Exciting guest conductor Edward Cumming knows just how to kick off a concert of the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra. He walks briskly onto the stage and hops onto the podium with no hesitation. The waiting orchestra knows they have barely a split second before his decisive downbeat. There is simply no better way to begin Leonard Bernstein’s whimsical “Candide Overture.”
It’s too bad this sophisticated yet always enjoyable piece lasts a mere five minutes, as its unusual and constantly changing meter, and happy themes, could keep me interested far longer. Rising to Cumming’s ambitious tempo, the orchestra rendered an excellent spirited performance.
Maestro Cumming chose the moment after the “Candide” to speak for the first time to the audience. He unexpectedly inserted an unscheduled, yet welcome, homage to Veterans Day into the evening’s line-up— “The Armed Forces Salute!” This crowd-pleaser includes a passage for each of the branches of our country’s armed services. Cumming asked audience members to stand during the portion featuring their branch. It was a rousing tribute to those who had served. The audience loved it.
What followed was the “Concerto for Flute and Orchestra, Op. 39,” by contemporary composer Lowell Lieberman. The piece featured LBSO principal flutist Heather Clark as soloist. Clark was certainly up to the task of the work’s solo requirements, although she and Cumming sometimes had synchronization issues.
The concerto’s easy-paced first and second movements offered up some haunting themes and others that evoked recent Hollywood blockbuster soundtracks. Some of the melodic lines were pretty, if a bit simplistic. The solo part in these movements did not challenge Clark much. The third movement, by contrast, played at scherzo tempo, demonstrated what makes Clark the orchestra’s principal chair. The movement offered an interesting counterpoint between flute and brass, and later between flute and cellos. Still the piece lacked that certain something that makes one close one’s eyes to experience the beauty of the music.
After intermission, the audience was “treated” to yet another modern piece— “Radiant Voices” by composer Frank Ticheli, who attended the concert. Another work during which beauty and enjoyment do not come to the listener’s mind, “Radiant Voices” nevertheless pulls out all the stops.
The piece begins with a nice cello solo and provides some interesting effects, mostly rendered by a busy six-musician (!) percussion section that is kept very busy throughout the piece. But the rather undisciplined instrumentation struck me as more a catalog of (or children’s guide to?) the instruments of the orchestra than a serious piece of music.
In short, the evening was saved by its “bookends” — the “Candide” to start, and the spectacular final selection, “An American in Paris” by George Gershwin. Oh, what a piece!
In his remarks to the audience before commencing the Gershwin, Cumming noted the irony of having scheduled the number over a year prior given the horrific murders perpetrated by radical Islamists in Paris the day before the concert. As such, he offered the performance of the piece as a celebration of the life of murdered Cal State Long Beach student Nohemi Gonzalez.
The orchestra did Ms. Gonzalez proud. “An American in Paris” is a master work, and the LBSO musicians performed it splendidly. Solo parts by violin, viola, trumpet, trombone, tuba, and mallet players were all outstanding.
My advice to those choosing the programming for future LBSO concerts: stick to the master composers. If you must perform a modern work, choose carefully and make it pleasing to the ear. And definitely program no more than one work by a contemporary composer per concert!
Just my opinion.
The Long Beach Symphony Orchestra performs its Classics Series concerts at the Long Beach Terrace Theater, 300 E. Ocean Blvd. Tickets for Classics Series concerts range from $20 to $90. For tickets and concert information, for both Classics and Pops! Series concerts, go to lbso.org .
