By Robert Croan Jean Sibelius’ Violin Concerto (in D minor, Op. 47), completed in its final version in 1905, is the composer’s only concerto, and one of the most technically challenging by any composer for this instrument. In performance with the South Florida Symphony Orchestra under its music director, Sebrina Maria Alfonso [seen March 12 in The Parker], 30-year-old … [Read more...]
SFSO makes adventurous mark with two cutting-edge works
By Robert Croan South Florida Symphony Orchestra’s music director, Sebrina Maria Alfonso, led one of her orchestra’s most adventurous and interesting programs ever (seen Feb. 18 at The Parker in Fort Lauderdale) with two nearly brand-new works by composers who are at the cutting edge of today’s classical music scene. Four Black American Dances, by Carlos Simon (b. 1986), … [Read more...]
Bailey shines in Saint-Saëns at SoFla Symphony opener
By Robert Croan A bravura rendition by cellist Zuill Bailey of Camille Saint-Saëns’ Cello Concerto No. 1 in A Minor (Op. 33) was the highlight of South Florida Symphony’s season opener at The Parker on Nov. 5. It was an all-19th-century program, which also featured Johannes Brahms’s Symphony No. 1 in C minor (Op. 68) — solidly traditional in a season that has to be … [Read more...]
South Florida Symphony, chorus deliver poignant Mozart Requiem
By Robert Croan Contrary to legend, and to Peter Shaffer’s iconic play Amadeus (along with the movie that followed), Italian composer Antonio Salieri did not murder Mozart — nor did he attempt to steal or to take credit for the composition of Mozart’s final, uncompleted Requiem (K. 622). The work was in fact commissioned by a wealthy nobleman, a Count Franz von Walsegg, … [Read more...]
Strauss-Berlioz program proves electric at South Florida SO
By Robert Croan Placing the works of the Frenchman Hector Berlioz (1803-69) and the German Richard Strauss (1864-1949) side by side, as the South Florida Symphony Orchestra did in this season’s third Masterworks concert (seen Feb. 12 at The Parker), makes good sense, although the two composers were stylistically and geographically disparate, and only barely overlapped in … [Read more...]
South Florida Symphony’s glittering ‘Candide’ a triumph
By Robert Croan This month, the South Florida Symphony Orchestra attempted one of its most ambitious projects to date — a semi-staged concert version of Leonard Bernstein’s 1956 operetta Candide — and came through with flying colors. The local performances (seen in Broward Center’s Au-Rene Theater on Jan. 16) were staged with endless creativity by Dan Wallace Miller, … [Read more...]
The blues haunts Zwilich’s fine new cello concerto
By Dennis D. Rooney Two world premieres opened the third program of the South Florida Symphony Orchestra’s 22nd season. Zuill Bailey was soloist in the Concerto for Cello and Orchestra by Ellen Taafe Zwilich, one of two premieres on the program, both dedicated to founding Music Director Sebrina María Alfonso. Zwilich (b. 1939), a native Floridian, is a distinguished … [Read more...]
Superb singing, direction make South Florida SO’s ‘Porgy’ a triumph
By Robert Croan It’s an admirable and ambitious undertaking for a regional orchestra to put on a staged production of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. It’s also expensive ($350,000 budget in this case) and risky. South Florida Symphony took those risks, went all the way and offered Porgy and Bess as its featured production this season, with performances – led by music director … [Read more...]
Soloist Xu’s Beethoven stands out at SoFla Symphony opener
By Dennis D. Rooney Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, centerpiece of the opening program in the South Florida Symphony’s 21st season, was by far the most interesting performance of the evening Saturday at the Spanish River Worship Center in Boca Raton. The soloist, 28-year-old Angelo Xiang Wu, a native of Inner Mongolia, was educated at the Shanghai Conservatory and won a … [Read more...]
Pianist sparkles at South Florida Symphony, ‘Fantastique’ doesn’t
With several chamber orchestras filling the symphonic gap in this part of the state, the South Florida Symphony offers a full-size group, which gives it the opportunity to present the largest works of the repertoire. And so it was on Sunday night at the Spanish River Worship Center in Boca Raton that a huge orchestra sat on the stage for a performance of the Symphonie … [Read more...]