Garfunkel’s Voice Is Appealing, but Solo Show Isn’t

What do you do when you’ve been half of one of the most celebrated vocal duos in pop music history, and then the duo breaks up? Especially when the other guy was the one who wrote the songs and got most of the attention?

That was the situation facing Art Garfunkel in 1970 when his partnership with Paul Simon came apart.

To Garfunkel’s credit, he moved on, kicking off a solo career and releasing such chart singles as “All I Know” and “I Only Have Eyes for You” and trying his hand as an actor, appearing in “Catch-22” and “Carnal Knowledge.”

But now it’s the ‘90s. There hasn’t been much movie action, and, although the albums keep coming, the hits are in short supply. Still, Garfunkel continues to be busy, with children’s music and a planned walk across Europe (mirroring his ‘80s walk across the United States). In the early ‘90s there was a brief reunion with Simon.

So the question, when he came onstage Friday night at Segerstrom Hall in the Orange County Performing Arts Center, was what to expect.

The answer was fairly quick in coming, as it became apparent that a good portion of his show would be dedicated to reviving many of the Simon & Garfunkel hits. And they were all familiar, musical landmarks from the duo’s fruitful late ‘60s and early ‘70s--”Homeward Bound,” “Sounds of Silence,” “Cecilia,” “El Condor Pasa,” “Scarborough Fair,” “Mrs. Robinson” and, of course, Garfunkel’s trademark solo number, “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”

But there were problems. First, and most important, the harmony parts were missing. A classic duet sound had become a solo melody line. As a result, almost every number had a kind of emptiness, as though an extremely important track had been left out of the final mix.

Nor was Garfunkel abetted by his own awkwardness. Never seeming to know quite what to do with his hands, stalking from one side of the stage to the other without much purpose, often closing his eyes and tilting his head skyward as he sang, he seemed out of touch with both the music and his listeners.

Depending almost solely upon his still-appealing, choir-boy sound, he appeared to either not understand, or not particularly care about, the messages implicit in the songs he sung.

The Pacific Symphony Pops--with Richard Kaufman conducting--opened the evening with a program so lightweight that its most profound item was the main title music from the movie “Star Wars.”

But the orchestra played with its customary brisk bravura, leading one to wonder why, in some of the Garfunkel numbers, the entire ensemble sat, instruments in hands, while the Garfunkel backup ensemble produced synthesizer string sounds.