Symphony Dog Days Were Golden--in Memory That Is

Peter Rofe may be forgiven his momentary nostalgia for the San Diego Symphony’s crisis days in the early to middle ‘80s. For the past two weeks, the former symphony principal bass has been back in town to play with David Atherton’s Mainly Mozart Festival orchestra, where he shared the bass stand with his former symphony colleague, Oscar Garza. Rofe, who has played with the Los Angeles Philharmonic bass section since 1986, proved surprisingly eager to recall the era when the local orchestra’s red ink was the media’s fixation.

“It was life and death then. People were literally playing for their lives that last year, when money was taken away and we were missing paychecks. That produced for me some of the most exciting music-making to date, including all my other activities that I’ve done since that are supposedly far more glamorous,” said Rofe.

The 38-year-old musician was quick to add that he does not take lightly the financial security of playing with the Philharmonic.

“It’s a double-edged sword,” he said. “I’m glad I’m in an orchestra where I don’t have to worry about my financial security or worry about the health of the organization, so it’s great to be in that situation. Although there is a high level of talent in the Los Angeles orchestra, I still miss those San Diego Symphony concerts where every note mattered, every audience mattered and every contributed dollar mattered.”

Rofe joined the San Diego Symphony in 1973, fresh out of UCLA. He watched the orchestra grow under former music director Peter Eros and eventually attain in 1980 its major orchestra status.

“Even in the earlier years, when Peter Eros was here, the orchestra had a sense of striving. We wanted to make it, to prove that we were good. Los Angeles is more, ‘We’ve made it--we’ve arrived.’ It’s not a sense of life and death.”

In addition to playing with the Philharmonic, Rofe manages to squeeze into his work schedule chamber music concerts and the seemingly unavoidable lure of studio work, recording motion picture sound tracks and commercial jingles.

“I got into the studio scene because I wanted to see what it was like,” he said with a tinge of apology. “Recently, I actually turned down some studio work--which is unheard of--because I needed time off.”

Rofe discovered that recording film scores for “The War of the Roses,” “Fire Birds” and an upcoming Marlon Brando movie may have been lucrative, but for a bass player it was musically stultifying.

“For the violins and some other instruments, they actually write some meaningful things. But for the basses, they write whole notes, half notes and a few rhythmic punctuations. You end up sitting in the studio for hours playing whole notes.”

To keep his musical acuity, Rofe has played with the Philharmonic’s contemporary music series at the Japan America Center, as well as with his own chamber music ensemble. With the Mainly Mozart Festival completed, Rofe is off to his next project, Hawaii’s Kapalua Chamber Music Festival.

“It’s a tough job,” he said, “but somebody’s got to play Maui.”

That’s all folks! San Diego, which has served as a test area for theme restaurants and other comestibles, now has the opportunity to sample “an exciting new concept in family entertainment.” Bugs Bunny in concert, a melange of cartoons and live orchestra performance, plays the Civic Theatre at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

Deciding to take advantage of the noted cartoon character’s 50th anniversary, Warner Bros. is mating some of the Bugs Bunny cartoons inspired by classical music and opera (“The Rabbit of Seville,” “Baton Bunny” and “Long-Haired Hare”) with a 65-piece orchestra under the direction of George Daugherty. The orchestra will consist largely of local players, although Daugherty will bring with him a core of principal players.

According to a Warner Bros. spokesman, the cartoons have been remastered to take out the musical portions of the sound tracks. New sound effects have been added, but the classic Mel Blanc voices will remain untouched.

In the concert, the orchestra will also perform the complete versions of pieces by Wagner, Rossini and Strauss that inspired the Bugs Bunny cartoons that in turn lampooned these high-brow compositions. To prevent the Civic Theatre audience from becoming disoriented when the orchestra is playing by itself, “live video feed” of the conductor and players will be projected on the screen. Ah, progress!

Rally for music education. Members of the Community Council for Music in the Schools will stage a rally at 1:45 p.m. today to encourage members of the San Diego Unified School District Board of Trustees to increase its support for school music programs. The local lobbying group, which is made up of parents, music educators and members of the music community, hopes to make a strong impression on the board, which will meet at 2 p.m. to vote on next year’s budget. Members of a student jazz quartet from Point Loma High School will be on hand to provide an upbeat fight song.

Hong Kong-bound. Fans of conductor David Atherton who were not sated during his recently completed Mainly Mozart Festival can sign up to see him on the podium of his Hong Kong Philharmonic in November. The excursion to the Orient from Oct. 30 to Nov. 6 is sponsored by and will benefit the Mainly Mozart Festival. It will include a performance by the Hong Kong Philharmonic and English mezzo-soprano Alfreda Hodgson in the new Hong Kong Cultural Centre. According to a flyer in the Mainly Mozart program book, the cost is $1,399 per music lover. No surcharge is listed for philistines.