Veteran jazz saxophonist Bob Mintzer didn't have to look far to find inspiration for the title of his latest CD, Canyon Cove. The disc is named for the street his house sits on in Hollywood, Calif., and which also happens to be the former residence of classical composer Arnold Schoenberg.

“He's probably rolling over in his grave because a jazz musician is living in his house," Mintzer says with a laugh.

That sense of humor permeates Canyon Cove, an unorthodox trio disc with Hammond organist Larry Goldings, drummer Peter Erskine, and Mintzer playing tenor saxophone, bass clarinet and flute. The Canyon Cove Trio will play the South Florida Jazz series Saturday night, and while most jazz trios at least feature a pianist, guitarist or bassist, this CD's only additional contributions are from Judd Miller, who plays EWI (electronic wind instrument) on three improvised pieces.

The remaining 10 tracks include Victor Young's jazz standard When I Fall in Love and Mintzer compositions that range from Thaddeus (an ode to late trumpeter Thad Jones, his former employer in the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band) to self-explanatory traditional (Bebop Special) and R&B feels (Bugaloo to You). The title track, although inspired by Mintzer's home, is also a surprising dedication to 1970s rock organ trio Emerson, Lake and Palmer.

“I'd written the melody with a '70s rock feel to it," Mintzer says, "although I'm not exactly sure why. It's not really a genre I often write things in."

In truth, any listener would be hard-pressed to hear much of ELP's notorious bombast in Mintzer's subtle title composition, although Goldings' tone and soloing offer fleeting glimpses of Keith Emerson. Goldings, who'd emerged in recent years through his work in Trio Beyond with John Scofield and Jack DeJohnette, proves the perfect organist throughout Canyon Cove -- even if he wasn't Mintzer's first choice.

"I'd played on a Little Jimmy Scott project with Joey DeFrancesco," Mintzer says, "and I hadn't had much previous experience with the instrument. But I loved the rich sound and feel of the Hammond. I thought it would be fun to do an organ trio project with Joey, but he got stranded in Europe right before the sessions. I'd just been to a party where I'd told Larry about the record, and he half-jokingly said, 'If Joey can't make it, I'll be around.'"

Erskine has been around Mintzer often, having played with him in the Jaco Pastorius Big Band 30 years ago. In fact, the two go all the way back to the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan in 1969 (where their classmates included drummer Dan Brubeck, son of pianist Dave Brubeck; Elaine Duvas, principal oboist for the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and actor Tom Hulce, who portrayed Mozart in the film Amadeus).

"There's a lot of chemistry there," an understated Mintzer says of his relationship with the all-purpose Erskine, who's also a fellow faculty member at the University of Southern California.

The versatile Mintzer, who turns 59 on Jan. 27, is a New Rochelle, N.Y., native who attended the Hartt College of Music in Hartford, Conn., on a classical clarinet scholarship in 1970. He's since performed with the New York Philharmonic and the American Ballet Theatre; has an educational resume that includes 25 years on the faculty at the Manhattan School of Music, and has published more than 200 charts for school and professional big bands worldwide through Kendor Music's Bob Mintzer series.

Between early experience with Brazilian big band leader Eumir Deodato in 1974 and his tenure with Pastorius, Mintzer gained valuable knowledge by writing some of his first performed arrangements as a member of the Buddy Rich Big Band.

"I learned how to write for a big band while with Buddy," he says. "You hear all these stories about what a terrible guy he was, but he certainly wasn't terrible to me at all. He was very supportive, and provided me with an incredible opportunity. And the way he played the music, and drove a big band, was so intuitive, creative and artistic."

As a recording artist, Mintzer's website breaks his catalog down into four categories -- "Small Band," "Big Band," "Sideman/Guest" and "Yellowjackets," for the 31-year-old fusion quartet that he's been a part of for the past 21. The group's keyboardist, Russell Ferrante, is also on the USC music faculty.

