There’s something inherently limiting about the movie screen that makes cinema a more claustrophobic medium than theatre. In theatrical sets, doors suggest a world beyond the confined drama, providing an escape from the demons, the embarrassments, the high jinks. Even if the characters don’t use them, it’s comforting to know they’re there. Movie screens, on the other hand are … [Read more...]
Onslow, Stephenson stand out in PBCMF Concert 3
If the Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival musicians went looking for a trove of unfamiliar but worthwhile music they could draw on year after year, they could do worse than the works of Georges (or George) Onslow. Onslow (1784-1853), the French offspring of an English lord’s wayward younger son, was the only substantial French composer of chamber music in his day, writing no … [Read more...]
‘Stand Up Guys’: We’re getting too old for this, too
Remember the good old days when it seemed like every comedy and action movie pandered to teenage boys with disposable incomes? Back in the first decade of the Aughts, when Stallone and van Damme were languishing in direct-to-video purgatory and Arnold Schwarzenegger was governing, we saw the rise of millennial cash cows like Jason Statham, Robert Pattinson and Channing Tatum. … [Read more...]
Mendelssohn and Piston stand out at Boca Symphonia
If there was a persuasive argument to be made ― and there is – for the excellence of Walter Piston, the Boca Raton Symphonia made it Sunday afternoon. And they did so in a highly enjoyable, expertly played overall concert that featured not only a welcome programming of a fine work by that estimable American composer, but a standout young violinist making his way through one of … [Read more...]
Lisitsa, Lynn Philharmonia stand out at Boca fest
Last week, the Boca Raton Symphonia gave a respectable performance at the Festival of the Arts Boca 2012 of the soundtrack for Casablanca as it accompanied a well-attended screening of the movie. But the Lynn Philharmonia, which appeared Wednesday with the Ukrainian-born pianist Valentina Lisitsa, is a much larger orchestra, and has this year performed the First Symphony of … [Read more...]
Schmitt suite, Septet violinist stand out at chamber fest
Florent Schmitt (1870-1958). A standout instrumental performance and two intriguing rediscoveries took pride of place Friday night as the Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival opened its second series of concerts. The finest of the two rediscoveries, the Suite en Rocaille, Op. 84, of French composer Florent Schmitt, reanimated a beautiful and unjustly forgotten work for an … [Read more...]