A string quartet by Franz Joseph Haydn might not seem like the most obvious departure point for improvisation. But when the violinist and composer Jessie Montgomery was working with New York’s young PUBLIQuartet, that’s exactly what they did: Play Haydn, then riff on it. “I’ve always been interested in trying to find the intersection between different types of music, or … [Read more...]
Delray SQ, guest give committed reading of contrasting quintets
By Dennis D. Rooney Delray Beach’s landmarked Colony Hotel has been home to the Delray String Quartet for all of its 13 years of existence. The group’s concerts take place in a meeting room on the hotel’s main floor. It’s an attractive space but acoustically rather small to encompass this foursome’s vibrant sound, which at several points became overwhelming. Their … [Read more...]
Classical notes: The comeback orchestra; Casals Istomin in Palm Beach
In all the election turmoil over the past year, it might have escaped general notice that an orchestra that had almost been given up for lost only three years ago has recovered in award-winning form. It’s been three years to the month since the 16-month musicians’ lockout of the Minnesota Orchestra ended, an experience that left that arts-loving community reeling but that … [Read more...]
Violinist Oliveira launches international competition at Lynn this month
Elmar Oliveira knows a thing or two about music competitions. As an American violinist competing in Moscow in the 1978 Tchaikovsky Competition — where he won the Gold Medal, the first and still only American violinist to do so — Oliveira was thrust into a “cutthroat” environment in which the only goal was the top prize. “It was like an ocean with 100 sharks in it,” Oliveira … [Read more...]
KLR Trio soldiers on with charming Zwilich, fine Mendelssohn and Schubert
Celebrating 40 years of concertizing this season, the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio arrived at the Kravis Center for two days of concerts Dec. 14 and 15. Pianist Joseph Kalichstein, wearing all black, spoke eloquently of the group’s founding when they played the inaugural concert for President Jimmy Carter in 1977. Kalichstein also teaches at the Juilliard School of … [Read more...]
Organist Smith heals his audience at Arts Garage
At age 74, Hammond organist Dr. Lonnie Smith still looks like a kid in the candy store every time he gets behind his keyboard. On Saturday, the kid from Lackawanna, N.Y., fed off of the energy of a sold-out crowd at the Arts Garage in Delray Beach. Those attending included some old friends from the 1990s, when the turban-topped keyboardist was part of the house band at … [Read more...]
Young band, old covers: Mainstreet Dreamers choose well-trod path
Many towns have a Main Street; a thoroughfare that links its other tributaries to keep drivers from getting lost. But West Palm Beach-based pop/rock band Mainstreet Dreamers was not named for any such predictability. Geographically, West Palm Beach is just listed on the quartet’s Web pages as a central location. Bassist Morgan Beers lives further north in Jupiter; guitarist … [Read more...]
PB Symphony’s ‘Egmont’ a revelation
A full house in the Four Arts auditorium on Monday night heard a very interesting program from the Palm Beach Symphony that had simply been promoted as “Egmont”: An uninspiring name associated with Beethoven’s masterful overture of the same name. The concert, however, proved to be most inspiring. This Egmont was more than an introductory overture to warm up the orchestra; … [Read more...]
Hornist, conductor stand out at Mozarteum concert
The Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg came to the Kravis Center on Saturday night and made a lasting impression on the well-heeled audience of about 1,600 concertgoers who would not let them go until they heard an encore. And that encore was no ordinary sugar-sweet lollipop, but the great final movement of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony. And they played it with a verve and … [Read more...]
Chameleon trio masterful in Villa-Lobos, Mozart
By Robert Croan The grand-scaled Divertimento in E-flat Major (K. 563) is Mozart’s only composition for string trio, one of the first ever composed for that combination, and to this day considered the greatest work in that form. A probing, technically accomplished performance of this 45-minute opus, a very serious work despite its seemingly lighthearted title, took up … [Read more...]