Despite Mintzer's sideman credits dating back to 1975, and recordings with his own small groups and big bands from 1982, there's a tendency to think of him as an original member of the Yellowjackets. The venerable group first assembled in 1978 to back guitarist Robben Ford on his album The Inside Story.

Ford was then with the Yellowjackets for their self-titled 1981 debut, and the 1983 disc Mirage a Trois, before he departed to concentrate on his solo career. His replacement was Tower of Power alto saxophonist Marc Russo, who stayed through the 1989 album The Spin and was replaced by Mintzer.

"Bob brought the knowledge of traditional jazz," Ferrante says, "and he played tenor sax, which was a really different sound for us. He's since become a really big part of the writing, too."

"The Yellowjackets are planning to do some touring in 2012," Mintzer says, "and working on a new recording. Russell and I recently did some touring as a duo in Italy and Brazil, playing originals, standards and Yellowjackets material."

"It feels like it's just whipped by," Ferrante says of the band's tenure. "We still have a blast playing, but if at some point it's no longer fun or we feel like we're phoning it in, then it'll be time to move on. But that probably won't happen. We feel very lucky."

Mintzer's most recent work with the Yellowjackets is on Timeline, the 2010 release commemorating the group's 30th anniversary. He also appears on vocalist Kurt Elling's latest stellar offering, The Gate, and has a 2012 CD by his L.A.-based big band set for summer release on the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild label. It should provide a horn-heavy contrast to the comparatively-minimalist organ trio sound of Canyon Cove.

"It's probably the smallest ensemble I've recorded with," Mintzer says, "other than the 1997 duo album ‘Longing With Gil Goldstein.’ But I really enjoy working in a trio format. There's an intimacy there, and a transparency, that makes it really great for a saxophonist.”

Bob Mintzer and the Canyon Cove Trio appear at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Miniaci Performing Arts Center on the campus of Nova Southeastern University in Davie. Tickets are $40, $30 for South Florida Jazz members, $15 for students. Call 954-462-0222 or visit www.southfloridajazz.org.

It isn’t every pianist who’s going to encore with a Keith Jarrett improv from the early 1980s, but Orion Weiss has the kind of omnivorous approach to music that makes such things possible, and enjoyable to boot.

In his recital appearance Wednesday afternoon at the Duncan Theatre’s Stage West, the 30-year-old pianist from suburban Cleveland gave his appreciative audience not just Jarrett, but a near-world premiere by a young American composer as well as rare Martinů and Liszt. He showed himself to be an enthusiastic, committed player, with strong fingers and technique, and a musical personality that was comfortable with all kinds of repertoire, though perhaps more effective in up-tempo muscularity then brooding introspection.

Weiss’ program, which opened the Duncan’s series, consisted primarily of a series of toccatas, a smart, interesting approach that allowed him to choose refreshingly offbeat material. The Toccata in C minor (BWV 911) of J.S. Bach, while well-known to pianists, is almost never heard in the concert hall these days, and Weiss did a nervy thing in opening with it.

This was a somewhat uneven performance of the Bach, with plenty of good digital work in the spinning rapid notes that run through this piece, but in the big fugal sections his touch was a little less sure, not in notes (aside from a stray gap while sounding the theme), but in communicative power. Tempos were good, and the piece was well-paced, but the fugal playing was somewhat dry; the individual voices didn’t have enough emphasis to fully make their case.

The Liszt Toccata (S. 197a), a very brief, strange work from 1879, is a blur in C major, and Weiss played it winningly, using it an intro to the new piece, Michael Brown’s Constellations and Toccata, written for Weiss and with a title that plays on the night-sky significance of his given name. Brown writes with strength and force, opening the first section of the piece with granitic, clusterish chords amid a sparse, space-filled narrative, then moving to a toccata that starts in the lower registers.

It’s a jumpy, explosive bit of writing that ends in an exhausted whisper, and Weiss gave it total engagement. This is a pianist who knows how to create drama at the keyboard and command attention, and his immersion in the music helped him give a persuasive performance of this intriguing new piece.

