The Palm Beach Symphony Orchestra scheduled Benjamin Britten’s A Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra to begin an afternoon of music celebrating the culmination of a year’s teaching program. The Kravis Center was filled with children of all ages on Sunday, Oct. 5. I first heard this work in England in 1946. Senior High School classes from my birth city, Manchester, … [Read more...]
Kavakos stellar with PB Symphony; the mics, not so much
By Márcio Bezerra The Palm Beach Symphony continued its parade of world-class performers on Dec. 10 with Leonidas Kavakos performing the Violin Concerto by Johannes Brahms at the Kravis Center. It is truly remarkable that, since the arrival of conductor Gerard Schwarz, this “3.0” version of our local orchestra has been able to engage internationally acclaimed soloists … [Read more...]
Palm Beach Symphony wraps season with sparkling Beethoven concerto, but uneven Ninth
By Márcio Bezerra Palm Beach Symphony ended its 50th anniversary season April 25 with an ambitious all-Beethoven program at the Kravis Center. Under the direction of Gerard Schwarz, the group started the evening with an early work, the Piano Concerto No. 2 (in B-flat major, Op. 19). This sunny concerto (actually the first the composer wrote, despite its misleading number) … [Read more...]
PB Symphony satisfies with Rimsky, Zwilich, Grieg
By Márcio Bezerra The Palm Beach Symphony continued its 50th anniversary celebration Feb. 5 with a satisfying concert at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts. Under the music direction of the competent Gerald Schwarz, the local ensemble has bloomed into a serious musical organization and its increasingly audacious programming is proof of that. On Monday, the main … [Read more...]
Pires makes stellar showing at PB Symphony’s finale
By Márcio Bezerra After a disappointing cancelation last year, the audiences of the Palm Beaches finally were able to hear the esteemed Portuguese pianist Maria João Pires perform with the Palm Beach Symphony. The ensemble — completely reinvented since the arrival of Music Director Gerard Schwarz — presented its last performance of the season Monday night to an unusually … [Read more...]
Chang disappoints in uneven PB Symphony opener
By Dennis Rooney The Nov. 6 concert by the Palm Beach Symphony at the Kravis Center was the opening of the orchestra’s 49th season. Music director Gerard Schwarz was on the podium and violinist Sarah Chang was the soloist. The first work on the program was the afternoon’s best performance; an alert and sprightly account of Rounds for String Orchestra by David Diamond. … [Read more...]
Join us for our Culture Talks series at Cultural Council
In collaboration with the Cultural Council for Palm Beach County, Palm Beach ArtsPaper is hosting a series of four Culture Talks this season featuring local culture makers discussing arts issues of the moment. We’ve long believed that South Florida needs more of this kind of cultural offering, one that expects that area residents will want to take a deep dive into aspects of … [Read more...]
Palm Beach Symphony’s closing concert satisfies with Midori, Schuman
By Dennis D. Rooney The final program of this season’s Palm Beach Sympony Masterworks Series, which took place April 10 in the Kravis Center's Dreyfoos Hall, was well-balanced and enjoyed by the (largely un-masked) audience. Among the many important commissions made by conductor André Kostelanetz is William Schuman’s New England Triptych, subtitled "Three Pieces for … [Read more...]
PB Symphony’s Mahler and Beethoven a mixed bag at Kravis
By Dennis D. Rooney Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 is no longer a rarity in the concert hall, but some orchestras have yet to perform it, and that included the Palm Beach Symphony until its concert March 7 at the Kravis Center as this season’s fourth Masterworks program. The audience assembled in Dreyfoos Hall was expecting to hear the Portuguese pianist Maria João Pires … [Read more...]
Clarinetist, Palm Beach Symphony pay sublime tribute to Mozart
Into this crazed COVID world of variants popping up ad infinitum, there came a sublime evening of music-making given by the Palm Beach Symphony under the leadership of conductor Gerard Schwarz on Dec. 2 at their permanent new home: The Kravis Center. It was dedicated to four works written by Mozart in his last year of life, 1791. Each of the four pieces selected had special … [Read more...]