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Ensemble

Vibrant Performance

Two concerts by the Symphony of the Americas,
reviewed by LAWRENCE BUDMEN

 

The indefatigable James Brooks-Bruzzese mounted the podium of the Symphony of the Americas to open the ensemble's 23rd season with a program honoring Hispanic Heritage Month on 19 October 2010 at the Broward Center's acoustically excellent Amaturo Theater in Ft Lauderdale, Florida, USA. From the languid strains of Ravel's Pavane for a Dead Princess to the incendiary Latin rhythms of Manuel De Falla's Ritual Fire Dance from El Amor Brujo (here presented in the composer's original chamber version with bracing xylophone exclamations instead of heavy brass), the conductor exhibited his sure touch with idiomatic, lively playing and deft musicality. The smoky voiced Australian soprano Dona Balson offered two emotion tinged arias from De Falla's one act opera La Vida Breve, sung with impassioned fervor. Balson's lustrous version of Mon coeur s'ouvre a ta voix from Saint-Saëns' Samson and Deliah was a wonderful bonus. Opulent of voice and intensely expressive, Balson was appropriately seductive...

Copyright © 14 December 2010 Lawrence Budmen,
Miami Beach, USA

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On 25 January 2011 James Brooks-Bruzzese directs the Symphony of the Americas in Von Suppe's Light Cavalry Overture, Beethoven's Symphony No 4 and Paganini's Violin Concerto No 2 in B minor (with violinist Laszlo Pap) at the Amaturo Theater in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA. Cirque de La Symphonie on 13 and 14 February features music by Dvorák, Saint-Saëns, Rossini, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Chabrier, Grieg, Vivaldi, Smetana, Rimsky-Korsakov, Bach and Bizet.

Brooks-Bruzzese conducts Weber's Invitation to the Dance, Bizet's L'Arlesienne Suite No 1, Excerpts from Glazunov's Raymonda and Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 4 in G (with soloist Enrique Graf) on 22 March. The season concludes on 12 April 2011 with a program of excerpts from opera and the Broadway theater with tenors Frank D'Ambrosio and Eduardo Aladren, sopranos Courtney Budd and Kam Cheng and the Dance Alive National Ballet, Kim Tuttle, director. For information, see www.symphonyoftheamericas.org

FORT LAUDERDALE

FLORIDA

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

MAURICE RAVEL

MANUEL DE FALLA

CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS

EDVARD GRIEG

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART

FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN

NICCOLO PAGANINI

AARON COPLAND

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC

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