By Dennis D. Rooney The final program of the Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival’s 28th season, which I heard July 28 at the Crest Theatre in Delray Beach, opened with a Trio in E (WQ 162) by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach (1714-1788), the second son of Johann Sebastian. While acknowledging the musical foundation received from his father, C.P.E. Bach was a central figure in … [Read more...]
Rare Zemlinsky trio part of PBCMF’s unusual Program III choices
By Dennis D. Rooney Music for string quartet took up the first half of the third program of the Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival’s 28th season, which I saw Sunday at Delray Beach’s Crest Theatre. Flutist Karen Fuller joined violinists Dina Kostic and Claudia Cagnassone; violist Renée Reder; and cellist Susan Bergeron for the Nocturne and Scherzo by Arthur Foote … [Read more...]
Brahms piano quartet is high point of PBCMF’s Program II
By Dennis D. Rooney The second program of the Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival’s 28th season, which I heard Sunday at Delray Beach’s Crest Theatre, contained three works: novelties by Glière and Thuille; and a Brahms masterpiece. Born in Kiev in 1875, Reinhold Moritzovich Glière came to maturity and enjoyed early success in Imperial Russia, then managed to flourish in … [Read more...]
PB Chamber Fest delivers enjoyable readings of unfamiliar fare
By Dennis D. Rooney The Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival’s 28th season opened last weekend with a program that contained two concertinos, a sonata and a nonet. None of them could be described as popular fare, although experienced listeners might have already encountered two of them. Both works titled “Concertino,” however, certainly qualified as unfamiliar. That by … [Read more...]
Entr’Acte returns with strong ‘Spamalot’
By Dale King Monty Python’s Spamalot is back, and winning over audiences at the venerable Crest Theatre in Delray Beach. While the run of the show is limited – it opened June 20 and concludes Sunday – the laughs are unrestrained, thanks to a fine ensemble that exquisitely interprets the silly songs and dialogue crafted by the Pythons in their addled “tale of the Grail.” … [Read more...]
Entr’acte does well by newer take on ‘Addams Family’
By Dale King The Addams Family has been around for just over 80 years, whether featured in single-panel cartoons by New Yorker artist Charles Addams, on television, in film, animated or on Broadway. Even folks not born when the TV series with John Astin and Carolyn Jones was broadcast from 1964-66 are likely to recognize the iconic theme – da-da-da-dum, snap, snap. Even … [Read more...]
Patronizing format gets in the way of good Symphonia performance
By Dennis D. Rooney The Symphonia Boca Raton made its first appearance March 27 in Old School Square’s Crest Theatre, and the orchestra sounded far better there than my two previous encounters with it, both of which were amplified concerts at Mizner Park. There, they could not be fairly or accurately judged due to the distortion of the amplification. Although the Crest’s … [Read more...]
Faux Beatles get audience moving at Crest
By Dale King Four chaps from Liverpool visited the Crest Theatre in Delray Beach on Feb. 16 and, quadruple-handedly, recreated a piece of the global phenomenon that altered the world of music 50-plus years ago, a feat accomplished by — four other chaps from Liverpool. Meet the Mersey Beatles, childhood friends from that port community in northwest England, east of the … [Read more...]
Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival 4: A satisfying roundup to the 26th season
By Dennis D. Rooney How many composers were born in a church tower? I only know of one, Bohuslav Martinů, who arrived on December 1890 in the tower apartment of the St. Jakub Church in Polička, a town in Bohemia, close to the Moravian border. His family was allowed to live there because his father Ferdinand, a shoemaker, also worked as the church sexton and town fire … [Read more...]
Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival 3: Welcome rarities, smartly played
By Dennis D. Rooney For the third program of its 26th season, which I saw Sunday at the Crest Theatre in Delray Beach, the Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival presented three works that each featured a founding member of the group. Karen Fuller Dixon performed Mozart’s Flute Quartet No. 1 (in D, K. 285) with violinist Dina Kostic, violist Rene Reder and cellist Susan … [Read more...]