What a difference a year makes: Conductor Ramón Tebar has improved the quality of the Palm Beach Symphony by sheer force of will and good leadership. This happy band has jumped 10 notches on the Richter scale of music-making; it is unrecognizable from the orchestra we heard last year. At the opening concert of the season Wednesday night at the Society of the Four Arts, the … [Read more...]
Early Brahms sparkles under young pianist’s fingers
The piano sonatas of Johannes Brahms are all early, thickly scored, finger-busting works, and while they receive respect from the performers who study them, rare is the pianist who brings them along on recital. The young Chinese pianist Ran Jia was an exception to that rule last Wednesday at Stage West in the Duncan Theatre, ending her meat-and-potatoes recital of Beethoven, … [Read more...]