Life Is a Picnic as Hollywood Bowl Opens : Even the Raindrops Fail to Dampen High Spirits in 69th Season Debut

The weather was sultry and the picnics more low-key than usual at the gala opening concert of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s 69th season at the Hollywood Bowl Tuesday night. The famous ambience was provided by picnicking summer season subscribers with wicker hampers and L. L. Bean canvas totes. Conductor Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, pianist Andre Watts and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra furnished the sounds.

The buzz was mostly about the weather (particularly several dozen raindrops deposited on people’s heads before the concert began) and the food (how picnics this year were devoid of excessive accouterments such as private waiters and candelabra).

“We have insurance, but if it rains before intermission we have to give everyone a free concert, so we’re going like this,” said Bram Goldsmith, vice president of the board of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Assn., crossing the first and second fingers of both hands.

Box-holders chowed down on the usual bowl standards of cold salmon (poached or grilled), gold chicken (poached, Dijon, grilled or fried), cold pasta salad, fresh berries and gooey desserts, all washed down with white wine and thermoses of coffee.

Among the bowl faithful: Frank Gehry, Curtis and Priscilla Tamkin, Richard Koshalek, Dan and Daisy Belin, Joanne and Roger Kozberg, Andrea van de Kamp, Sidney and Nancy Petersen, Rocco and Marion Siciliano, Bram and Elaine Goldsmith, Esther and Tom Wachtell, Marcia and Ken Ziffren, Fred and Joan Nicholas, Suzanne and Frederic Rheinstein, Belle and Seymour Owens, Vera and Howard Panosian, Sheldon and Sandy Ausman, Friends of the Hollywood Bowl president Kathie and Steven Elowitt, and opening-night chairman Lynn Dorland and her husband Bill.