The Schumann Toccata (Op. 7), another blurry piece in C major, closed the Schumann group that came next, and Weiss gave it an expansive, athletic reading that made the composer’s remarkably forward-looking writing reach out and grab the listener by the collar. His control of the music was excellent here, with a beautifully executed series of right-hand octaves in the middle that sang out over a well-managed background.

He preceded the Toccata with five sections of Schumann’s Bunte Blätter collection (Op. 99), in which the one rapid piece was the most interesting, because Weiss played it with superb finger control and a nice snap in the bass figures. But the other four short pieces, all of them down-tempo, had the same kind of surface-only poetry that made them attractive only, and not moving. One wants Weiss to lean into the music a little more, to make it speak.

One of the Blätter is the source of the theme that Johannes Brahms chose for his set of Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann (Op. 9), a searching, inventive work that should figure more prominently on concert programs. Weiss opened his second half with a good, solid interpretation of the piece, with fleet arpeggios in the sixth variation and gratifying attention to rhythmic variety, such as in the second variation. Some more color, shade a more precise conception of each variation would have been welcome here, so that the audience could appreciate Brahms’ transformations more clearly.

The recital proper ended with the Fantasie et Toccata (H. 281) of Bohuslav Martinů, written in 1940 as the composer was fleeing the Nazis and looking for passage to the United States. It is a vigorous, quirky showpiece, with a wide-ranging, glittering fantasy and a restless toccata section that sounds like a logical outgrowth of the fantasy rather than a piece with a separate character.

The work plays well to Weiss’ strengths of rhythmic vitality and clean passagework, and he infused it with ingratiating wit and sparkle, even though the piece is more along the line of tirelessly serious rather than lighthearted.

Weiss’ encore, he said, was “like a toccata,” and then played an untitled improvisation from jazzman Keith Jarrett’s 1984 solo concert in Tokyo. This fun little back-and-forth chordal shimmy over a quasi-habanera bass has a lot in common with the relentlessness of the Martinů and the dazzle of the Schumann, and it fit the rest of the recital beautifully. Weiss was particularly good here in the exuberant way he played the driving, ecstatic lines Jarrett constructed for the right hand. – Greg Stepanich

***

Not every fit of pique leads to good results, but the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is the exception that proved a jewel.

Back in 1945, with the war over, Sir Thomas Beecham returned to England from four years in the States to claim his right as president of Manchester’s Hallé Orchestra to conduct it. Its conductor, Sir John Barbirolli, would have none of it, holding a grudge against Beecham for something he said about Barbirolli’s stint at the New York Philharmonic.

Not to be bested, Beecham approached the Royal Philharmonic Society of London, which gave out awards to composers, and offered to build an orchestra for them. It played its first concert in 1946, and today is led by the Swiss conductor Charles Dutoit.

On Wednesday night, the RPO played the first of two concerts at the Kravis Center as part of the venue’s Regional Arts series. Eighty-two strong, they played to an exacting standard rarely heard in most concert halls. But then one has to remember that London has nearly a dozen such professional orchestras of this caliber competing for audience in its six large venues.

Accompanying them on their American tour was conductor and solo violinist Pinchas Zukerman. Although this intelligent group of players could have gone conductor-less, Zukerman had a rare old time leading and playing the Violin Concerto No. 1 (in G minor, Op. 26) of Max Bruch.

Appropriating a “Mr. Cool” approach, Zukerman spun around and around, playing, then conducting, with his unwieldy bow. It took some getting used to seeing his front, and then his back. But there was much synergy between soloist and orchestra despite the distraction.

Zukerman’s playing was superb in the beginning; he produced some lovely tonal quality, though it sometimes veered close to schmaltz. Toward the end, however, the faster passages tended to be delivered with difficulty. If he lost his way a little, the proper emphasis returned in the final chords.

Now it was time for the orchestra to shine in the Symphony No. 4 (in E minor, Op. 98) of Brahms. They played vigorously and with enviable refinement. The first and second violins bowed together with military precision and produced a tone quality of such depth and sweetness I wondered if they’d keep it up. They did. As each section got to grips with Brahms’ brilliant counterpoint, answering one another, back and forth, one had to marvel at the quality of their playing.

