After the ailing Claude Debussy finished his Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp in 1915, he wrote to a friend that the music reminded him of an “antique” Debussy, writing as he had done 20 years before in the Nocturnes. Not antique, perhaps, so much as distilled to its purest essence, as a performance of this work showed last weekend in the final concerts of the Palm Beach … [Read more...]
PBCMF Concert 3: French flavors and a rare clarinet quintet
There is something about French musical culture that inclines it toward woodwinds — perhaps because of the sound of French language — and when it comes to the Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival, French music has played a powerful role in its 24 season of concerts. Two French rarities were featured Saturday night at the Eissey Campus Theatre in Palm Beach Gardens during the … [Read more...]
PBCMF Concert 2: Surprising Dubois, a touching tribute, elegant Brahms
Grab-bags of eclectic programming, a hallmark of the Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival since its inception 24 seasons ago, are always interesting in themselves, though in many cases the disparate works don’t necessarily hang together as an entity. But the second concert in its four-concert weekly series, presented last weekend at the Crest Theatre in downtown Delray Beach, had … [Read more...]
Stravinsky hommage stands out at PBCMF’s first concert
A young American composer’s tribute to Igor Stravinsky made a remarkable impression during the opening concert last weekend of the Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival’s 24th summer season. San Francisco-based Stefan Cwik, not yet 30 years old, composed his Eight Miniatures for the Bassoon Chamber Music Composition Competition in 2010, and it was easy to hear Sunday afternoon at … [Read more...]
Onslow, Stephenson stand out in PBCMF Concert 3
If the Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival musicians went looking for a trove of unfamiliar but worthwhile music they could draw on year after year, they could do worse than the works of Georges (or George) Onslow. Onslow (1784-1853), the French offspring of an English lord’s wayward younger son, was the only substantial French composer of chamber music in his day, writing no … [Read more...]