San Diego Spotlight : Classical Hits Series Takes Adventurous Musical Step

Murry Sidlin, the silver-tongued resident conductor of the San Diego Symphony’s Classical Hits series, returns to the city this week to lead four young people’s concerts Wednesday and Thursday and to conduct next Saturday night’s Classical Hits program.

The goal of the popular series, now in its fourth season, is to make the orchestra user-friendly to listeners with little or no previous symphony experience.

“I believe that every conductor should be a Tim McCarver, someone who can explain the game to lay audiences,” Sidlin said, referring to the CBS sports commentator. “I remember he once said, ‘There’s no such thing as a triple--it’s a double that someone took advantage of.’ That’s what I try to do, to break down the barrier between symphonic music and the audience.”

While symphony management has struggled to build audiences for its traditional programming, Sidlin regularly fills Copley Symphony Hall with his passionate commentaries a la Leonard Bernstein on accessible orchestral music.

“I want the listeners to know that going to a concert means having a spiritual relationship with the composer,” Sidlin explained. “Symphony music can be exciting, tender, exotic, brilliant, or wonderful. They should know that basically, I love it more than eating or sleeping and want to share that with them.”

Having gained the confidence of his audiences, Sidlin is ready to launch into more challenging repertory than Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and classical excerpts that have been used in television commercials. Next week he will lead Charles Ives’ Second Symphony, an early 20th-Century work that hasn’t been played in a regular symphony subscription concert since 1961.

“I think the Classical Hits audience is more ready for Ives than the traditional orchestra audience is. My audience doesn’t know now that Ives is supposed to be dissonant and complicated.”

To clue his listeners to a favorite Ives technique, simulating the sound of two marching bands playing at the same time, Sidlin will start the concert by having the orchestra play two different marches simultaneously.

“They will get the impression of Ives standing on street corner hearing two different bands playing in a holiday parade. The non-prejudiced audience will laugh like hell when you do that,” Sidlin quipped. “The Second Symphony ends with a crashing dissonant chord, which is the composer thumbing his nose at tradition. But traditional audiences are afraid to show a sense of humor about their music.”

The 51-year-old conductor does not, however, have a sense of humor about the continuing snub American orchestras give American conductors when selecting a music director.

“The rule is that the English look out for the English, the Romanians look out for their fellow Romanians, but Americans do not look out for Americans--no matter how well-qualified. Look at the major American orchestras today. Those who were the American conductors 10 years ago are the ones on today’s list: James De Preist, Leonard Slatkin, and Gerard Schwarz. And we’ve lost Andre Previn in Los Angeles and Robert Shaw in Atlanta.”

For the last 13 years, Sidlin has taught conducting at the Aspen Music Festival and more recently has inaugurated a graduate conducting program at the University of Minnesota.

“In my years at Aspen, I’ve seen over 180 video tapes of young American conductors. I know we have the talent. Symphony boards that are trying to inject some adrenaline into their organization tend not to seek the most qualified candidates. They want an enigma, glamour, and a foreign accent.”

Opera bargains. Cast members from the San Diego Opera production of Benjamin Britten’s “The Rape of Lucretia” cast will perform in a free noon hour concert Wednesday in front of Civic Theatre. Among the singers will be bass baritone Mark Doss, tenor Robert Tear, and soprano Rita Cullis, who made her American debut in San Diego Opera’s “Le Nozze di Figaro” production earlier this month. Jonathan Eaton of Welsh National Opera directs the production, which opens tonight at Civic Theatre. College students can receive a 25% discount on tickets to the March 11 (7 p.m.) performance of Britten’s austere tragedy. College identification will be necessary when purchasing tickets ($12 to $60), available at the Civic Theatre box office.

Cellist resigns. Xin-Hua Ma, San Diego Symphony principal cello since May, 1990, has submitted her resignation to symphony management. Ma, a graduate of Shanghai Conservatory and Yale University, declined to discuss the reasons for her resignation. She replaced Eric Kim, who left to become principal cellist with the Cincinnati Symphony. The section has not lived up to its potential since Ma took over. A date has not been set for her departure. However, principal cello auditions have been scheduled for May 18 and 19, with music director Yoav Talmi participating in the selection.

Party favors. About 1,000 music lovers filled the Spreckels Theatre on Wednesday night when David Atherton’s Mainly Mozart Festival hosted in a preview of the May 30-June 7 festival. Encouraged by genial words from artistic director Atherton, Mozart arias sung by soprano Debra McLaren, and Mozart piano music played by UC San Diego’s Aleck Karis, about 100 people purchased festival subscriptions.

CRITIC’S CHOICE FREE RECITAL BY ARIOSO WIND QUINTET

The Arioso Wind Quintet, the area’s finest chamber ensemble, will give a free noon recital Monday in the Lyceum Theatre for San Diego Mini-Concerts. Winner of the 1990 National Flute Assn.’s chamber music competition, Arioso combines superb musicianship with a sophisticated ear for choosing repertory. On Monday, they will play Gyorgy Ligeti’s “Sechs Bagatellen,” Lalo Schifrin’s “La Nouvelle Orleans,” and an arrangement of Mozart’s Overture to “The Marriage of Figaro.”