Oh, You Mean That Full Orchestra

The initial announcement that Dave Brubeck would perform with “full orchestra” at the Cerritos Performing Arts center tonight was an eyebrow-raiser. Assembling a full orchestra takes considerable planning, rehearsing and coordination--far more effort than one might expect for a single night’s engagement.

If, however, Brubeck and his quartet were scheduled to appear with an existing orchestra, that would be a far different story. But what orchestra? And why did the announcement describe the ensemble in what seemed to be such a purposefully vague fashion?

It didn’t take the CIA to come up with an answer. The first clue was the inclusion of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” for trumpet--orchestration by Vlad Lavrik, with trumpet soloist Timofei Dokshitzer--conducted by Carlo Ponti Jr. None of those names has ever popped up on a list of the Southland’s prominent studio musicians.

But--second clue--in 2001, Ponti was appointed associate conductor of the Russian National Orchestra, and Lavrik and Dokshitzer are Russian names. Add to that two more clues--Brubeck performed with the Russian National Orchestra on Friday at the Montalvo Festival in Saratoga, and the Russian National Orchestra appears at the Hollywood Bowl on Tuesday and Thursday--and the pieces of the puzzle come together.

Tonight, it is the Russian National Orchestra, not an anonymous “full orchestra,” that will accompany Brubeck in his symphonic music, as well as in such classics as “Blue Rondo a la Turk” and “Take Five.”

So why all the mystery? For contractual reasons, given the Russians’ appearances at the Bowl, which obviously would like to sell as many seats as possible, the Cerritos Center was obligated to neither “advertise, promote or publicize” the Russian Orchestra’s performance, and it has not done so. But the evidence that was apparent to anyone willing to do a bit of “Blue’s Clues”-like probing was too accessible for the secret to last.