The second movement has a lovely opening with horns and winds riding tunefully over plucked strings. Accentuating the melody, the winds finish it off. The strings pick up their bows and begin to play, violas and cellos are given a lush, elegiac, drawn-out song, like a walk in a summer garden. It is indeed a glorious moment for the cellos, and they rose to the occasion superbly.

The third movement opened with a thrilling attack, then rolled along quickly and merrily, brilliantly played. It was over in a flash, and then it was on to the difficult finale, Brahms’ nod to the musical past. Using the passacaglia form of variation, it opens with horns and over timpani drumbeats. While the orchestral sound was magnificent, Zukerman’s tempo was much too slow.

A certain degree of ad libitum is understandable, but the flute solo was almost mawkish in its interpretation of the main theme, as the flutist dragged it along and spun it out. Thank goodness the lively ending was near to hand: It dispelled the memory of the flute player’s self-indulgence and the orchestra received a standing ovation and many well-deserved bravos from the large house. -- Rex Hearn

The last time Clint Holmes appeared with the Palm Beach Pops, he sang Broadway show tunes and songs associated with Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr.

“The audience went crazy. We got a high volume of letters requesting him back,” says David Quilleon, executive director of the Pops.

This season, the Pops celebrates its 20^th anniversary, having given its first concert in 1992 at the old Palm Beach Auditorium under its founder and current director, Bob Lappin. And Friday, they’re bringing back Holmes, who’s debuting a new show that will play daily through Thursday.

“This is our third collaboration with Clint. Our maestro, Bob Lappin, saw him perform in Las Vegas and was smitten. He is an audience favorite, very versatile, passionate and eclectic,” Quilleon said.

Later this year, the Pops will offer tributes to Louis Armstrong and George and Ira Gershwin. In March, Lea Salonga, best-known for her work in Miss Saigon, and David Burnham, best-known for Wicked, will appear with the orchestra in The Magic of Broadway.

The orchestra is looking forward to “the next 100 years,” Quilleon said.

“We are proud of our legacy in the Palm Beach community, and proud of our commitment to the American Songbook. We coaxed Lena Horne out of retirement; we’ve had Kenny Rogers, Frank Sinatra, Jr., and Vic Damone all perform with us,” he said.

Holmes’ new show, called Inspired, is a musical journey through the American Songbook and pays homage to artists such as Nat King Cole, Bobby Darin, Marvin Gaye, Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Michael Jackson and Horne, all of whom have inspired Holmes.

Holmes comes from a musical family; his father was an African-American jazz musician and his mother was a classically trained opera singer from Great Britain. “My mom taught me how to sing correctly, and my dad taught me how to enjoy it,” quips Holmes.

Holmes lives in Las Vegas with his wife of five years, Kelly Clinton-Holmes, also a Vegas entertainer, and three grown children: Brent, 30, and twins Brittany and Cooper, both 28. Palm Beach ArtsPaper talked to him this week by phone after he had just finished a rousing game of singles tennis.

PBAP: How did the idea for Inspired come about?

Clint Holmes: The show is about everyone who inspired me. Well, first of all my mom and dad. They were both singers so they supported my sister (the singer and actress Gail Steele) and I. I’ve been inspired by music and performance since I was 9 years old. I loved Sammy Davis, Marvin Gaye, Bobby Darrin, Harry Belafonte, Frank Sinatra, Lena Horne, Michael Jackson, Bill Cosby and Joni Mitchell – they were my heroes.

Probably more than anyone else, Bill Cosby was my mentor, teacher and supporter, along with Sammy, Harry and Joan Rivers. These were the people I emulated and who were influential in my career. Bill Cosby and I worked together for years. I was his opening act. Then in 1986 when Joan Rivers had her TV show, I was her Ed McMahon.

