The splendid American violinist Joshua Bell has been making something of a study of the three sonatas of Edvard Grieg in his regular recital tours. Although the Third Sonata is the most well-known of the three, he was very excited about the Sonata No. 2 when he took it out on a tour a few years back, as he told me during an interview at the time; he said in some ways he liked … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Nov. 15-16
Theater: Chita Rivera has been a Broadway star for the past 60 years, originating roles in such shows as West Side Story, Bye Bye Birdie and Chicago, as well as winning Tony Awards for The Rink and Kiss of the Spider Woman. Tonight, she will appear at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre in a one-woman retrospective of these musicals, singing numbers from them and kicking up her heels, … [Read more...]
Chamber fest returns this week with second fall festival
The second-ever winter series of the long-running Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival opens this week for a set of three programs over three months that will include a world premiere, a further exploration of two off-the-beaten path composers, and the appearance of a masterwork the festival is tackling for the first time in its two-decade history. Launched last year, the PBCMF … [Read more...]
Palm Beach Chamber Festival set to open 23rd season
What is surely one of Palm Beach County’s longest-running summer concert series returns tonight for its 23rd season, as some of the area’s best-known classical musicians gather for four weekends of chamber music. The works on this year’s iteration of the Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival are perhaps more unfamiliar than usual, but the programming of music that’s off the beaten … [Read more...]
Mainly Mozart’s chamber music-dance finale enchants large audience
The directors of Miami’s Mainly Mozart Festival made much June 22 of the crowd they’d lured to the Knight Concert Hall for their chamber music summer season closer, subtitled My Homeland. And indeed the mood in the big hall at the Arsht Center downtown was festive and celebratory, and they were rewarded with a concert that took the strong and innovative format from last year’s … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: May 16-18
Theater: The Wick Theatre has been anything but consistent in its debut season, but when it is good, it is very, very good. That describes its final show on the season, the Tony Award-winning Fats Waller revue, Ain’t Misbehavin’. It helps considerably that director-choreographer Ron Hutchins gathered a company of seasoned veterans of the show, then stuck closely to the original … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: March 21-23
Theater: Yes, I know you have seen The King and I before, but director-choreographer Marcia Milgrom Dodge has performed her alchemy again, refreshing the 1951 Rodgers and Hammerstein classic musical with stunning new visuals, including the second act ballet as a Thai shadow puppet extravaganza, and a terrific cast of largely Asian performers. As stunning as the design work is … [Read more...]
Music, science link arms for Max Planck lecture series in Jupiter
If you were to list the names of prominent scientists who also were interested in music, you’d be at it for some time. Along with the more or less well-known examples of chemist-composer Alexander Borodin, physician-organist Albert Schweitzer and physicist-violinist Albert Einstein, you could find any number of physicians, chemists, botanists, surgeons, astronomers and the … [Read more...]
Grosvenor brilliant at Four Arts
By Donald Waxman Benjamin Grosvenor, the much-heralded young British pianist, is only 21, but he began performing in public and winning awards at the age of 10 and hasn’t stopped since. His current concert itinerary shows him playing two or three solo or orchestral concerts a week worldwide for the entirety of the concert season. For his recital at the Society of the Four … [Read more...]
Music roundup: Cuarteto Latinoamericano at Flagler; PB Symphony brings out brass
I first heard the Cuarteto Latinoamericano in 1984 making their New York City debut. They were managed by a friend I’d met years before at Tanglewood, summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. My friend asked for a report and I was honestly able to say they had great promise, and that all their black shocks of Brylcreemed hair would certainly win over the ladies. Fast … [Read more...]