By Dennis D. Rooney The Irerra Brothers – John (violin) and Joseph (piano) – are alumni of the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, from which they graduated in the class of 2016, both with DMA degrees. Their recital March 21 closed the 31st season of concerts at Duncan Theatre’s Stage West on the campus of Palm Beach State College in Lake Worth. The program was nicely … [Read more...]
Composer Lash readies for ACO world premiere
To say that music is organized sound in motion is merely to say something obvious and non-controversial about it. But for composer Hannah Lash, the idea of movement is central to the very bones of her artistic project. Lines, harmonies and intervals constantly shift and alter in a relatively generous sonic environment that is tonal without being retrograde. “What was … [Read more...]
Bell, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields splendid in familiar works
By Robert Croan England’s Academy of St. Martin in the Fields is arguably today’s No. 1 chamber orchestra, but it was likely the presence of its music director and violin soloist, Joshua Bell, that brought a sizable crowd to the Au-Rene Theater in Fort Lauderdale on March 25. This was the second of three concerts in the season’s admirable and valuable Broward Center … [Read more...]
Seraphic Fire plays it cool with Brahms, other Romantics
By Dennis D. Rooney Seraphic Fire, now in its 16th season, has performed to growing acclaim in its South Florida home. Its March 18 program, titled Liebeslieder Waltzes, was devoted to vocal music designed primarily for domestic entertainment. Accomplished amateur singers and players in the 19th century would gather to make music at a time when there were no recordings. … [Read more...]
Beautiful new ‘Figaro’ charms at Palm Beach Opera
A good production of Le Nozze di Figaro that doesn’t get in the way of its music can demonstrate to its audience this work’s surprising modernity, even rooted as it is in the late 18th century. It’s Mozart who speaks to us most clearly from his 1786 vantage point, writing a kind of operatic music that lives and breathes with its characters, a music that mirrors their manic … [Read more...]
FGO’s ‘Orfeo’ too sensitive for Gluck’s own good
Aside from Claudio Monteverdi’s operas, Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, which premiered in Vienna in 1762, is the earliest opera in regular repertory. Its abundance of graceful melody, compelling story and absence of the stiffness of the prevailing opera seria put it there, and not incidentally so did its use of orchestral accompaniment in the recitatives … [Read more...]
Quatuor Ébène’s jazz not as strong as its Haydn, Fauré
By Dennis D. Rooney Appearing March 11 under the auspices of the Society of the Four Arts , the four French players known as Quatuor Ébène presented a bifurcated program. The first half was wholly traditional: Franz Joseph Haydn’s Quartet in D minor (Op. 72, No. 2) and Gabriel Fauré’s late Quartet (in E minor, Op. 121). The second half was devoted to eight jazz pieces. … [Read more...]
Henschel Quartet plays seamless Mozart, Debussy at Flagler
By Dennis D. Rooney The Henschel Quartet is named for three of the group’s original members who, with cellist Mathias Beyer-Karlhøj, founded it in 1994. Two of the Henschel siblings remain, first violinist Christoph and violist Monika. Second violinist Catalin Desaga joined them in 2016. Christoph Henschel plays a 1721 Stradivarius; Desaga’s violin is by Jan Bobak, a … [Read more...]
The eternal beauty of Gluck’s ‘Orfeo’
By Robert Croan Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice is all things to all people. Prior to the great Baroque revival of the mid-20th century, it was the oldest opera in standard repertory. Since its world premiere in Vienna in 1762, the iconic work has been revised, reworked and tampered with so many times that the work as performed from one opera house to another … [Read more...]
Mizner Park’s symphony of outside noise muffles two fine soloists
By Dennis D. Rooney A concert featuring two young soloists with the Symphonia Boca Raton that took place in the closing days of this year’s Festival of the Arts Boca was themed “Russian Festival,” but might better have been styled “Festival of Extraneous Noises.” The Count de Hoernle Amphitheater is not a congenial environment for the performance of classical music. … [Read more...]