By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO – They’re getting ready with the pyrotechnics for the closing programs Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings of this Labor Day Weekend of the San Diego Symphony’s Summer Pops—with Tchaikovsky’s boom-boom-booming 1812 Overture sure to create a stir at the nearby San Diego Convention Center and for all the boaters out on the adjacent San Diego Bay.
On Thursday night, patrons of the Pops program enjoyed a special performance which, though not so dramatic as the percussion of the 1812 Overture, did provide a nostalgic look back at a Pops season that had many Jewish connections. Grandson Shor and I had the good fortune of attending as the guest of Eileen Wingard, a former San Diego Symphony violinist who writes about music for San Diego Jewish World.
The program, without intermission, included works by Jewish composers Aaron Copland (Fanfare for the Common Man); Leonard Bernstein (West Side Story and On the Waterfront Symphonic Suite) and George Gershwin (Fascinatin’ Rhythm).
Some other pieces on the program, though composed by non-Jews, also had strong Jewish connections. For example, there was an arrangement by John Cavacas of the music that John Williams composed for the movie, E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial, which was directed by Steven Spielberg.
Sitting in the outdoor audience, I looked at Shor, 10, wearing a hoodie to ward off the wind coming in from the bay, and noticed behind him a crescent moon, which he described as a “banana moon.” I couldn’t help but remember the scene in the exciting conclusion of E.T., when Elliot and the extra-terrestrial are silhouetted against the moon while escaping together on a bicycle. In that scene E.T. had the hoodie on.
Another example was Camille Saint-Saens’ “Danse Bacchanale” from the biblically-influenced Samson and Delilah.
The only selection on the program for which a Jewish connection didn’t immediately leap to mind was Igor Stravinsky’s finale from The Firebird Suite. Simply looking him up on Wikipedia provided a connection – but it was not so obvious, nor as strong, as the others – and that is, at one stage in Stravinsky’s career, Stravinsky visited Israel and composed a Hebrew cantata.
With two Leonard Bernstein selections on the program, Pops Conductor Matthew Garbutt, principal tuba during the regular season, related that when he was a musician with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, he had the privilege of meeting Bernstein several times.
During the West Side Story rendition, a train blew its whistle – and kept blowing it through a good portion of the concert. Evidently the train was blocked on the tracks and its engineer wanted something moved. As the symphony orchestra played the notes signifying “Ma-ri-a,” the horn went wha-ah-ah-ah! Prompting the thought that West Side Story was a Romeo-and-Juliet type musical about youngsters living metaphorically “on the wrong side of the tracks.”
It is such moments that one remembers in addition to the pleasures of the music itself. Another was watching the San Diego Symphony’s Music Director Jahja Ling describe the upcoming regular season just prior to the concert. As he told of the classical programming that awaits the Symphony’s fans, a seagull swooped under the concert shell, made a lap around Ling, and then flew back out to the bay. Ling, although momentarily distracted, kept right on narrating.
And as a final memory of the evening, wind blew over the back of the audience towards the concert shell, which had (as the audience viewed it) an American flag to its left; a California flag to its right. The flags blew in opposite directions. The wind must have bounced off the shell and divided its force.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted at donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com
File: Around SD County 01
a very good story I could hear the music in my head