South Florida Classical Review

Misha Dichter performed Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with the Palm Beach Symphony Tuesday night at the Kravis Center.

In 1966 Misha Dichter won the Silver Medal at the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition. Nearly six decades after his Moscow triumph, Dichter played a whirlwind performance of Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini on Tuesday night with the Palm Beach Symphony under Gerard Schwarz at the Kravis Center. And Dichter’s digital dexterity remains mostly intact and his musicianship keen as ever.

At the initial statement of the Paganini theme (from the Caprice No. 24), Dichter exhibited a light, incisive touch. He took rapid-fire tempos in the Rachmaninoff’s fast variations but assayed the slower sections in a more deliberate, aptly rhapsodic manner. Dichter brought out the romantic grandeur of the iconic 18^th variation without overemphasis or exaggeration. There was fleet fingerwork in the 19^th variation and the return of the theme emerged strong and decisive. Schwarz was a stalwart collaborator, totally in sync with Dichter and drawing out the darker hues of Rachmaninoff’s orchestration.

Dichter responded to the standing, cheering ovation with a bravura traversal of the finale from Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 7 in B-flat Major. He fully commanded the technique and speed for Prokofiev’s wartime tour de force.

Gerard Schwarz conducted the Palm Beach Symphony Tuesday night. File photo: IndieHouse Films

Ever an enterprising programmer, Schwarz led three varied orchestral selections. 

The concert opened with the Suite from Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera The Snow Maiden. This music finds Rimsky-Korsakov at his most atmospheric and inventive. The pungent brass and wind writing suggest the composer of Le Coq D’or rather than Scheherazade or the Antar Symphony.   Among fine wind section playing, Nadine Asin’s agile flute took pride of place with a colorful solo in “Dance of the Birds.”  A brassy, ceremonial “Cortege” led to a rhythmic and vigorous “Dance of the Skomorokhi.” Schwarz’s idiomatic fluency and podium authority drew outstanding playing, particularly from the unified strings and solid, exact brass.

Gabriela Lena Frank’s Elegia Andina reflects the composer’s multicultural heritage. Her father was Lithuanian-Jewish and her mother Chinese-Peruvian-Spanish. All those influences are musically imprinted in her miniature, written in 2000. Strings and a busy percussion section picture nature and mountains while trumpet and flute suggest Frank’s varied artistic lineage.  The work is a fine Latin-tinged impressionistic portrait. Schwarz has long been a champion of worthy contemporary music and he led a supple, well-delineated reading.

The concert concluded with Schwarz’s own suite from Manuel de Falla’s ballet The Three-Cornered Hat. Schwarz’s version offers more than twice the amount of music than the suite that is usually heard. From the opening trumpet fanfare, followed by the musicians clapping and yelling, Schwarz emphasized crisp rhythms and captured the score’s Andalusian aura. His finely varied dynamics and color palette and the orchestra’s strong articulation fully spotlighted the mastery of de Falla’s panoramic orchestration.

Even the most familiar music sounded fresh and vibrant. “The Miller’s Dance” resounded with gutsy, flamenco flavor. There was robust propulsion in “The Grapes,’ yet with precise ensemble. Schwarz highlighted the subtleties of de Falla’s instrumentation. The harp and keyboard lines were given clarity and gracefully assayed by Laura Sherman (harp) and Valena Polunina (piano). A dynamic and enlivening finale concluded the concert on a festive note.

Gerard Schwarz conducts the Palm Beach Symphony in Daniel Asia’s Gateways, Richard Strauss’ Alpine Symphony and Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1 with Alisa Weilerstein 7:30 p.m. January 13, 2026 at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach. palmbeachsymphony.org

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