Children’s Tales Bring a Refreshing Touch to Pops

Numbing predictability is the bane of pops programming. Because marches, show-tune medleys and picture-postcard travelogues dominate pops offerings, Wednesday night’s San Diego Symphony SummerPops program of musical stories deserves a special salute. Stringing together Camille Saint-Saens’ “Carnival of the Animals” with the Ogden Nash verses, Serge Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” and Francis Poulenc’s “The Story of Babar, the Little Elephant” refreshed the musical atmosphere of Embarcadero Marina Park South.

For some reason, however, guest conductor Patrick Flynn, music director of the Riverside Philharmonic, thought he needed to introduce this stylish program with Rossini’s ubiquitous “William Tell” Overture. After an affecting, well-balanced introduction by the cellos, the horns’ wrong notes marred the most celebrated trumpet call in the symphonic repertory.

Flynn’s interpretation of the too-familiar overture was generic, although he raced the finale for a really cheap thrill. But once this superfluous prelude was dispensed, Flynn and crew shifted into high gear.

Pianists Mary Barranger and Rita Borden made the colorful Saint-Saens suite sparkle, and the orchestra aptly complemented their articulate, high-spirited keyboard playing. As narrator, KGTV (Channel 10) reporter Marti Emerald infused Nash’s wacky poetry with larger-than-life enthusiasm, punching every pun and twisted rhyme as if the audience might miss the humor without her permanently arched eyebrow. No doubt television personalities do know their audiences, but her unvaried manner wore thin over the evening. For this pops program, a different narrator will be featured each night through Saturday. Tonight’s guest is former San Diego Mayor Roger Hedgecock.

Poulenc’s elegantly scored “The Story of Babar” is little more than a musical ribbon that ties together Jean de Brunhoff’s classic children’s tale. But the composer’s terse, witty interludes--some no more than a few bars long--evoke the lovable pachyderm’s fanciful journey with deft precision. Flynn and the orchestra gave it their affectionate best.

After the orchestra’s lighter-than-air “Babar,” Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” seemed leaden by comparison. Of course, these scores are two entirely different animals. One amusing note in the Prokofiev: The unexpected horn of a nearby freight train beat the poor oboist to the punch when the train’s warning blast stole the cue for Peter’s noisy duck.