Thomas Morley (1557-1602).
Starting Friday, Carson Kievman's SoBe Institute of the Arts plunges audiences into the world of Shakespeare, and not incidentally, the world of English Renaissance music.
Kievman's production of the Bard's Twelfth Night previews March 18 at the newly rehabbed Little Stage Theater, then runs for three consecutive weekends, closing April 4. But this Friday, Robert Chumbley of the SoBe Institute faculty hosts a free event with the SoBe Arts Chamber Ensemble that will explore the music of the late 16th and early 17th centuries.
I was pleased to learn that the production of Twelfth Night will feature period music by composers such as Thomas Weelkes, which I'm sure will make the play much more coherent. It brings up an interesting sidelight of theater: So many Shakespeare plays with music have been done with either too little attention or too much of the wrong kind of attention paid to the music.
Continue reading 'SoBe Arts' Shakespeare Puts On Renaissance Airs'
Forgive me for staying with Baroque music for another week, but after attending last week's crackerjack Brandenburg concerti done by the Firebird Chamber Orchestra, I'm thinking a lot about a local cantata pilgrimage.
Back in 2000, the British conductor John Eliot Gardiner took his Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists on the road for an entire year to present the surviving J.S. Bach cantatas on the church days for which they were written. They spent most of their time in Europe, then finished the journey in New York.
I've watched a documentary about the pilgrimage several times on YouTube, and I've got several of the recordings from this journey on CD, and I think it was one of the most worthwhile musical stunts anyone ever pulled. Heard in context, the listener could appreciate better how Bach responded to the differences in text and feast day focus, and gradually come to realize what a great body of work this is.
Continue reading 'How About a Local Bach Cantata Pilgrimage?'
J.S. Bach (1685-1750).
Peter Schickele once wrote that he'd be happy to give up some J.S. Bach cantatas for a few more Brandenburg concerti, even though he knew that was as close to heretical a statement as you could make.
Beginning Friday, you can have both, when the Firebird Chamber Orchestra begins its Brandenburg Concerto project, playing all six of these timeless works over a three-year period. This weekend's concerts also include one of the cantatas, as well as the best-known of the orchestral suites.
The program for the weekend has changed somewhat from earlier announcements. We'll hear Concerto No. 3 in G, notable for its brevity and catchiness, and No. 5 in D, singular because it really is a harpsichord concerto more than anything else (Olukola Owulabi, a Canadian-born professor at the University of Syracuse, will do the honors for the Firebird).
We'll also hear the Cantata No. 84, Ich bin vergnügt mit meinem Glücke (I am content with my fate), with soprano Kathryn Mueller as soloist. The concert is rounded out with the Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor, which is famous for its Badinage final movement, a staple of the flute repertoire.
Continue reading 'Concert Will Explore Secular, Sacred Sides of Bach'
This Saturday at the Miami-Dade County Auditorium, the Eighth Annual Chopin Competition gets under way, as 21 young pianists vie for prizes and concert bookings before a jury of established figures in the world of classical music.
This is the Chopin bicentenary year (he was born March 1, 1810), which adds special import to the proceedings. The first three rounds -- preliminaries, quarter-finals and semi-finals -- can be seen for free from Sunday through Thursday at the Auditorium, and this can be a lot of fun if you want to try and spot the big talents of the future.
And this competition has seen major careers develop for pianists who have won its prizes: Gabriela Montero, Ian Hobson, Jeffrey Kahane and Kevin Kenner all have taken home some recognition from the competition. And the 2000 grand prize winner, Jon Nakamatsu, is soloing this afternoon at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach, playing the Brahms First Concerto with Justus Frantz and the Philharmonia of the Nations.
Continue reading 'Olympics of the Piano Begins With Chopin Competition'
Renée Fleming.
The soprano Renée Fleming doesn't have a lot of local performances on her list this season, but in tandem with her appearance at a Boca Raton winter festival she'll be doing a master class at the University of Miami.
Her appearance is set for 2 p.m. Friday, March 5, at the Gusman Concert Hall on the UM campus, and there's a meet-and-greet reception at 4:15. She won't be hand for the event later that day, the Frost Opera Theater Benefit Festival, perhaps because she'll be getting ready for her appearance the following night.
Saturday night (March 6), she headlines the first concert of the fourth annual Festival of the Arts Boca in a program of opera arias with the Russian National Orchestra under Patrick Summers. That concert unquestionably will be very well-attended, and I'm hoping she does some of the rarer things featured on her newest disc, Verismo, which won a Grammy last month for best classical vocal performance. She's done a great service to music by composers such as Mascagni, Leoncavallo, Giordano and Zandonai by featuring their lesser-known work on this disc.
