Pops Concerts Draw Their Share of Critical Pot Shots

It is the time of the year when symphony librarians dust off the Rodgers and Hammerstein medleys, take careful inventory of their complete Gershwin works, and make certain the strings have something to play in all those Sousa marches. Yes, it’s symphony pops time. An institution adored by management because it is often a symphony orchestra’s only cash cow, pops concerts have come in for their share of aesthetic criticism.

“Pops concerts are the worst idea in the world,” wrote American conductor John Mauceri in the current issue of Musical America magazine. “It’s like putting a leech on a corpse.”

In his article, originally a speech he gave last June to a international meeting of arts administrators, the music director of the newly formed Hollywood Bowl Orchestra decried the idea of calling a certain type of symphonic music “pops,” because it implies that the rest of the orchestral repertory is unpopular and elitist.

Alan Balter, who will conduct the opening week of the San Diego Symphony’s summer pops season June 19-22, assessed the institution of the pops concert more charitably.

“The first reason to do pops is to attract an audience that probably would not even think to come to a regular symphony concert. As long as we remain relatively true to the symphonic nature of the orchestra when we do pops concerts, we’re on safe ground.”

To demonstrate his point, Balter pointed to the music he selected for next week’s concerts. Given San Diego Symphony executive director Wesley Brustad’s theme “Galactic Gala Opening,” Balter balanced the obvious choices, John Williams’ “Star Wars” medley and selections from the composer’s “E.T.” sound track, with several movements from Gustav Holst’s “The Planets” and excerpts from Richard Strauss’ “Also Sprach Zarathustra,” a tone poem widely known for supplying the theme for the motion picture “2001.”

“It’s a mix. I see my program as classical music that has become pop, especially through the medium of the movies. The Williams pieces are all transformations of Strauss, anyway. And I guess the rest could be classified light classical.”

An American conductor who began his career two decades ago as an apprentice conductor under Robert Shaw in Atlanta, Balter is music director of both the Memphis Symphony and the Akron (Ohio) Symphony. He explained that an important goal of pops programming in Memphis is bridging the gap between the symphony and a variety of popular music styles.

“In Memphis, we have done both jazz pops and rock ‘n’ roll pops. In both cases, we performed with local jazz and rock and roll musicians from Memphis. We’ve also done several concerts of gospel pops involving local gospel choirs. For those concerts, we had our staff arranger make orchestral arrangements around what the choirs sang in their church services. We aimed to get the correct sound of gospel music, including use of a Hammond organ.”

Balter said he attempts to keep his orchestras’ pops repertory current, and avoids getting not bogged down in Big Band medleys.

“We try to get movie sound scores and musicals as quickly as they are published. We picked up ‘Cats’ and ‘Phantom of the Opera’ as soon as the publisher printed the arrangements. At the moment, I’m looking at a Michael Jackson medley to use next season.”

Talmi in New York. San Diego Symphony music director Yoav Talmi was praised by New York Times critic Bernard Holland for his work on the podium when he conducted the New York Chamber Symphony earlier this month. Talmi led the New York ensemble in Mozart’s “Haffner” Symphony, Dvorak’s “Czech Suite,” Britten’s “Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings,” and the Vieuxtemps A Minor Violin Concerto with young violin virtuoso Joshua Bell. Holland did not approve of Talmi’s introductory lecture before the Britten piece, however.

“Musicians should play, not talk,” argued Holland.

Playing for dollars. San Diego’s Musical Merit Foundation awarded $19,500 to nine young musicians earlier this month. Top prize of $5,000 went to pianist Hiroko Kunitake, a junior at La Jolla High School and student of local teacher Jane Bastien. In February, 1990, Kunitake won first place in the San Diego Symphony’s Young Artist Competition.

Musical Merit second place awards, $3,000 each, went to cellist Karen Freer and saxophonist Jeremy Justeson. Freer, who won the San Diego Symphony’s annual competition in 1986, is a graduate student at the Eastman School of Music, where she studies with Paul Katz. La Mesa native Justeson studies with San Diego State University’s noted classical and jazz saxophonist James Rotter.

Other Musical Merit prizes went to violinist Cheryl Norman of Solana Beach, trumpeter Ryan Anthony from Spring Valley, and Chula Vista soprano Elena Correia. Bassoonist Michael Curtis, violist Susan Dubois, and pianist Yu-Mei Wei also won Musical Merit recognition.

Intimate music al fresco. This week Point Loma’s Westminster Presbyterian Church announced its annual summer Music at Dusk series. Performed in the intimate outdoor amphitheater at Canon and Talbot Streets (next to the church buildings), these free concerts provide pleasant, sophisticated musical accompaniment to a picnic supper.

Contrabassist Burtram Turetzky and flutist Nancy Turetzky will open the series with a duo recital Monday, July 8. Patrick Pfiffner’s Percussion Ensemble will perform July 15, followed by the San Diego Brass Quartet July 22. An ensemble called “The Joy of Sax” fills out the series on July 29. Each program begins at 6:30 p.m.