By Robert Croan Cellist Iris van Eck is one of South Florida’s busiest and most productive classical musicians. Her activities include running the splendid Chameleon chamber music series, which she founded in 2003; playing in Symphony of the Americas, where she is principal cellist; teaching and much more. On Chameleon’s Jan. 24 concert, the Dutch-born artist had her own … [Read more...]
A splendid afternoon of rare quintets at Chameleon
By Robert Croan Most classical string quintets add a second viola to the standard string quartet combination of two violins, viola and cello. Several repertory works by Mozart and Brahms, for example, employ this combination. Less common are quintets with a cello as the fifth instrument, with the notable exception of a large number by Boccherini (remember the piece played in … [Read more...]
‘Shenandoah’ gets rare, satisfying staging at Delray Square
By Dale King The Delray Square Performing Arts Center has been no stranger to taking risks. It had no qualms about presenting The Life, a gritty, gutsy tale of life on the streets in Times Square circa the 1980s. Ditto for Piaf, the just-concluded story of the famed French chanteuse whose morality was questionable, and taste for booze and pills obvious. Now Shenandoah is … [Read more...]
Rare Mozart sparkles with Bergonzi, Todd
The richness of Mozart’s oeuvre can’t be fully appreciated unless you’re able to hear good performances of every part of it, from his church sonatas to his first attempts at opera. That applies, too, to his chamber music. While performances of the later string quartets and quintets are frequent, and the Clarinet Quintet always gets an airing when a good enough clarinetist is … [Read more...]
Brief reviews: Five movies at Palm Beach International Film Festival
African Gothic: Perhaps because his parents — Joe Bologna and Renee Taylor — have cornered the comedy market in the family, their filmmaker son, Gabriel Bologna, tends towards directing movies with a more dramatic bent. Certainly that is the case with his latest feature, a quirky, twisted, surreal thriller set on a remote, decrepit South African farm. There brother and sister, … [Read more...]