Currently, I work with Larry Moss, one of the foremost acting coaches. He coaches Hilary Swank, Helen Hunt and Leonardo DiCaprio. I’ve learned more from Larry in the past five years than I’ve learned from anybody. Being on stage, being an actor and artist, bringing yourself to every performance, analyzing the songs and the lyrics – are all crucial. I consider myself an actor. If you want to live the music – as Frank Sinatra said, it was never him singing, it was always the character.

PBAP: What are your expectations for the show?

CH: Eventually I hope to add a multimedia video element to the show, à la Sondheim on Sondheim and bring the show to Broadway, off-Broadway or to London’s West End. It’s the hardest thing in the world to get a musical from ‘page to stage.” West Side Story took seven years and those guys were geniuses. It takes a lot of money, a lot of time, a lot of investment in energy. So, we’re working on it.

PBAP: How would you characterize your style?

CH: My roots are jazz and theater. I’m pretty eclectic. My two musical loves are jazz and theater.

PBAP: What would you say is your biggest achievement to date?

CH: My success in Las Vegas. From 2000 to 2006, I had a 6.5 year-run at Harrah’s. I was the first African-American to have a theatre named after him in Las Vegas (the Clint Holmes Theatre in Harrah’s Casino) and I won a number of awards.

PBAP: If you were not performing, what do you think you would you be doing?

CH: If I wasn’t on stage, I’d be writing music - my second love. I do it for my plays and my shows. Or, I’d be a chef because I love to cook.

PBAP: What quality do you value most in yourself?

CH: Loyalty and being positive. My children tell me that I’ve always been an optimist and I’ve always been a positive person. In terms of sustaining my career and my life, being positive is my strongest asset.

PBAP: What makes you happiest?

CH: Being on stage. Singing. Fortunately, I’m in a wonderful relationship with Kelly, so that makes me very happy on a daily basis. I get great joy from that. I find joy in a lot of things: tennis, my kids, but if you have to say one thing, it’s being on stage, performing.

PBAP: Are you driven, and if so, what drives you?

CH: Yes. Totally driven. I’m driven by the need to grow and the need to learn and grow as an artist. And one of the wonderful things about being an onstage artist is that you get immediate gratification. If I’m working on something, I get to go out and do it, and get immediate feedback from the audience.

PBAP: How do you relax?

CH: Tennis is my chief avocation. Kelly and I went to the Bahamas for a week to relax. But, even if I go on vacation, I prefer to go to Paris, London or New Orleans. Also, Kelly and I love to go to the movies and we have our guilty pleasure TV shows that we TiVo. We never miss David Letterman and we love Louis C.K. – he’s very dark and funny. We enjoy Modern Family. And Saturday Night Live is good again … they have a great new cast.

PBAP: What would I be surprised to learn about you?

CH: That I’m silly. Or, that I’m an avid reader. I read at least two newspapers a day and the Sunday New York Times on the weekend, and I’m a magazine fanatic. I have magazines stacked up in every corner of the house. My favorite magazines are Esquire and GQ, but again on the guilty pleasure, I love Entertainment Weekly and Cosmopolitan.

PBAP: How do you stay so young and vibrant?

CH: Good genes. My mom died at 96, still singing. My dad died in 1998 at the age of 78. He still had a 32-inch waistline and did aerobics 3 times /week.

I work hard to stay in shape. One of the things that Cosby and Belafonte taught me is a work ethic. You have to work at everything. At tennis – you have to work to stay on top of your game. You have to work to maintain your health. My instrument is my voice and I work hard to take care of it.

PBAP: You seem to be extremely disciplined.

CH: In certain things I am (laughs). I am disciplined creatively and in terms of my health. I had colon cancer five years ago. I understand that things are finite. Makes you appreciate life. You can’t assume anything.

PBAP: Has luck played any part in your success?

CH: Oh, absolutely. Good fortune plays a role in anybody’s career. There’s a certain amount of right time/right place. Even if you have good fortune, you have to be prepared. When I came to Las Vegas in 2000, I was fortunate to be seen by the right people, but even if I had been seen but not been ready to move into a main room in Vegas, timing and good fortune wouldn’t matter. You have to be able to take advantage of that good fortune when it comes.

