REDLANDS BOWL ROLLS ON AND ON

The summer music festival at Redlands Bowl has most of the perennial attractions--and distractions--that its more famous counterpart in Cahuenga Pass offers: music under the stars and pre-concert picnicking, chirping crickets and aeronautical interruptions.

The Redlands fest, which concludes on Tuesday with Frank Fetta conducting music of Paganini and Dvorak, also dates back about as far as Hollywood Bowl. In 1924 the first outdoor concerts were held on a park bandstand in Redlands where, six years later, the 5,000-seat Greek-columned amphitheater was built.

Now, after more than 60 seasons, regularly scheduled outdoor concerts continue at both facilities. However, one short-lived tradition from the early days at Cahuenga Pass survives in the Inland Empire city--the community sing.

“I think it’s good for people to sing,” said Redlands program director Florence Beeler. “We’ve had (the sings) every Tuesday since the first year. Each one ends with a group of young people going on stage saluting the flag while everyone sings the National Anthem.”

Hugo Kirchhofer, who used to lead the sing-alongs at Hollywood Bowl in the ‘20s, took the idea with him to Redlands when he began conducting programs there in the early days, Beeler noted. Curtiss Allen now serves as song-leader.

Naturally, as music director Fetta pointed out, there’s more going on in Redlands than a few thousand folks gathering to sing “Shine On, Harvest Moon.” Each summer, the Bowl is a place for serious music making.

In planning the 16-20 events each season, Fetta noted, “We try to strike a balance of orchestra programs, recitals, dance, opera and musicals. It’s customary for us to start and end with a symphony concert (the Tuesday program lists Robert Chen as soloist in Paganini’s D-major Concerto). It’s really a good orchestra, though rehearsals are sparse.” Fetta took over last summer following a season-long search following the death of previous music director Carmen Dragon.

Attendance, he said, is kept at a fairly high level. “Usually we’ll draw 6,000 opening night (the surrounding picnic area handles the overflow). Opera does well, too--usually 4-5,000. But the Broadway shows always draw the best. For ‘Camelot,’ which had a three-night run late last month, we had a total of 20,000, which is amazing for this area.”

Part of the attraction, he agreed, was the fact that admission was free. He pointed to a “remarkable” fund-raising organization, the Bowl Associates, which each year raises a substantial part of the festival’s $169,500 budget.

Beeler noted that, though most of the attendees are from the immediate community of more than 50,000, some travel from as far as Los Angeles and the desert communities. “I’ve noticed that some groups arrive by motor coach,” she said.

Guest performers, too, have come great distances. “Ruggiero Ricci made his U.S. debut at the Bowl,” Beeler pointed out. “I could have a stack four feet high of people who want to appear here.” The reputation, she said, extends around the globe. “I’ve traveled all over the world and when I mention where I’m from, people will say, ‘Redlands? Oh yes, that’s where the festival is.’

“But then, I’ll go to Colton and mention the Bowl and someone will say, ‘What’s that? Never heard of it.’ ”

PHILHARMONIC WEEK: St. Louis Symphony music director Leonard Slatkin occupies the podium for concerts by the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Hollywood Bowl on Tuesday and Thursday. Soloist at the first program will be pianist Garrick Ohlsson in Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 4, part of the summer-long Rachmaninoff keyboard cycle. The remainder of the agenda lists Verdi’s “Vespri Siciliani” overture and Berlioz’s “Symphonie Fantastique.”

On Thursday, Slatkin will once again lead a Rachmaninoff concerto (No. 2, with English pianist Peter Donohoe), an overture (Barber’s “School for Scandal”) and a symphony (Beethoven’s Seventh).

The weekend pops programs are devoted to the movies, with film composer/Boston Pops conductor John Williams on the podium. Burgess Meredith will narrate the Friday and Saturday events, which list works by Walton, Korngold, Steiner and (surprise!) Williams, among others.

HISTORIC SITES VII: Thirty-two separate events make up the 1986-87 season of Chamber Music in Historic Sites, marking the seventh year in the burgeoning growth of the series sponsored by Mount St. Mary’s College, and administered by impresario MaryAnn Bonino.

Next season, the peripatetic chamber-music series will again travel around Los Angeles County, including a second post-season trip to Catalina Island, and even venture forth into Orange County, for a mini-festival in San Juan Capistrano. Of the 23 sites chosen for 1986-87, 20 are new to the series. They range from a Buddhist Temple in Little Tokyo to a former Pacific & Electric substation, to the landmark carrousel at Santa Monica Pier; several sites are private homes not normally accessible to the public.

Seven international ensembles make Los Angeles-area debuts on the series: the Belgian chamber orchestra, I Fiamminghi; Les Arts Florissants, said to be the premier Baroque ensemble of France; from Italy, Trio Archi di Roma; the Masterworks Chamber Orchestra from Switzerland; Camerata Koeln, the German ensemble devoted to Baroque music, and the newly formed New World Basset Horn Trio.

For information and brochure: (213) 747-9085.

BRIEFLY: Eleven new dancers--including veterans of companies in New York, Marseilles, Caracas, Seattle and Stuttgart--join the roster of San Francisco Ballet at the beginning of the 1986-87 season. Among them are Alaina Albertson, Pascale LeRoy, Christopher Boatwright, Timothy Fox, Lawrence Pech and Alexi Zubiria. . . . Thomas R. Kendrick, executive director of the Orange County Performing Arts Center (due to open Sept. 29), has announced that Performing Arts Network, publishers of in-theater magazines in California and Texas, will publish official programs at the new 3,000-seat center. Performing Arts Network counts a monthly circulation of 880,000.