The young Russian-American violinist Yevgeny Kutik was the able soloist Feb. 9 in a concert by The Symphonia Boca Raton, under the guest baton of West Virginia Symphony Orchestra director Grant Cooper. Kutik was the soloist in a work violinists know better than audiences do: the Concerto No. 22 (in A minor) of the Italian violinist and opera conductor Giovanni Battista Viotti … [Read more...]
Dover Quartet makes brilliant opening at Kravis Young Artists
It is almost as though the members of the Dover Quartet, all in their early 20s, holed themselves up with 1960s-era recordings by the Guarneri Quartet, so seamless, elegant and perfect is their playing. But there should be some room for wider variety and contrast amid all that, and so while one could make the case for this young foursome already being one of the finest … [Read more...]
Filmmaker Gibney examines truth about ‘The Armstrong Lie’
Opening this weekend locally is The Armstrong Lie, a documentary chronicling Tour de France cycling legend Lance Armstrong’s improbable rise and ultimate fall from grace for using performance-enhancing drugs. It was directed by Alex Gibney, winner of the 2007 Oscar for the documentary Taxi to the Dark Side. Gibney began this project as a positive story of one man’s comeback … [Read more...]
PB Symphony beautifully evokes intimacy of Viennese chamber society
Monday night’s Palm Beach Symphony Orchestra program was a tribute to the chamber music concert series founded by Arnold Schoenberg in Vienna in 1919, in which the enfant terrible modernist of his day established a way to try out new music in private, and hear large orchestral works in chamber arrangements. Thus it was Monday night, as a small band of just 11 players played … [Read more...]
Philadelphia Orchestra, Watts bring freshness to the warhorses
There is a celebrated sign on the road to the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont that reads: Caution: Musicians at Play. That phrase suggests not just performers enjoying themselves in their craft, but also expert musicians who can do whatever they want with the material at hand and keep it fresh. That feeling of easeful mastery was all over the Kravis Center on Wednesday … [Read more...]
Orchestra’s ‘39’ concert steps up, sometimes eccentrically
As program-organizing gimmicks go, building one around a number is clever and useful, and for the Palm Beach Symphony, constructing its Sunday night program on “39” ― the group’s current anniversary year ― offered listeners an interesting variety of selections as well as a short course in the development of the Austro-German symphonic tradition. The concert in the Flagler … [Read more...]
At 70, jazz icon Dr. Lonnie Smith gets a fresh start
Read it here first: 70-year-old Hammond organ icon Dr. Lonnie Smith has just released his first-ever CD in 2012, the burning live trio set The Healer. Sure, the turban-topped keyboardist started recording under his own name with the 1967 gem Finger-Lickin’ Good while he simultaneously cut tracks with guitarist George Benson (for his banner releases It’s Uptown and The George … [Read more...]
Violinist St. John follows her own sharp instincts
When Lara St. John graduated from the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia at age 16, she hit the road, in search of travel and new musical experiences. That quest led the young Canadian violinist to, of all places, what was then the Soviet Union, where she took up post-graduate study at the Moscow Conservatory. “And I learned so much there, about songs, about Gypsy culture … it … [Read more...]
Dance troupes join forces for Eissey show
When Ballet Florida shut its doors in 2009, it left a hole in the local dance world. But it didn’t disrupt the network of dancers, choreographers and enthusiasts who wanted to see the art of Terpsichore continue under the palms. Jerry Opdenaker, a 47-year-old performer and choreographer who danced with for 22 years with Pennsylvania Ballet, the Kansas City Ballet and Ballet … [Read more...]
Tony Awards were unpredictable (at least by me)
Forbidden Broadway, that delicious satirical revue about the commercial New York theater, used to do a number declaring Thoroughly Modern Millie as “the worst best musical ever.” But that was before Once won the top Tony Award on Sunday night. And seven other Tonys, too. Mind-boggling. OK, chalk my derision up to sour grapes, since I did terribly at predicting the winners of … [Read more...]