To open the 17th season of the Flagler Museum Music Series on Jan. 13 came the New Orford String Quartet of Canada. Made up of two principals of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, violinist Jonathan Crow and cellist Brian Manker, and two lead chairs from the Montreal Symphony, violinist Andrew Wan and violist Eric Nowlin — soon to take the first chair of the Detroit Symphony … [Read more...]
Glorious Bach, exquisite Mahler at Seraphic Fire
By Robert Croan There are those rare and wonderful times in music when every element comes together and seems exactly right, when a great work is given a performance that captures the meaning and the message of the score. Seraphic Fire, a chamber ensemble led by the brilliant and creative Patrick Dupré Quigley, provided just such a moment Friday evening with an exceptional … [Read more...]
Eastwood’s ‘Hereafter’ exquisite, unforgettable
A few years ago, when Clint Eastwood directed Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima – his sobering companion films about World War II, told evenhandedly from both sides of the conflict – it seemed the best time to reflect on Eastwood’s directorial canon. At the time, I analyzed Eastwood’s evolution from a two-dimensional icon of Western-movie chauvinism and hard-right … [Read more...]