By Robert Croan When I was a graduate student in musicology at Columbia University in the 1950s, the only woman composer we ever studied — and only briefly — was Amy Beach (1867-1944). At that time, she was deemed the only successful American female composer. She had been married to one Dr. Henry Harris Aubrey Beach, and her music was published as composed by Mrs. H.H.A. … [Read more...]
Violinist Kim spectacular in Sibelius concerto with SFSO
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...]
Beautifully executed Bach, Dvořák wrap SFSO’s chamber summer
By Robert Croan I love Bach! Full disclosure. We don’t get enough Bach on the local music scene. Johann Sebastian Bach, who lived and worked in five German cities from 1685-1750, was to become the father of modern classical music. Without polemics or academics, his music set the rules and esthetic principles of the three centuries of Western music that followed him. … [Read more...]
SFSO piano trio gives rousing reading of late Schubert trio
By Robert Croan Franz Schubert’s two late-in-life piano trios, both composed in 1827, are among the most challenging works in the chamber music repertory. Profound and sprawling, each taking upwards of 45 minutes to perform, they embody the composer’s deepest, most heartfelt thoughts, in his most advanced compositional style. The second of three summer chamber music … [Read more...]
Piano trio outstanding in Schoenfield, Mendelssohn, Schubert
By Robert Croan South Florida Symphony Orchestra’s Summer with the Symphony, a once-a-month series of three chamber music concerts — each in Miami and then Fort Lauderdale — is an oasis in the off-season desert for classical music lovers. It was therefore heartening to see that the concert I attended May 23 in Fort Lauderdale’s Center for Spiritual Living attracted a … [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...]
Brilliant Fauré, Brahms performances at SFSO chamber opener
By Robert Croan The first-desk players of South Florida Symphony Orchestra are not an official ensemble, like, say, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center or the Beaux Arts Trio. They get together each summer for a series of three modest monthly concerts — each performed in two South Florida venues — which provide some of the best classical music to be heard in this … [Read more...]