Orchestra Offers Movie Love Themes

Erich Kunzel does not have the name recognition of Mick Jagger or Michael Jackson, but he does have hit records and draws crowds to concert halls.

Kunzel, one of America’s premier conductors of pops music, helped revive interest in symphonic music among a younger generation of concert-goers. On Saturday, Kunzel, principal director of the Cincinnati Pops, is making what may be his only appearance this year in Southern California. He will be guest conductor of the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra, performing a repertoire of movie love themes. Pianist William Tritt, who has collaborated on five albums with Kunzel, also will perform.

“The pops bonanza, or whatever you call it, has developed in the last 20 years,” Kunzel said. “It’s created new audiences and helped involve a lot more people in the community rather than a select few.”

Today, he said, “Pops audiences far outnumber classical symphony audiences. My sense is pops music introduces them to symphony music and many then try more complex classical programs.”

Kunzel will conduct many of the pieces from the Cincinnati Pops’ 1990 recording “Classics of the Silver Screen,” including Tritt’s rendition of Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No. 2 in C minor, used in the motion pictures “Brief Encounter,” “The Seven Year Itch” and “The Competition.”

Other pieces the Long Beach Symphony will perform include Tara’s Theme from “Gone With the Wind,” Paul McCartney’s main theme from “Live and Let Die” and Marvin Hamlisch’s main theme from “The Way We Were.” Themes from “Terms of Endearment,” “Love Story,” “Flashdance” and other hit movies are on the program as well.

This is the first time Kunzel has performed this particular repertoire outside of Cincinnati, he said. “Everybody in California is in love,” Kunzel said, “so I expect they’ll love it.

“Much of the material comes from the original soundtracks of these films,” Kunzel said. “When I did the record, I wanted to come as close to the original piece as possible.”

In the last decade, Kunzel has become the best-selling star of Billboard Magazine’s classical music charts with his albums, including Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” with cannon shots so loud they can shake a living room. Kunzel also has recorded two Gershwin albums, “Hollywood’s Greatest Hits,” the music of Henry Mancini, a variety of Disney favorites and the recent hit “Victory at Sea and Other Favorites.”

This year for the first time in a long while, Kunzel will be unable to make his annual summer appearance at the Hollywood Bowl, said Anne Parsons, manager of the Bowl’s summer season. “We’ll be missing him this season,” Parsons said. “So now’s the time to see him.”

The program begins at 8 p.m. Saturday in the Long Beach Arena, 300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach. Ticket prices range from $8 to $12. For more information, call (310) 437-2729.