Clint Holmes will appear at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Kravis Center (call 832-7469); 8 p.m. Sunday, Eissey Campus Theatre, Palm Beach Gardens (call 561-278-7677); 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, Kaye Auditorium, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton (call 800-564-9539). Tickets: $29-$89. Call 832-7677 or visit www.palmbeachpops.org.

In all my years of going to hear Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, I have never heard a better interpretation than that of Canadian soprano Michele Capalbo, who sang the lead role of Cio-Cio San on Saturday at Palm Beach Opera.

Capalbo led the company’s “B” cast; the “A” cast opened Palm Beach Opera’s 50th season the night before. Taking on such demanding lead roles means opera singers must get at least one day’s rest between appearances. That is why the company alternates the lead singers.

Capalbo’s soprano has a beautiful, rich, rounded tone and her middle and lower ranges are just as strong as her top. The lead tenor, Rafael Davila, singing Pinkerton, is infatuated with his Japanese geisha girl, but little understands how much store the sweet 15-year-old beauty puts into such a union.

Note for note, Davila matched Capalbo, magnificently. She has the bigger role; after Act I, Davila appears briefly in the last act. Davila’s tenor has a ringing, pure, full sound with a honeyed head tone that is quite impressive. Their Act I wedding love duet was tender and superbly sung by both artists.

The combination of Puccini and conductor Bruno Aprea, Palm Beach Opera’s artistic director, was magical. The orchestra responded beautifully. Every section played well, and the horns, who are asked to underscore so much of the later singing in the opera, were champions. No fluffs, just smooth sounds.

As a body, the orchestra shone when they played the famous intermezzo between acts. I have always believed they should take the stage alone, without singers, to show off their prowess. Perhaps an ideal venue would be among the orchestras chosen to play in the Kravis Center’s Regional Arts series. They are a match for any visiting orchestra, foreign or domestic.

Chorus master Greg Ritchey schooled his choristers well. On stage and off, they sounded perfect. Nothing was overdone; a light touch was all that was needed in their few appearances, and that’s what came across: delicate, beautiful, sensitive choral work.

Ron Daniels’ stage direction handled the opera with a deft understanding of Japanese sensibilities; crowded nations like Japan and England tend to practice reserved restraint in first meetings, and so it was here, and very apt. Daniels’ direction was superb, and he had the audience spellbound. Only once did they dare to break the spell with applause for Capalbo’s Un bel dì, which was much deserved.

Baritone Michael Chioldi was excellent as Sharpless, the American consul general in Nagasaki, who cautions Lt. Pinkerton not to take this marriage lightly. Three years later, it falls to him to tell Butterfly that there is now a second Mrs. Pinkerton (Shirin Eskandani, a member of the Young Artists troupe). Acting and singing with great distinction, Chioldi’s voice is plum rich, and beautifully modulated.

Suzuki, sung by mezzo Irene Roberts, was perfection as the maid to Butterfly. Her singing is delicious and her acting absolutely on point. Her Flower Duet with Capalbo was particularly memorable.

Julius Ahn played and sang the role of Goro, the marriage broker. He has a good tenor voice and rather than be too pushy, as is so often seen, he acted subtly. It works. Baritone Valentin Vasilu was “dangerous” as The Bonze, Butterfly’s uncle, who interrupts the wedding to condemn her for changing religions. A terrifying presence, but not too terrifying. Kenneth Stavert, another Palm Beach Opera Young Artist, was very good as Prince Yamadori. He sang it nicely and was convincing as the jilted suitor to Butterfly.

Not at all convincing, however, were Benjamin Clements and Jesse Enderle, playing the imperial commissioner and official registrar, respectively. Their singing was weak, and it was a good thing their roles were short. I’ve always said that in casting comprimario roles, one should choose professionals, especially on such an enormous occasion as a half-century celebration.

Kathy Waszkelewicz’s makeup, much assisted by Japanese wigs, made the cast and chorus members look suitably Asian. The lighting design by Steven Strawbridge was adequate, and the scenery and costumes were on loan from San Francisco Opera. The American battleship Abraham Lincoln in Nagasaki harbor was ghoulishly realistic.

