It has been 300 years precisely since the day that Johann Sebastian Bach sat down at a table in the little German principality of Cöthen to compose a letter to a Berlin potentate to accompany a package containing what he called “six concertos with several instruments.” Those works, sent off to the Margrave Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg in March of 1721, have become known … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2021-22: The season in classical music
The classical season looks mostly normal this year, with COVID protocols in place and venues opening back up. There are a host of major artists and groups coming to the county this year, from established veterans to exciting new talents. Although some usual season players are missing as of this writing (the Flagler Museum has not yet said whether its chamber music series … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2020-21: Palm Beach art institutions forge ahead
By Sandra Schulman Palm Beach is counting on the arts and art lovers to rebound this season, with ambitious shows planned, and plenty of outdoor art viewing available. The Norton Museum plans to reopen this month, and the Boca Museum has been renovated and is offering several new exhibits. Palm Beach’s Worth Avenue emerges as a new gallery hotspot. Norton Museum of … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2020-21: Classical shows shrink, but concerts still plentiful
South Florida’s classical music community is surely one of the nation’s most vibrant, with at least seven regularly appearing orchestras playing from Key West to Fort Pierce, two opera companies, three chamber music series, a nationally known concert choir, and a season that in the winter months sees many of the touring stars of the Northeast come down to shake off the … [Read more...]
Arts buzz: Norton director Davis resigns; Morikiami to reopen grounds
WEST PALM BEACH — Elliot Bostwick Davis, CEO and director of the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach since March 2019, has resigned. “The events of the past months have impressed upon me the importance of being closer to my family and I’m looking forward to returning to Boston and beginning the next chapter of my life,” she said in a prepared statement. She declined to … [Read more...]
Coronavirus fears shut Four Arts, Book Festival; other venues staying open
The Society of the Four Arts will close until further notice Friday, cutting short its arts and education season, and the Palm Beach Book Festival scheduled for next week has been canceled. Both are casualties of the worldwide COVID-19, or coronavirus, pandemic. “Coronavirus conference canceled in New York because of coronavirus,” read the headline in New York’s tabloid … [Read more...]
In small ink strokes, humanity writ large: Rembrandt at the Four Arts
A striking candlelight effect may be the loudest marking of one of the greatest artists in the history of art, but a new exhibit extinguishes it in favor of his other theatrical — and humane — sensibilities. Detail-soaked biblical passages, scenes of street life and portraits of the distinguished and the marginalized have aligned at the Society of the Four Arts to … [Read more...]
Lincoln Center duo brings week of Romantic music to Four Arts
It’s one thing to come and do a concert during the South Florida season, but it rises to another level when you’re able to bring your friends. This month at the Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach, the proprietors of New York’s Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the husband-and-wife team of cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han, will settle in for a week of … [Read more...]
New York Polyphony’s excellence muted by dry acoustic
If the Christmas season revives a rich body of American song for the holiday, it also is a door into the vast, centuries-old library of sacred choral music that amplifies the observance. Following by three days a concert by Miami’s Seraphic Fire that also explored ancient classical repertoire, the vocal quartet New York Polyphony made its first stop in Florida in seven years … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2018-19: Classical music
It shouldn’t be surprising at this point, given South Florida’s deep connection to the Northeast, and New York City in particular, but this area can boast a season of classical music as rich as most other cities in the country, particularly in the first months of the year, when everyone likes to come to Florida to escape winter. Here’s a monthly look at what you can look … [Read more...]