Your weekend arts forecast: A new key player for TFO’s Ravel
Pianist Inon Barnatan was a last-minute replacement for this weekend’s Mahaffey Theater concerts by The Florida Orchestra. Barnatan is sitting for Natasha Paremski, profiled in the Catalyst last week, for Ravel’s jazz-infused Piano Concerto in G major. The TFO program (at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, plus 8 p.m. Saturday at the Mahaffey) also includes Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4.
According to classical music legend, the very French Ravel was inspired to write this concerto after hearing, and meeting, the brilliant American composer George Gershwin in 1928.
The New York Times calls the American/Israeli Barnatan “one of the most admired pianists of his generation”; he is an artistic director of La Jolla Summerfest, one of the country’s premiere chamber music festivals.
Listen here to Barnatan play the first movement of the Ravel concerto with the New York Philharmonic.
This concert alternates with TFO performances of The Intimate Mahler: Symphony No. 4, with soprano Madison Leonard (5 p.m. both days). Michael Francis conducts all performances,
Tickets and info here.
Sounds alive
St. Petersburg Opera Company’s pop-up show, “Opera’s Greatest Hits,” sold out its low-capacity Friday (Opera Central) and Saturday (Cage Brewing Co.) performances. That leaves Sunday at 4 p.m. – outside the Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg, on the Straub Park grass (that’s the north side of the building).
The singers include Sarah Nordin and Tyler Putnam (profiled here Tuesday, Chris Romeo, Eric Ferring, Linda Holloway, Chris Holloway, Rim Karnavicius, Vlad Markov and Jenny Kim-Godfrey.
Admission is pay-what-you-can. Bring a chair.
On the pop side, it’s great to see Have Gun, Will Travel – one of the bay area’s finest Americana/rock ‘n’ roll bands – back onstage. Catch Matt Burke and the boys Friday at Hooch & Hive, 1001 Cass St. in Tampa (new album alert: Raw Materials Home Demos).
Roy Book Binder is at the Hideaway Café in St. Pete Saturday, picking guitar, singing songs and telling tall tales. Catch up with Roy here.
Ruth Eckerd Hall and its Capitol Theatre are dark this weekend.
Theater
It’s the final weekend for Jobsite’s intense, gripping production of the John Patrick Shanley drama Doubt, at the David A Straz Center. And freeFall Theater’s “drive-in” production of Scott and Patti: Get a Real Job continues.
Little Satchmo
“Publicly fawning over a child fathered with his mistress wasn’t exactly an option for Louis Armstrong,” says Sharon Preston-Folta in the teaser trailer for the upcoming documentary film Little Satchmo. “He always wanted to be a father. But we had to keep it all secret.”
A longtime resident of Sarasota who’s spoken numerous times in St. Pete, Preston-Folta was born in 1955 to dancer Lucille “Sweets” Preston (as half of an act called Slim & Sweets, she was part of his touring company). Even though he was married to another woman, Armstrong was a pivotal figure in Sharon’s life after Slim’s death – he sometimes took her and her mother on the road with him. She still has a series of letters he sent to Lucille.
Little Satchmo (adapted from Preston-Folta’s memoir) is being produced with nonprofit fiscal sponsorship from the Southern Documentary Fund. Due out in the spring, the film is directed by John Alexander.
“The release of the Little Satchmo official trailer is a big moment,” Alexander said in a statement, “not only for Sharon, whose strength has enabled her harbor this secret for a lifetime, but for the general public, who despite their tireless love of Armstrong’s music and persona have been grossly under-informed about a more complete picture of the human being behind the American icon.”