But the kudos, as always, go to Giacomo Puccini for his magnificent music and orchestrations, which gave a lush and memorable start to this 50^th anniversary season of Palm Beach Opera.

Rex Hearn, who founded Berkshire Opera in 1995, regularly reviews opera, music and theater in South Florida.

Here are brief reviews from three recent concerts:

Delray String Quartet (Dec. 11, Colony Hotel, Delray Beach): This foursome is on something of a roll as it enters its eighth season of concertizing. Next month it will give the world premiere of the String Quartet No. 5 by Kenneth Fuchs, and will contribute that work to an all-Fuchs disc for Naxos.

It’s just released a second disc (a sampler of live performances from last season), and at the end of next year plans to offer a recording of the Grieg String Quartet and the Piano Quintet of Jean Sibelius, with pianist Tao Lin.

And with a new sponsorship from the Akerman Senterfitt law firm, the quartet is on the verge of a more muscular future. Last Sunday afternoon, it gave the last performance of its first program in a well-attended concert at the Colony Hotel in Delray Beach.

The guest for the afternoon was clarinetist Paul Green, who played the Clarinet Quintet (in B-flat, Op. 34) of Carl Maria von Weber. Clarinetists would be considerably worse off without Weber’s works for clarinet, and this piece is essentially a chamber concerto, with the strings mostly playing accompaniment as the clarinet leaps athletically over the soundscape.

Green played with alacrity and fluid technique, with plenty of impressive, pearly runs throughout the range of the instrument. The very top of the register was sometimes pinched and shrill, but he made up for that with a big, pretty tone in the slow movement.

The second half was devoted to the String Quartet No. 1 (in E minor) of Bedrich Smetana, titled From My Life. This is a repeat work for the Delrays, and this season it got a very well-drilled, solid performance, with good work from violist Richard Fleischman to get the piece off to an impassioned start. Cellist Claudio Jaffe played his yearning intro to the slow movement beautifully, and violinists Mei Mei Luo and Tomas Cotik played with force and vigor.

Although this was an impressive, accurate reading of this fine work of late Romanticism, overall it was perhaps played too aggressively. Each movement was hammered home, and though there were lovely spots of tenderness and contrast in moments such as the rustic Trio of the second movement, in general things were hard-edged and ferocious; it was effective and exciting, but rather too rough.

The concert closed with a very effective arrangement (by a Briton who goes by J. Nurse) of the overture to Franz Lehar’s The Merry Widow. It was strong enough to implant Vilja in one’s head for hours afterward, and it was a certified crowd pleaser Sunday.

It may be that this lineup of the quartet, with Cotik in his second season, will be the one to carry it to the next level. The group seems to have gotten past some of its earlier bumpiness and is starting to think of itself as an ensemble that can do bigger things than heretofore. This will be the season to watch for fans of the Delray String Quartet.

Seraphic Fire (Dec. 7, St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church, Boca Raton): There’s almost no end to the great corpus of old and new music for the Christmas season, and last week Seraphic Fire presented its usual eclectic mix of the fresh and familiar for its O Holy Night program of holiday fare.

The Miami concert choir learned earlier this month that it had been nominated for two Grammy Awards, one for its recording of the London version of the Brahms German Requiem, and the other for its first Christmas album (a second one is being done this month). A lot therefore is riding on this current season of concerts to cement that reputation, and so far, so good.

Prominent on the Dec. 7 program at St. Gregory’s, its new Boca Raton home, were new pieces by Steven Sametz and two fresh arrangements by Seraphic Fire founder Patrick Dupré Quigley. The Sametz piece, Nino de Rosas, from Three Mystical Choruses, is getting its Florida premiere in the Seraphic Fire concerts for Christmas, and it features the kind of pungent harmony and stark dramatic setting familiar from this composer’s other choral works. Soloist Lexa Ferrill, a mezzo-soprano, has a characterful quality to her singing, but there was a bit too much vibrato here for my taste, though the piece itself was compelling and well-crafted.

