The main draw at the Kravis Center’s Regional Arts series on March 25 was, at first glance, pianist Leon Fleisher. Would he play with both hands, or just the left? At 36, almost 50 years ago, struck with focal dystonia in his right hand, his career might have ended. But trouper that he is, he focused on concertos written for the left hand and remained in the top tier of … [Read more...]
Atos Trio provides spotless evening of Schubert, Suk
The Atos Trio of Germany gave an immaculate concert of music by Rachmaninov, Josef Suk and Franz Schubert in the Flagler Museum’s music series Feb. 18. The Rachmaninoff and Suk pieces were written when both composers were mere teenagers, but their music is anything but sophomoric; it is well-developed, tuneful and one might say, masterly in structure. Kudos to the Atos Trio … [Read more...]
Theater roundup: ‘Once’ far more than enough; ‘Wiesenthal’ lacks drama
There used to be a skit in the parody show Forbidden Broadway that declared the show Thoroughly Modern Millie to be the worst best musical in Tony Award history. But that was before Once. Winner of the top Tony in 2012 — a weak season for musicals by any measure — this simple love story between a Dublin vacuum cleaner repairman/rock star wannabe and an angelic Czech immigrant … [Read more...]
Sundays: The end of advertising
By Myles Ludwig I like to stay just ahead of the knuckleball. So before the minions of Hypostan begin their campaign to whisk up a kind of consumerist Cool Whippy enthusiasm for the TV commercials interrupting the Super Bowl game — and overshadowing the game itself — I’d like to throw a pitch against American advertising in general, and broadcasting ads in particular. … [Read more...]
The View From Home 47: New releases on Blu-ray and DVD
The straightforward matter-of-factness is right there in the title: A Man Escaped (Criterion, $31.86 Blu-ray, $23.99 DVD). It’s in the past tense, so you know before starting Robert Bresson’s 1956 prison-break masterpiece – based on the memoirs of Andre Devigny, a French POW during World War II – that the protagonist will succeed. For Bresson, suspense has no appeal; it’s all … [Read more...]