russian style
The great, the good and the fashionable gathered at Mar-a-Lago for a stunning night of music making by the Palm Beach Symphony and pianist Lola Astanova on March 18, their last concert of this season. Astanova, tall, slim, very model-like in her black, short, backless, sequined, glittering evening gown, played superbly: as gifted as Lang Lang but without the showmanship, with … [Read more...]
German duo pianists give refined Mozart with ACO
The Atlantic Classical Orchestra’s third concert last week at the Eissey Campus Theatre in Palm Beach Gardens had conductor Stewart Robertson on the podium for the penultimate time. Alas, the doctors won’t allow him to continue past his next concert April 7, which is such a pity because the March 10 concert was a coming together of orchestra and conductor in a most … [Read more...]