By Robert Croan Chamber music concerts are too infrequent in this area, cello recitals even rarer, and a program showcasing the two sonatas for cello and piano by French composer Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) is quite extraordinary. Just about everything in the March 7 concert of Chamber Music at Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, at the Community Church on Bougainville Drive, was in … [Read more...]
Violinist Kim spectacular in Sibelius concerto with SFSO
By Robert Croan Jean Sibelius’ Violin Concerto (in D minor, Op. 47), completed in its final version in 1905, is the composer’s only concerto, and one of the most technically challenging by any composer for this instrument. In performance with the South Florida Symphony Orchestra under its music director, Sebrina Maria Alfonso [seen March 12 in The Parker], 30-year-old … [Read more...]
Lang Lang, Mahler make for powerful Vienna Philharmonic return to Kravis
By Márcio Bezerra As if its visit in 2024 were not already a miracle (a fantastic coup by classical music artistic adviser Phillip Bergman) the Vienna Philharmonic, one of the world’s top musical institutions, returned to the Kravis Center for two sold-out concerts this month. On Monday, March 9, the august ensemble presented a program with two massive early modern … [Read more...]
Orpheus’s baffling program saved by Hamelin’s intervention
By Márcio Bezerra Transcriptions and arrangements of celebrated works were very common in the 19th century. In fact, it was through arrangements for piano duets that most people became acquainted with Beethoven’s symphonies. Young composers relied on income that such transcriptions brought in to sustain themselves at the beginning of their careers. As the century … [Read more...]
Concert’s offering of Philippine chamber music proves absorbing
By Robert Croan The second half of the program offered Feb. 21 by Chamber Music at Lauderdale-by-the-Sea — a concert series at the Community Church on Bougainville Drive — was devoted to original Filipino music by composers whom most American music lovers have not heard of: Nicanor Abelardo, Lucio San Pedro, Rodolfo Cornejo, Manuel Velez — and not least, Ernesto Vallejo, a … [Read more...]
SFSO makes adventurous mark with two cutting-edge works
By Robert Croan South Florida Symphony Orchestra’s music director, Sebrina Maria Alfonso, led one of her orchestra’s most adventurous and interesting programs ever (seen Feb. 18 at The Parker in Fort Lauderdale) with two nearly brand-new works by composers who are at the cutting edge of today’s classical music scene. Four Black American Dances, by Carlos Simon (b. 1986), … [Read more...]
With early Bizet work, Palm Beach Opera finds a jewel
By Márcio Bezerra Before writing the revolutionary Carmen, Georges Bizet tried his hand at the operatic genre with a few operas that were given lukewarm receptions by the public and critics. His first significant opera, Les pêcheurs de perles (The Pearl Fishers) was written in 1863 when he was not even 25, and had just finished his residency in Rome as a recipient of the … [Read more...]
Jazz star Yoko Miwa will return to Arts Garage
Touring performers never forget the first time they get booked at one of their favorite venues. Especially when it turns out that they can’t work there. Such was the case in March of 2020, when jazz pianist and composer Yoko Miwa (www.yokomiwa.com) was set to play at the Arts Garage in Delray Beach. COVID-19 intervened, like it did through much of life during that year, … [Read more...]
Cleveland Orchestra brilliant in Mozart, Shostakovich at Kravis
By Márcio Bezerra The Cleveland Orchestra returned to the Kravis Center on Feb. 1 in a program that displayed its uncompromising technical and musical standards. Under the baton of Music Director Franz Welser-Möst, the esteemed ensemble performed two very different symphonies with equally astounding results. The first half consisted of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s final work … [Read more...]
Author Wald explores roots of American music in South Florida appearances
Even if the name of author, musical artist and historian Elijah Wald (elijahwald.com) doesn’t necessarily ring a bell, chances are that you’ve experienced or at least heard of something he’s associated with. A recent example is the 2024 Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown (Searchlight Pictures), which starred Timothée Chalamet and was directed by James Mangold. The film was … [Read more...]