68th Bowl Season Looms Large

With 63 concerts this year, growth has become a way of life at Hollywood Bowl, the summer home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

In 1971, when Philharmonic General Director Ernest Fleischmann had his third summer there, he supervised 35 events that attracted a total attendance of 250,000--attendance of 2,000 or less was not uncommon in the 18,000-capacity amphitheater.

In the record-breaking summer last year, he oversaw 58 concerts, given before a total audience of 761,199.

This year’s season, running July 3 to Sept. 16, will be the 68th musical summer at the Bowl. Highlights of this 11-week season include guest appearances by the Montreal Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra; a five-concert jazz series; appearances by conductors Yuri Temirkanov, L.A. Philharmonic Music Director Andre Previn, Edo de Waart, Neeme Jarvi, Henry Mancini, John Williams and David Zinman, among others, and numerous pianists, violinists, singers and instrumental soloists.

The growth of activity at the outdoor amphitheater, Fleischmann told The Times in a phone interview Tuesday, “helps reduce” the stress of the L.A. Philharmonic Assn.’s financial situation. In a budget in excess of $26 million, the Bowl operation accounts for 40% of that budget, while bringing in “60% of our revenues.”

Those revenues include, Fleischmann said, large contributions from the 1989 corporate sponsors and donors: American Airlines (sponsoring six concerts); E. Nakamichi Foundation (activities of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute); JVC (JVC Jazz at the Bowl concert); W.M. Keck Foundation (Open House at Hollywood Bowl); KFAC-FM (two concerts); Southern California Nissan Dealers), and Warnaco Inc. (uniforms for Bowl ushers and service personnel, contributed by Chaps by Ralph Lauren).

None of these contributions pay totally for any single event, Fleischmann specified. “In total, these are contributions in the hundreds of thousands, not in the millions,” he said.

Fleischmann, who shares responsibility for the operation of the Bowl with outgoing Philharmonic General Manager Robert Harth, also commented that the price of success in these two decades is sometimes a negative: “As a physical facility, the Bowl is beginning to deteriorate.

“Over the next five to 10 years, it will take a tremendous amount of dollars and refurbishing just to maintain the integrity of the place.”

In the area of outdoor entertaining, Michael Auten, the owner of Fiddler Enterprises, which operates the Hollywood Bowl Patio Restaurant and all Bowl food concessions, said food service has increased to the point where “we are serving more meals now in a typical busy weekend--15,000 to 18,000 meals total on Friday and Saturday--than the previous food management used to serve all summer long.”

The season announcement at a glance:

July 3-4: The Disney Symphonic Spectacular with Fireworks. July 5: A Virtuoso Duo: Jean-Pierre Rampal, Alexandre Lagoya. July 7, 8: A Marvelous Evening of Mozart. July 10: Chamber Music Under the Stars. July 11: Gala Opening Concert: Yuri Temirkanov and Vladimir Feltsman. July 12: “Ella!” with Ella Fitzgerald. July 13: Brahms’ First Piano Concerto and Petrouchka, Too. July 14-15: Vive Le Bowl-Fireworks for (La Belle) France. July 16: Mozart’s Double (Concerto for Two Pianos). July 17: Chamber Music Under the Stars. July 18: Russian Fantastique (Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Berlioz). July 20: “Alexander Nevsky” on Film. July 21-22: “Anything Goes”: A Cole Porter Celebration. July 24: Chamber Music Under the Stars III. July 25: A Wondrous Sound: L.A. Philharmonic. July 26: The Irish Keyboard Virtuoso, Barry Douglas. July 27: Three B’s: Beethoven, Brahms and the Bowl. July 28-29: Mancini: Painting Musical Pictures. July 30: Beethoven’s Glorious Ninth. Aug. 1: Back by Popular Demand: The Montreal Symphony. Aug. 2: Montreal Symphony, Charles Dutoit and Alicia De Larrocha. Aug. 3: Two Great Fifths (Beethoven, Shostakovich). Aug. 4-5: Tchaikovsky Spectacular ’89 With Fireworks. Aug. 6: The Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra with John Williams. Aug. 8: An Exciting American Conductor Explores the New World (David Zinman). Aug. 9: Big Band Bash (Count Basie and Duke Ellington Orchestras). Aug. 10: Trumpet Summit. Aug. 11-12: The Great American Concert With Fireworks: Bourbon Street at the Bowl. Aug. 13: A Triple Play at the Bowl (Beethoven’s Triple Concerto). Aug. 15: A Mighty Triumvirate: Mozart, Beethoven and Mahler. Aug. 16: A Virtuoso Chamber Orchestra (L.A. Chamber Orchestra). Aug. 17: Romeo and Juliet Under the Stars (Russian music). Aug. 18-19: Gershwin and Clooney: Who Could Ask for Anything More? (Rosemary Clooney). Aug. 21: A Night of Great Movie Music: a special concert by the L.A. Philharmonic to benefit the Sundance Institute and the Hollywood Bowl. Aug. 22: Russian Romantics (Tchaikovsky, Glinka and Rachmaninov). Aug. 23: Sing, Sing, Swing! (Mel Torme, Nancy Wilson, Terry Gibbs and Buddy DeFranco). Aug. 24: Beethoven x Two. Aug. 25-26: Falling in Love With Love: The Music of Richard Rodgers and Frederica von Stade. Aug. 27: JVC Jazz at the Bowl (Miles Davis, Yellowjackets and Stanley Jordan). Aug. 29: Goode Beethoven at the Bowl (Richard Goode, piano). Aug. 30: Vocal Delights: A Celebration of British and American Songs (Cleo Laine). Aug. 31: DeWaart Conducts Beethoven. Sept. 1-2: Symphonic Sass: Sarah Vaughan and Ramsey Lewis with the L.A. Philharmonic. Sept. 5: Previn Conducts Beethoven’s Fifth. Sept. 6: All That Jazz (Dizzy Gillespie). Sept. 7: Stars and Strauss Forever. Sept. 8-9: John Williams: The Music of Hollywood. Sept. 12: Favorites for a Summer Evening. Sept. 13: A Bowl Full of Blues (B. B. King, Joe Williams and Etta James). Sept. 14: Pathetique by Tchaikovsky; Violin Magic by Mendelssohn. Sept. 15-16: Fireworks Finale.