Greg Stepanich

Weekend: Rare chance to hear Henze

A short look at the weekend:

Masterworks Chorus of the Palm Beaches. The chorus opens its season Sunday at 5 p.m. in West Palm Beach with the Requiem of Gabriel Fauré, an immensely popular, beautiful piece of deceptive simplicity. Fauré rarely gets his due, it seems to me, but he was one of France’s greatest composers. I’d certainly love to hear some more of his piano music at recitals hereabouts, but so far I’ve been let down. Details here.

FAU Wind Ensemble. At risk of repeating myself, the wind band was fundamental to the spread of classical music in America, and today it’s the focus of a huge body of fine work by native composers. Bandleader Kyle Prescott has assembled a program of music by Dukas, Grainger, Bukvich, Delle Cese, Bryant, Stamp and Sousa for a concert at 3 p.m. Sunday in Boca Raton. FAU folks tell me that they’re expecting good things this year from the band program. Details here.

New World Symphony. Starting tonight and lasting through the weekend, the Miami Beach orchestra offers a nifty program of Bruckner, Mozart and Hans Werner Henze. The Austrian conductor Manfred Honeck, who heads the Swedish Radio Symphony, leads the ensemble in the Bruckner 7th, with its great threnody for the dead Wagner, and the Henze is the German composer’s Scorribanda Sinfonica. I literally cannot remember any time over the last dozen years that I’ve ever heard any Henze, who's now 80, programmed anywhere around here — maybe because of his far-left politics — so this is a rare chance to hear a piece by one of the most important writers of his generation (he's pictured above). Details here.

Chagall Ensemble. Also on Sunday, this time at St. Paul’s in Delray, the group, featuring two members of the Boca String Quartet, offer piano quartets by Mendelssohn (No. 1 in D minor) and Mozart (the G minor, K. 478). Details here.

Florida Grand Opera. It’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail on Saturday, and Aïda on Sunday. I’m mentioning this again because this is the first season for this venerable arts organization in its new house in Miami, and I’m eager to hear some opinions about how things are going, in case I can’t get there myself. Details here.