As usual with Seraphic Fire, Quigley made good use of the space, working by candlelight (and LEDs for the music books choristers carried) for the first segment, and bringing in his singers from the back of the church as they sang Preces and Responses by the 17^th-century English composer William Smith. Between those two was Steven Paulus’ Hymn to the Eternal Flame, and after the Responses came Thomas Tallis’ Glory to Thee, My God, This Night, and Quigley’s adaptation of the David Willcocks arrangement of O Come, All Ye Faithful (with the famous descant intact).

All of the concert was like this, with songs done back to back in discrete sections. It had a wonderful way of making the music sound equally persuasive, especially sung this beautifully, with a smooth vocal sheen over everything and contemporary music handled as ably as that of the Renaissance, which was represented here by a lovely reading of Victoria’s O Magnum Mysterium.

Other standouts include a touching Little Child in a Manger, by the contemporary Canadian composer Stephen Chatman, and Seraphic Fire’s now-familiar treatment of Elizabeth Poston’s Jesus Christ the Apple Tree as a 13-part canon sung from throughout the nave by the choir members. Mezzo-soprano Misty Bermudez was the soloist in the closing O Holy Night, arranged by Quigley in a way that at first echoed the bare-bones sound of much of the music on the concert. Bermudez’s voice was rich and full, and Quigley ended his interesting arrangement unusually, in a blaze of fortissimo glory.

Yoonjung Han (Dec. 4, Steinway Gallery Boca Raton): Earlier this month, the South Korean-born pianist Yoonjung Han played the Dame Myra Hess memorial recital series in Chicago, a prestigious series that has introduced rising pianists to a Chicago-area audience in the hall and over WFMT radio.

Three days before, local audiences got to hear Han’s work at the Steinway Gallery in Boca Raton, a return appearance for her this year, after a recital at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Boca last season.

Han, who turns 27 next month, began with Federico Mompou’s Variations on a Theme of Chopin, in which the Catalan composer takes the little Prelude in A (Op. 28, No. 7) through a delicious set of reworkings. She played them beautifully, finding particular warmth in the fourth variation, with its langorous tonal language and sense of bittersweet melancholy.

She brought that same sensibility to more Spanish music, two of the Goyescas (Los requiebros and El amor y la muerte) of Enrique Granados, where even in the more extravagant pages Han had control of the music she was making, infusing it with a fine feeling for Spanish color. She was just as persuasive in the Godowsky reworking of Albéniz’s Tango in D, from his España (Op. 165).

Han also played the Beethoven Sonata No. 28 (in A, Op. 101), which came off a shade carefully. Her Classical textures are very clear and clean, particularly in the fugal passages of the finale. While the short slow movement was darkly pretty, the preceding March needed a bit more abandon, some more force and Beethoven-style coarse wit. That would have made a stronger contrast with the discursiveness of the opening movement and given the music more shape.

Still, this was highly attractive playing, and she returned to the same tradition with pleasing effect in one of her encores, the slow movement of the big E-flat Sonata (No. 52, Hob.XVI: 52) of Haydn. She captured the fantasia element of this music admirably, with a wide range of nuance and shade, and a little rush in the descending thirds that brought the listener’s attention to bear on the music’s drama.

For her second and final encore, Han performed La Campanella, Liszt’s fiery etude on the theme from the finale of Paganini’s Violin Concerto No. 2. Han unleashed the fireworks for this piece, demonstrating not just excellent fingerwork but also that she has those virtuoso capabilities in her arsenal.

It was refreshing to get a good piece of bravura after a lot of introspection in Han’s program, and she seems partial to the dreamier, deeply Romantic part of the repertory. She makes a fine champion of Mompou and Spanish composers, but quite a good Classicist, too. When she comes back again, it’d be good to hear her do some earlier Haydn and Beethoven, perhaps even some Mozart, and to see whether she can bring the kind of depth she brought to Mompou to another side of her art.