MUSIC REVIEW : Family-Geared ‘Wolf’ Wakes Up the Bowl

Some heads were nodding toward the end, and wails sounded here and there in the night, but that wasn’t a commentary on the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Saturday night performance at the Hollywood Bowl, despite a sour note or two. After all, when you’re a preschooler, you take concert-going on your own terms or not at all.

The unusual number of babes in arms, 5- and 10-year-olds and all points in between was no fluke. Saturday’s relaxed, feel-good family entertainment, as much visual as aural, was centered on Prokofiev’s fantasy intro to the orchestra, “Peter and the Wolf,” with excerpts from his “Cinderella” ballet and Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker,” Glinka’s “Russlan and Ludmila” Overture and Saint-Saens “Carnival of the Animals.”

Children, picnicking with parents and grandparents, snuggling into blankets as the evening cooled, were quietly attentive as the concert began with Glinka and “Cinderella,” prettily played by formally dressed musicians under shifting pink and blue lights.

Then, Lloyd Bridges read new “Carnival of the Animals” verses, written by his wife, children’s author Dorothy Bridges. Children’s drawings of the work, 180 winning entries in a citywide contest, were shown on a large screen, complementing and sometimes upstaging the assured work of two 17-year-old award-winning pianists, Eric Huebner and Marie Chung.

After intermission, the orchestra plunged into the unseasonable “Nutcracker,” while at times conductor George Daugherty’s feet left the ground altogether in his bouncing enthusiasm, undiminished by one stunningly sour climactic note from the horn section.

Sleepyheads perked up during the engaging “Peter and the Wolf” finale, featuring Bridges as Grandfather, 11-year-old “Sleepless in Seattle” star Ross Malinger as Peter and Julia Glander as the narrator. Overhead, new illustrations of the work by “Bugs Bunny” animation patriarch Chuck Jones were projected on-screen.

The new theatrical production of the classic, as Daugherty unabashedly informed the audience several times, was based on an upcoming ABC film (and interactive CD-ROM release), created by Daugherty and Jones and written by Daugherty and Janis Diamond.