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Friday May 5, 2006

South Beach Chamber Ensemble

SBCE

The South Beach Chamber Ensemble performs at MAC at 4 pm on Sunday. I caught them doing the same program a few weeks ago at the Miami Beach Community Church, and they are excellent. Drawn from the teaching staff at New World School for the Arts, SBCE is a surprisingly hip string quartet. This program, for instance, includes nothing older then 1957. Between pieces, they explain, give background, and tell stories, sometimes interrupting each other to jump in on a point.

They open with Shostakovich’s String Quartet #7, which is Russian modernism at it’s best – dissonant, dramatic, and in places just plain weird. It’s the sort of piece that demonstrates why the string quartet can be the most effective of classical music units – it is able to create rich layers of texture with unusual techniques on each instrument, while allowing each of the instruments to be heard as a distinct voice. The show continues with Osvaldo Golijov’s “Tenebrae” (composed in 2003) a shimmering, slowly developing tribute to a visit to a planetarium, and concludes, fittingly, with a string quartet by Villa-Lobos, the Brazilian master.

The show is part of the ensemble’s “Music in Beautiful Spaces,” a good execution of a good idea. ($5)

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  1. Christian Calzadillas    Fri May 5, 11:18 AM #  

    What? No Cinco de Mayo events listed?? SACRILEGE!



  2. Christian Calzadillas    Fri May 5, 11:19 AM #  

    ooops,i’m already drnk. (wrong post)



  3. alesh    Fri May 5, 12:05 PM #  

    I asked around! Everyone said (and I quote!): “Duh, i dunno. I’m just going to get drunk.”

    Anyone got anything? Post it under the other post!



  4. A.T.    Sat May 6, 05:02 PM #  

    The pictured violinist is Tom Moore, an excellent pedagogue and player. Good post, Alesh.