Category Archives: Reviews
A Choice and Poignant Chamber Finale
Here’s that guest blog about the festival chamber finale that I promised you — sorry it’s a bit tardy, but I presumed to engage my guest blogger to cover this one the day before he moved out of Charleston for the musical jungle of New York.
And it’s Chucktown’s loss: Not only is Mike Hanf the […]
My Last (sob!) Spoleto Concert
Egad – my once-fat Spoleto ticket envelope (nearly 30 events) is now flat … I just used the last ones. Can the festival really be over? My body, ravaged by chronic sleep deprivation, may be about to shut down — but my mind is still reeling (and my ears ringing) in a grand sonic dither. […]
Fire In The Hole!
Piccolo Spoleto’s Spotlight Concert Series ended with quite a bang tonight! The Balkan String Quartet, a group of Serbian and, well, Balkan musicians currently based in Atlanta, graced the stage at New Tabernacle Fourth Baptist Church with their uncompromising fire and deliciously reckless approach. There were a few fairly troubling issues of intonation which seemed […]
Piano Magic — and Delightful Dvorak — at Memminger
Dr. Wadsworth, before he introduced Friday afternoon’s program X to his capacity audience at the Memminger, informed us that one of his current crop of festival critics had described his humor as being of the “cornpone” variety … a quality that I’ve never observed, in the many years I’ve covered this series. Irreverent or un-stuffy? […]
The Tender Tao of Feldman
So sorry I’m running late one this one – but then, I can only tell you about part of what went on at Tuesday’s fifth and final Music in Time program. The fare was Morton Feldman’s four-hour-plus work, For Philip Guston: a meditative tribute to the composer’s friend and famed graphic artist. It also honors […]
Chamber Music Charleston: Eclectic Elegance
Well, there’s only one more event in this year’s Spotlight Series. I’m dearly grateful for the opportunity to have attended so many of these wonderful and varied concerts this year; and also for the chance to yak away about them here! This evening’s concert brought Chamber Music Charleston to the Spotlight stage for an eclectic […]
More Chamber Pleasures — and a Special Intermezzo Treat
Wednesday’s bout of overheated Spoleto-hopping netted two prime events — let’s begin with Chamber the Program IX, where it turned out to be proven classics all the way.First up was J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, one of the pinnacles of Baroque orchestral writing; musicians never tire of playing the six glorious Brandenburgs … nor […]
A Walk on Chamber Music’s Wild Side
Don’t get me wrong: Tuesday’s generous Chamber VIII concert had lots of terrific traditional music going for it – but, between plums by Vivaldi and Schumann came a piece from Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer that temporarily turned my musical world upside down.
But first came a well-known item from the so-called “red priest” of […]
Oh, The Waves!
It was back to the Piccolo Spotlight Concert Series for me this evening, with a big bonus in the form of attending this concert with my family! The welcoming environs of New Tabernacle Fourth Baptist Church proved a wonderful site for hearing the full Piccolo Spoleto Conservatory Orchestra, again under the able baton of Maestro […]
Spoleto’s Special Sparklers: Lindsay’s Classical Picks
People keep asking me what my favorite edition of the festival is (out of the seventeen I’ve experienced) … a question I can’t answer. There’s no way to meaningfully distill or quantify any festival’s cumulative greatness. I can name for you many memorable moments from past festivals: exciting, life-changing events Like Maestro Villaume’s explosive chemistry […]