Music: It’s the last weekend before Christmas, and if you haven’t had enough of the usual seasonal ear-tide, here’s your chance for a little bit more semi-sacred Gemütlichkeit before it’s on to the homefront. Tonight, Seraphic Fire comes to St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church in Boca Raton for its annual reading of Messiah, George Frideric Handel’s hit from 1742 that is as much a … [Read more...]
Christmas film manages to find some truths, despite predictability
Hollywood has given us its fare share of over-the-top Christmas comedies -- cynical and secular Yuletide pictures in which acts of Christmas-tree terrorism fry felines (National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation) and cat burglars hold dysfunctional families hostage (The Ref). In holiday movies, family is something to be endured and tolerated, not celebrated. There was even a film … [Read more...]
Music roundup: Forceful quartet, innovative choir, impressive pianist
Here are brief reviews from three recent concerts: Delray String Quartet (Dec. 11, Colony Hotel, Delray Beach): This foursome is on something of a roll as it enters its eighth season of concertizing. Next month it will give the world premiere of the String Quartet No. 5 by Kenneth Fuchs, and will contribute that work to an all-Fuchs disc for Naxos. It’s just released a … [Read more...]
Zemeckis’ ‘Christmas Carol’ is an instant classic
The cinematic potential of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is bounteous and apparently endless. Perennially relevant, A Christmas Carol has seen at least 20 film adaptations dating back to a 1901 single-reeler. Considering that it’s already been reenvisioned by Mickey and the Muppets, by Ronald Neame as an Albert Finney musical (Scrooge), by Richard Donner as a droll Bill … [Read more...]