New West Turns 5 Years Old

It’s hard to believe that it was five years ago that the New West Symphony went through its painful birthing process. But the fifth anniversary season is upon us, and the orchestra, for its various problems--fiscal and sometimes programmatic--has nicely integrated into the county’s cultural identity.

In addition, the orchestra that Canadian Boris Brott founded and continues to lead has given Ventura County a fine symphony to call its own, competitive with other high-end West Coast orchestras. That makes symphony-watching a vital part of the local cultural scene.

This weekend’s opening program, fittingly, kicks off with a new piece by John Biggs, the Ventura-based composer who has been commissioned to write other works in addition to the season opener for the orchestra. Biggs’ latest concoction is “Sousaphernalia,” a pastiche of American melodies in celebration of the century’s end and the millennium’s shift.

As Biggs notes, bandleader and classic American composer John Philip Sousa died the same year Biggs was born, 1932. Biggs was inspired to redirect Sousa material into his own musical language, which tends to be both melodic and adventurous.

Also on the program will be Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony and Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2, with Paul Badura-Skoda as soloist.

Let the symphonic sounds begin.

DETAILS

The New West Symphony, tonight at 8 at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, and Saturday night at 8 at the Oxnard Performing Arts Center, 800 Hobson Way in Oxnard. Tickets are $12-$55; 497-5880.

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Vocalizing: Next Thursday, the Konevets Vocal Quartet will give a concert in one of Ventura’s grandest and quirkiest pieces of architecture, the Mayan-esque Church of Religious Science. The respected Russian group, based in St. Petersburg, has a repertoire that spans folk tradition, martial music and classical composers from the Russian milieu. It promises to be an intriguing and exotic affair, and is a benefit for the Ventura Chamber Music Festival, certainly a worthy cause.

DETAILS

Konevets Quartet, on Thursday at 7:30 p.m., at the Church of Religious Science, 101 S. Laurel St., in Ventura. Tickets are $20 and $25; 648-3146.

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Meanwhile, in another symphonic corner: The humble but growing Conejo Valley Symphony grew out of the ashes of the old Conejo Symphony, which officially ended when it merged with the Ventura Symphony to create the New West.

After playing a few seasons in a smaller venue, the new Conejo orchestra launched its new season last Saturday in the relative sprawl of the new Calvary Community Auditorium, with a 2,900-seat capacity, the largest room in the area. The drawback, of course, is that the orchestra’s modestly sized audience looks smaller than it really is. A respectable crowd turned out to hear what is an important element in the county’s orchestral equation.

Last Saturday’s program of Czechoslovakian music was conducted by Howard Sonstegard, who led an orchestra to a fine, engaging ensemble sound. It was a blithe evening of music, from Smetana’s “Overture to the Bartered Bride” to the mostly cheerful, pastoral sonorities of Dvorak’s Eighth Symphony. Dvorak’s “Slavonic Dances” offered its familiar, unfailingly tuneful charms.

Only Janacek’s Adagio, written after the death of the composer’s son, injected a dose of melancholy or angst. Generally, the orchestra played with a kind of comfortable solidity, a few glitches notwithstanding. It was, all in all, a fine time.

It may be tempting to view the Conejo Valley Symphony in a David vs. Goliath context, with the New West playing the part of the big bully. That makes for good copy and injects drama into the sometimes too-staid world of classical music culture. But, the fact is, there is a place and a need for community orchestras in a region as large and as socially and culturally dynamic as Ventura County. We’re not a two-horse town, and shouldn’t be a one-orchestra county, either.

Josef Woodard, who writes about art and music, can be reached by e-mail at joeinfo@aol.com.