The two canonical clarinet quintets, and there are really only two, attain that status at least in part because listening to them, one wonders why such a beautiful combination isn’t regularly attempted by composers everywhere. For now, no one’s done it better than Mozart in 1789 and Brahms in 1891, and it was their respective clarinet quintets that occupied a program of the … [Read more...]
Violinist’s excellence obscured by poky tempi at Palm Beach Symphony
The arrival on the musical scene of a fresh young soloist talent is always worth noting, and in the case of the South Korean violinist SooBeen Lee, she’s been getting a lot of major attention. Lee, who turned 18 in September, is currently studying with the great pedagogue Miriam Fried at the New England Conservatory, the Boston school where she won the concerto competition … [Read more...]
Palm Beach Symphony launches season with rich menu of “pops”
By Dennis D. Rooney The term “Pops Concert” suggests to some a program in some way inferior to the program of a symphony orchestra, which unfortunately sometimes has been true when an orchestra is asked to play arrangements of music not originally for orchestra. But the term also particularly applies to orchestral music of a lighter character that is not often programmed … [Read more...]
Palm Beach Symphony struggles in season finale
By Dennis D. Rooney The Palm Beach Symphony closed its 44th season April 17 at the Kravis Center with a most ambitious program. Too ambitious, as it happened. American cellist Zuill Bailey was the soloist in Edward Elgar’s 1919 Cello Concerto (in E minor, Op. 85), taking the place of the previously announced Romanian cellist, Răzvan Suma. Playing the “ex-Schneider” … [Read more...]
PB Symphony inaugurates chamber music series with program of overlooked American master
Even if you’re a devotee of classical music, you might never have heard of William Grant Still. It was different in Still’s own day. Music historians have long called Still (1895-1978) the dean of African-American classical composers, and that came out of his prominence, which began in the 1920s when he made his initial name as an arranger for leading bands in the new … [Read more...]
Palm Beach Symphony’s opener underwhelms
By Kevin Wilt The Palm Beach Symphony orchestra squeezed on to the stage at the Society of the Four Arts for their “Seven Wonders” concert Dec. 6, along with guest conductor Albert-George Schram. The show opened with Gioachino Rossini’s overture to his opera La scala di seta (The Silken Ladder). There were a few intonation issues early on, especially between the winds and … [Read more...]
Palm Beach Symphony’s Russian finale shows Tebar’s mastery
Ramón Tebar conducts his orchestra like a man fine-tuning a grand piano. Responding to his every command, even the slightest hand gesture, the refined playing of the Palm Beach Symphony in its last concert of the season Thursday night at the Kravis Center was superb. Tebar is proving to be more than a fine orchestra builder. His conducting and orchestral control is … [Read more...]
PB Symphony percussion concert challenging, innovative
Only six players constituted the Palm Beach Symphony on Feb. 8, in a case of staffing to suit the venue: the concert was in the acoustically ripe room housing Henry Flagler’s personal railway carriage. About 500 people attended. Moving from the rear of the orchestra where they always play, the daunting six percussionists were front and center and made up in volume what they … [Read more...]
PB Symphony sparkles in Borodin, Brahms-Schoenberg
Under the leadership of Ramón Tebar, there is no doubt that the Palm Beach Symphony has become the worthy successor to the late lamented Florida Philharmonic. But the public is woefully ignorant of this sparkling gem in its midst due to the private nature of its past. Happily, there are forces at work to help it become the orchestra for all of Palm Beach County. High … [Read more...]
PB Symphony’s ‘Egmont’ a revelation
A full house in the Four Arts auditorium on Monday night heard a very interesting program from the Palm Beach Symphony that had simply been promoted as “Egmont”: An uninspiring name associated with Beethoven’s masterful overture of the same name. The concert, however, proved to be most inspiring. This Egmont was more than an introductory overture to warm up the orchestra; … [Read more...]