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Recent Reviews
- Camerata Singers – Considering Matthew Shepard
- Chamber Music Monterey Bay — Escher String Quartet
- Aizuri String Quartet — Fabulous Artistry
- YMMC March Concert – Migration
- Ensemble Monterey’s Tribute to an Early Spring
- Pianist Kevin Lee Sun in Aptos Keyboard Series
- Monterey Symphony presents: Ovation
- The Thoughtful Muse: A Recital by Pianist Daria Rabotkina
- Stravinsky – Music & Dance in Miami
- Ehnes Quartet in Beethoven Quartet Cycle
- Heavy Stuff – A Recital by Vladimir Feltsman
- Santa Cruz Symphony: Catharsis
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Author Archives: Julian Kreeger
Stravinsky – Music & Dance in Miami
On Friday January 31, 2020, the New World Symphony and Miami City Ballet presented a fascinating program of Stravinsky and Balanchine at the New World Center on Miami Beach to a capacity audience. The program was conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas and the soloist in the Stravinsky Violin Concerto was James Ehnes, one of the greatest violinists of our time.
To accommodate the dancers on the the stage, players of the entire orchestra were seated in the seats of the lower level facing the stage where the audience usually sits.
The program opened with Stravinsky’s Apollo (written in 1927-28 and revised in 1947), with choreography by Balanchine and performed by the Miami City Ballet, an internationally acclaimed ballet company under Artistic Director Lourdes Lopez
The second half of the program opened with Stravinsky’s Circus Polka (1942-44) with Animations by Emily Eckstein (commissioned by the NWS
in 2012). The visual animations in which the ringmaster was repeatedly deterred by a “lazy, hungry elephant” were projected on the hall’s three huge screens.
The concluding work was the Stravinsky Violin Concerto (1931) as
choreographed by Balanchine and performed brilliantly by violinist James Ehnes with the New World Symphony conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas.
Altogether an unforgettable evening !
End
Archived in these categories: 20th Century, Dance, Orchestral
Ehnes Quartet in Beethoven Quartet Cycle
On Tuesday January 28, 2020 the Ehnes Quartet continued its cycle of the complete Beethoven String Quartets in Miami. Each year it has played a program of the Beethoven Quartets, with the final concert of the series to be played next year to coincide with the Beethoven Anniversary. James Ehnes formed the quartet a few years ago with violinist Amy Schwartz Moretti and violist Richard O’Neill after discussing the idea with Robert deMaine, now Principal Cellist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, after a rehearsal. James says ,”The amazing thing is that we both had the same idea – that we wanted it to be with Amy and Richard.”
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Archived in these categories: Chamber music, Classical Era
New York Philharmonic Quartet in Miami
On Sunday January 5, 2020, the New York Philharmonic Quartet
and Joseph Kalichstein played a beautiful concert of Mozart, Dvorak
and Shostakovich at Florida International University’s Wertheim
Concert Hall in Miami to a large, most appreciative audience.
The quartet is comprised of four of the Philarmonic’s principal
musicians – Concertmaster Frank Huang, Principal Associate
Concertmaster Sheryl Staples, Principal Viola Cyntia Phelps, and
Principal Cello Carter Brey.
Archived in these categories: 20th Century, Chamber music, Classical Era, Romantic Era
Pianist Vadym Kholodenko in Miami Recital
On Friday November 8, 2019, Vadym Kholodenko, Winner of the Gold medal at the 2013 Van Cliburn Competition, played an utterly spectacular piano recital at Florida International University’s Wertheim Concert Hall in Miami.
The first half of the recital was devoted to works of Mozart and Beethoven — Mozart’s Fantasia in C Minor, K.475, Beethoven’s Seven Bagatelles, Op. 33 and Rondo a Capriccio,Op.129 (“Rage Over a Lost Penny”). His remarkable range of expressive color and dynamics brought the audience to its feet with a standing ovation.
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Archived in these categories: Piano, Romantic Era
Tezlaff & Vogt play Violin & Piano Recital in Miami
On Thursday, October 24, 2019, Christian Tetzlaff and Lars Vogt played
their first Miami Violin-piano recital program at the Wertheim Concert
Hall at Florida International University. The program opened with Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 6 in A, Op. 30, No. 1. Although Beethoven was famous for his piano playing in Vienna, he was not known as a violinist, although his violin sonata showed the influence of his violin study with Ignaz Schuppanzigh, a quartet leader whom Beethoven admired.
Archived in these categories: Chamber music, Classical Era, Romantic Era