Continue reading 'Fleming to Do Master Class at UM'
Sarah Coburn as Rosina in The Barber of Seville.
In the performances I’ve attended this season at the Palm Beach Opera and Florida Grand Opera, I’ve seen a good number of younger faces, and that’s been encouraging.
After all, opera is a lot more accessible these days than it used to be not too long ago, mostly because technology makes so many historic and current performances available. Opera fans being somewhat on the fanatical side, partisans of one singer, composer, conductor or house will upload whatever they can find on YouTube, and the site has turned into a rich trove of operatic treasure.
And the Metropolitan Opera has been doing its bit for opera by doing the broadcast simulcasts at movie houses on select Saturdays, a wonderful experience that has allowed patrons to see some fascinating productions from a seat that’s much better than one most of them could actually get at the house.
But opera companies are facing the same economic constraints as every other arts organization, which means outreach is even more critical.
Continue reading 'SoFla Opera Companies Aggressive About Outreach'
An overhead view of destruction in Port-au-Prince.
There has been a tremendous response of physical aid and monetary assistance to the tragedy in Haiti, and the musical community has been an important part of it.
The national Hope for Haiti telethon featured a good deal of music during its broadcast, and tonight, the Cleveland Orchestra and New World Symphony will join in a concert called Musicians for Haiti. Conductors Franz Welser-Möst and Teddy Abrams will lead an elegaic program that includes the Barber Adagio for Strings and the Nimrod variation from Elgar's Enigma Variations, as well as Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony.
Proceeds from the Lincoln Theatre concert (tickets are $35) will benefit a group called Partners in Health, a Boston-based organization that has been working in Haiti for more than 20 years, and employs 11,000 people around the world in the communities it serves.
Continue reading 'Orchestras, Soloist Turn Talents to Haitian Relief'
The Cleveland Orchestra at the Knight Concert Hall. (Photo by Roger Mastroianni)
It was a close call, but the Cleveland Orchestra will be coming to Miami this Friday for its residency, after a walkout Monday threatened to scuttle a feature of seasonal musical life that has helped fill the gap for South Floridians who still miss a full-time major orchestra in their midst.
The group had actually been on strike for a day before the agreement was reached early yesterday morning, and its brief residency at Indiana University was postponed and will have to be rescheduled. But with musicians agreeing to a wage freeze and higher premiums for their health plans, the major issues of contention were resolved and the music can go on.
The program for the first concerts, which will feature violinist Leila Josefowicz in the Violin Concerto of Thomas Adès, has been getting very good reviews, and reports indicate ticket sales for the residency have been strong. It'll be a good chance to hear some challenging new music played by a major soloist, and then glory in the sound of a major orchestra playing core Romantic repertoire: the Brahms Second Symphony and Strauss' Don Juan.
Continue reading 'Cleveland Residency Survives Close Call With Strike'
Later this week, the Firebird Chamber Orchestra will take up the mantle of The Four Seasons, Antonio Vivaldi’s deathless quartet of violin concerti that routinely rank at the top or very near it on those every-so-often lists of the world’s favorite classical pieces.
Despite its enormous familiarity to one and all, I don’t recall offhand the last time all four pieces were played back to back in concert hereabouts, as the Firebird will do in three separate concerts starting Friday. And they were conceived as a unit, with sonnets written by Vivaldi himself, so playing them this way is a helpful way to hear all the music in context.
Continue reading ''Four Seasons' Concert Chance to See Novelty in Familiarity'
Violinist Leila Josefowicz, due in town Jan. 22. (Photo by J. Henry Fair)
This week, negotiators from the labor and management sides are gathering to work out a new contract for the members of the Cleveland Orchestra, who are now working without an agreement just weeks before the group's annual residency at the Knight Concert Hall.
The Clevelanders' contract expired Dec. 31, after repeated periods of monthlong extensions from the defunction of the original pact at the end of August. Gary Hanson, the orchestra's executive director, said in a news release that management welcomed the opportunity to return to talks.
"At this time we are not speaking publicly about the substance of our collective bargaining, but we are prepared to alert our patrons and the media should an imminent strike threaten upcoming performances," Hanson said in the release. "In the meantime, we will be operating without a contract, and I am hopeful that with good will and good judgment at the negotiating table, a work stoppage can be avoided.”
Continue reading 'All Eyes on Labor Talks as Cleveland Residency in Question'
