Caroline Goulding is sitting in Finouk, a café on the Grabenstrasse in the picturesque German town of Kronberg im Taunus, near Frankfurt. The young American violinist is there in late March with her recital partner, German pianist Danae Dörken, and they’re on their way to rehearsal for concerts next month in Bautzen and Berlin as well as prepping for a recording session. But … [Read more...]
PB Symphony and Astanova end season in magnificent Russian style
The great, the good and the fashionable gathered at Mar-a-Lago for a stunning night of music making by the Palm Beach Symphony and pianist Lola Astanova on March 18, their last concert of this season. Astanova, tall, slim, very model-like in her black, short, backless, sequined, glittering evening gown, played superbly: as gifted as Lang Lang but without the showmanship, with … [Read more...]
Late reviews: Recent concerts, in brief
Editor’s note: Here are three reviews from recent concerts; posting has been delayed by technical difficulties. Three clarinetists in a trio de force for Farberman concerto Lynn Philharmonia (Oct. 25, Wold Performing Arts Center, Boca Raton) One of the important insignia of the new regime of conductor Guillermo Figueroa at the Lynn Philharmonia is his determination to offer … [Read more...]
‘Hyper-theatricality’ on tap for PB Opera’s ‘Hoffmann’
Jacques Offenbach made and lost several fortunes in the course of turning out about 100 operettas for the French stage, but he wanted to write at least one serious grand opera that would show the world that he had more than frivolity up his sleeves. It was during the composition of that long hoped-for piece, Les Contes d’Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann) that he became … [Read more...]
Composer Muhly offers ‘festive’ world premiere fanfare for PBSO on Monday
There are composers, and there are compositeurs, and there are Komponists, but few of them working today have anything like the buzz that surrounds young Nico Muhly. At just age 32, Muhly (whose Twitter page uses the Icelandic word for composer, tónlist), has the kind of monstrously busy, high-profile, engaged career that would be the envy of any artist, not just contemporary … [Read more...]
At the Morikami: Street fashion a la Elvis, Brando and Nabokov
Japan’s street fashion knows no minimalism. Like a rainbow rhapsody, its tune says anything goes and more is always better. An ongoing exhibit wrapping up next month tells us it is all about gaining acceptance, not attention. There is no room for judgment and the main goal is having fun. These are some of the notions the Morikami Museum galleries put forward with Breaking … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: June 21-23
Theater: Slow Burn Theatre Company usually opts for dark-toned musicals like its recent triumphs with Side Show and Sweeney Todd. But in the summer, the troupe lightens up — as they did last summer with Xanadu — and they don’t come much lighter than The Wedding Singer. This show, based on the 1998 Adam Sandler-Drew Barrymore movie about a hapless wedding band crooner has a … [Read more...]
‘Frances Ha’ a heroine worth rooting for
Greta Gerwig – intelligent, gangly, un-classically beautiful and uniquely fetching -- is now poised to be the new Parker Posey. That is, if there wasn’t already a new Parker Posey I missed, some indie-film It Girl throbbing the hearts of hipsters in the first decade of the Aughts. At any rate, after a number of memorable supporting roles, she’s ready for her close-up, and she … [Read more...]
Palm Beach Film Festival turns 18: At last, it’s about the movies
The Palm Beach International Film Festival, running April 4-11, turns 18 this year, and it reaches the age of maturity with a new emphasis on the films themselves. There will be 141 in all, including eight United States premieres and 26 world premieres from such diverse nations as Russia, Spain, Thailand, Palestine, Ethiopia and Nepal. As she was putting the final touches on … [Read more...]
Art features: Olympics pictures, ‘New Art’ at FAU
By Lucy Lazarony Sports photographer Adam Stoltman has been covering the dazzling highs and lows of Olympic competitions since 1980. “The Olympics are just this explosion of energy and passion and athletic power and grace in all directions at once,” Stoltman says. Olympix 2012, an exhibition of Stoltman’s photos from the London Olympics, is on display at the Palm Beach … [Read more...]