Dora Pejačevič (1885-1923). By Robert Croan Two of the three composers represented on Chameleon Musician’s season finale Sunday afternoon were names that few, if any, members of the audience had ever heard before. The delightful and enthusiastically received concert, in the Josephine S. Leiser Opera Center, featured rarely heard piano quartets by Dora Pejačevič and Zygmunt … [Read more...]
Late reviews: South Florida Symphony, Cameo Chamber Players
South Florida Symphony Orchestra (Nov. 15, Crest Theatre, Delray Beach) One of Sergei Prokofiev’s last works was his Sinfonia Concertante (Op. 125), a reworking of his earlier Cello Concerto and one of the most challenging such pieces in the repertoire. The American cellist Zuill Bailey, a repeat guest with the South Florida Symphony, returned to that ensemble’s … [Read more...]
A modern jazz piano master thrills at Arts Garage
Jazz improvisation, Cyrus Chestnut said last Saturday night, is “the art of composition at a very rapid pace, without the benefit of editing.” That’s the kind of useful working definition a good teacher would provide, and perhaps it’s no coincidence that Chestnut recently was appointed a distinguished professor of jazz studies at Howard University. But the audience that … [Read more...]
News briefs: A painted-piano gala; Muse candidates sought
The inaugural "Keys to the Cities" kickoff party will take place from 7 to 9 p.m. Nov. 1 at the Lake Pavilion in West Palm Beach. During the event, the Kretzer Piano Music Foundation will unveil 18 distinct baby grand and upright pianos, all of which have been whimsically designed – each with its own theme – by local artists. A piano owned by late baseball Hall-of-Famer Gary … [Read more...]
Vienna Piano Trio polishes program to gold
The Vienna Piano Trio came to the Flagler Museum and with their excellence showed that European instrumentalists of this caliber play on a level a couple of notches higher than most. The refinement, the polish and the sensitivity (and showmanship) they brought to their concert of music by Haydn, Beethoven and Saint-Saens was like burnished gold. They have won prizes galore, … [Read more...]
Jazz’s Arriale shows mastery, growth at Arts Garage
A cynic might discern that the recent rush of solo jazz piano releases is more cost-cutting than musical, since only one artist needs to get paid while the CD costs the same afterward as one recorded by a full band. Some of the top jazz pianists from around the world, from Frenchman Jean-Michel Pilc to Japanese sensation Hiromi to American Lynne Arriale, have capitalized on … [Read more...]
Passionate Brahms performances marred by piano tuning
Anyone who’s been to an arts camp or summer festival has heard that sound before – enthusiastic, friendly voices loudly acclaiming a performance by members of the team. Tuesday night at Palm Beach Atlantic University’s Persson Hall, the applause from a home-court crowd was heard for two aggressive performances by faculty members at the summer Stringendo School for Strings, who … [Read more...]
Music roundup: A powerful premiere at Lynn; evocative Ravel at PB Symphony
Lynn Philharmonia/Gunther Schuller (Jan. 29, Wold Performing Arts Center, Boca Raton) “I am Chiayu!” the small woman wearing a red dress jacket almost shouted to the audience at the Wold Performing Arts Center as she took the stage at Lynn University in Boca Raton to introduce her new composition. Chiayu Hsu, a Taiwan-born composer who earned her doctorate at Duke University, … [Read more...]
Piano trio’s Florida debut offers multi-style mastery
The piano trio literature is perhaps richer than it might otherwise appear at first mental blush, and there are some great works in this genre that are too little-known to general audiences. That can surely be said of the Piano Trio (in G minor, Op. 15) composed in 1855 by Bedrich Smetana, founder of the Czech national school of composition. It can just as confidently be said … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: April 30-May 5
Art: Florida Atlantic University’s current Master of Fine Arts Graduate Exhibition at the Dorothy F. Schmidt Gallery on the college’s Boca Raton campus features the work of painter Christina Major and ceramicist Bethany Cohen. Cohen’s exhibit, An Intimate Encounter, is a display of miniature repositories that the artist says reflects America’s “need for more in contrast to the … [Read more...]