COMMENTARY : Is It the Pops or the Slops? : Most SummerPops Fare Is in Poor Musical Taste

The garish brochure for the San Diego Symphony’s upcoming SummerPops season looks like one of those ubiquitous sweepstakes mailers that regularly jam the mail boxes. Its look, however, is not just indicative of tasteless advertising but is also a portent of much of the programming featured in the 12-week pops series that begins Wednesday at Embarcadero Marina Park South on San Diego Bay.

Not only has the amount of real orchestral music decreased since last year, but the pops programming itself has descended to a disturbingly low level. Among the groaners are the Swingle Singers, an erstwhile sophisticated vocal group, crooning tunes from a slew of Disney children’s movies and a night of great music from Las Vegas featuring the hits of Liberace: “Chopsticks,” “Beer Barrel Polka,” “I’ll Be Seeing You.” Other programs focus on music from Nashville and Broadway. Bobby McFerrin (“Don’t Worry, Be Happy!”), an entertainer with little connection to symphony, is featured in a season-opening gala conducting the orchestra.

So why is an 81-piece symphony orchestra performing music so completely foreign to it?

“We are discovering that people want to be entertained,” said Lynn Hallbacka, San Diego Symphony general manager. “As an institution, we’re re-evaluating what it means to entertain our audiences.”

The virtue of entertainment, however, is surely a tricky one for a symphony orchestra. Beethoven and Mahler, for example, offer far more to the concert-goer than mere entertainment. At its fullest, an orchestra engages the audience’s mind and spirit. And, although the McFerrin and Las Vegas nights might bring new audiences through the symphony’s gate--a laudable goal--such shows still contain a clear danger. When an orchestra descends to the entertainment mode accompanying such lightweight fare, it teaches these new comers that an orchestra is just a glorified backup group outfitted in formal attire.

The San Diego Symphony management has also reduced the amount of traditional orchestral music to be played during this year’s summer season. Last year, half a dozen programs devoted to the popular end of classical orchestral music were played two nights each, Wednesdays and Thursdays. For 1992, this category has been cut to a single night each, and that night is Wednesday, traditionally the weakest day for attendance of this orchestra’s typical Wednesday-through-Saturday pops performance week. The writing on the wall is clear: Mozart, Wagner, and even Johann Strauss Jr. are being edged out the door.

Symphony management claims that these changes have been made in accordance with the results of audience surveys taken last year, and that they are simply offering the music that draws the greatest number of patrons. Such arguments appear quite pragmatic and logical on the surface.

But what is this symphony orchestra becoming--a giant entertainment machine? The San Diego Symphony already spends a significantly disproportionate amount of its working weeks playing pops music. Sixteen weeks of San Diego’s winter season are devoted to classical repertory, while 15 weeks are allotted to pops (12 in the summer and three more weeks of winter pops). The Seattle Symphony, on the other hand, plays 18 weeks of classical and five weeks of pops; the Oregon Symphony plays 18 weeks of classical to seven weeks of pops.

At the San Diego Symphony, pops is becoming the tail that wags the dog. It is no secret that executive director Wes Brustad relishes pops programs and has limited patience for standard orchestra repertory. Brustad plans the pops, and its commercial leaning clearly reflects his interests. What the San Diego Symphony needs is a resident pops conductor, a pops music director who will keep musical values at least on a par with bottom-line thinking. Norman Leyden, for example, is music director of the Seattle Symphony Pops and the pops guru for the Oregon Symphony.

Pops programming, like any other, should not remain static, and the formula of Gershwin, big-band nostalgia and musical comedy medleys will not work forever. Indeed, it already shows signs of wearing thin. The Boston Pops, which has long been the standard of pops programming, always anchored each pops offering in actual orchestral repertory, no matter how diverse the rest of the fare. As the San Diego Symphony redesigns the pops format, it needs to hold on to that basic orchestra identity.

Hiring a pops music director, someone with even a portion of the taste and enthusiasm for the genre as John Mauceri, music director of the recently formed Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, could give the San Diego SummerPops the leadership and direction it now lacks.