By Robert Croan For the final concerts of his five-year tenure as Symphony of the Americas’ artistic and music director, Pablo Mielgo conducted the music of his native Spain: more specifically, extracts from zarzuelas — that country’s counterpart to the Viennese operetta and the Broadway musical. The concerts in Broward Center’s Amaturo Theater [seen April 20] offered a rare … [Read more...]
SOTA opens its season with impressive tour of ‘The Planets’
By Robert Croan Gustav Holst’s The Planets is one of the great orchestral showcases, and one of the most difficult for any orchestra to carry off. It’s a mammoth hourlong work for large orchestra, usually of close to 100 players, so it was remarkable to see it on the docket for the opening concert of Fort Lauderdale’s Symphony of the Americas on Oct. 6 in Broward … [Read more...]
Zukerman-Forsyth duo bring stellar Brahms Double to SOTA finale
By Robert Croan Johannes Brahms’s “Double” Concerto for Violin and Cello (in A minor, Op. 102), is a gnarly, dense work, not at all an easy romp for performers or listeners. Under the deft fingers of violinist Pinchas Zukerman and his cellist wife, Amanda Forsyth, however — as it was in the season’s final concert by Symphony of the Americas (heard May 5 in Broward … [Read more...]