The Salzburg Chamber Soloists.By Greg StepanichPALM BEACH -- Somewhere in between the middle of a Haydn symphony and the first of what turned out to be six tangos by Astor Piazzolla, the Salzburg Chamber Soloists sailed Wednesday night from the realms of the exceptional into the extraordinary.In a concert at the Society of the Four Arts that was as stunning for its perfection … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: March 20-24
Julia Roberts and Clive Owen in Duplicity.Film: With the Cold War over, governmental spies need to re-direct their efforts and that is what the CIA’s Claire Stenwick (Julia Roberts) and MI6’s Ray Koval (Clive Owen) intend to do in Tony Gilroy’s smart and smart-mouthed trust-no-one comedy, Duplicity.The two occasional lovers move into industrial espionage, spying and … [Read more...]
Music review: Prazak Quartet masterful in Duncan closer
The Prazak Quartet, from left: Michal Kanka, Vlastimil Holek, Vaclav Remes and Josef Kluson.By Greg StepanichLAKE WORTH -- In all the classical music world's excitement over the anniversaries of Haydn and Mozart this year, we have apparently forgotten to take the tricentenary measure of Franz Xaver Richter.But a performance Wednesday afternoon by a quartet of musicians from … [Read more...]
Opera review: Sarasota’s ‘Don Carlos’ is a stunner
Kevin Short as Philippe II, Reyna Carguill as Elisabeth,Jeffrey Tucker as the Grand Inquisitor, and Gustavo LopezManzitti as Don Carlos, in the Sarasota Opera'scurrent production of Verdi's Don Carlos.(Photo by Richard Termine)By Rex HearnSARASOTA -- Don Carlos is about Philip II, the 16th-century king of Spain, and his fight with the forces of the Inquisition.This Spanish … [Read more...]
Music review: Perlman does credible podium work in crackerjack Boca Ninth
By Greg StepanichBOCA RATON -- Perhaps Itzhak Perlman is better known for solo and chamber work as a violinist than he is as a conductor, but Sunday night he did a more than credible job at the podium leading one of the great canonical works of Western musical history.In an all-Beethoven evening at Mizner Park featuring the Ninth Symphony (in D minor, Op. 125) and the overture … [Read more...]
ArtsBuzz: Palm Beach Opera scales back to three operas for 2009-10
By Greg StepanichWEST PALM BEACH -- The Palm Beach Opera announced today a season of just three fully staged productions for the 2009-10 season instead of the current four, a concession to tough economic times and also a move toward multi-year fiscal planning that administrators hope will ensure the survival of the company."We actually already began discussing this a year ago, … [Read more...]
Music review: Bell stands out on mixed-bag Boca fest program
Conductor Alondra de la Parra.By Greg StepanichBOCA RATON -- Had there been any doubt that the Russian National Orchestra is one of the major stars of this year's Festival of the Arts Boca, Friday night's concert at the 11-day music-and-literature gathering would have dispelled it.Given an unusual program with three soloists and widely varied music from Third Republic French to … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: March 12-17
Figure Study (24 by 36 inches), a drawingby Oakland Park artist Grant Strawcutter.Pictures to peep by: This weekend at the Bruce Webber and Meyerhoefer galleries, both in Lake Worth, it's an exhibition of exhibitionism, as viewers are invited to take a look at nudes and erotica from classic pinups and sculpture to new work by several South Florida artists.“The work ranges from … [Read more...]
Music review: Revelatory Beethoven from Pletnev, Denk in Boca
Pianist Jeremy Denk.By Greg StepanichBOCA RATON -- We have reached the point as a civilization where you'd think there was absolutely nothing new someone could bring to the Fifth Symphony of Beethoven.And yet there it was tonight at the Festival of the Arts Boca: A performance of this 205-year-old masterwork that was sometimes head-shakingly odd and textually questionable, but … [Read more...]
ArtsBuzz: Ailing Carreras calls off recital in the middle
Tenor Jose Carreras.By Greg StepanichWEST PALM BEACH -- By the time Jose Carreras lifted his right hand and motioned for pianist Lorenzo Bavaj to stop playing earlier tonight, the audience at the Kravis Center knew what was coming.Carreras, a member of the legendary Three Tenors now on a solo recital swing here in South Florida, had clearly been suffering from what appeared to … [Read more...]