GARY SHELDON - CONCERT REVIEW |
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POPS REVIEW Star music, star quality from Marin Symphony Monday, May 17, 1999 By Janos Gereben
Source:Marin Independent Journal |
In this week of weeks, when a certain movie from Marin is about to be unleashed on the world, the Marin Symphony is celebrating the sound of film in style. With the season’s final concert yesterday evening, to be repeated tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. at the Marin Center, Gary Sheldon’s band is joining the Star Wars orgy with a great deal of class and excellence. This is a fine mix of music composed for the movies, and some great classics used as film scores. With Assistant Concertmaster Amy Glidden in the first chair this week, the orchestra is playing splendidly: Any Hollywood studio would be lucky to have it. Also, it was a special evening for Glen Swarts, the principal French horn player. But beyond the collective excellence under Sheldon’s baton, the stars of this “Star Wars” week concert are the soloists: Meg Mackay’s lucid singing in “When You wish Upon a Star” from “Pinocchio” and Freidrich Hollaender’s “A Little Yearning” from “The Blue Angel”; the ethereal Celia Fushille-Burke dancing Michael Smuin choreography in both, with partner Joral Schmalle in “The Blue Angel”. Best of show was Roy Bogas as the soloist in the second and third movements of the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 (the “Rach 3” that’s at the heart of “Shine”) - an effortless singing performance of a truly difficult score. It was great to see the ovation for Bogas, a pianist usually hidden in the pit at San Francisco Ballet performances. He expressed his appreciation with a sublime encore, the G Sharp Minor Prelude by Rachmaninoff. After all the sound and fury of the Piano Concerto, it was that gorgeous last note of the Prelude that lingered in the memory. From the classics used in film came Paul Dukas’ “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” (Fantasia); Sheldon doing better than a mere Stokowsky imitation; Richard Strauss’ “Also Sprach Zarathustra” fanfare (“2001: A Space Odyssey”); and the final movement of Saint-Saens’ Third (“Organ”) Symphony…yes, by way of “Babe” - no pig ever wallowed in more stirring music. And yes, there is also John Williams - how could it be otherwise? - with the theme from “Schindler’s List,” along with “Jabba the Hut” and “Cantina Band” from the current prequel’s long-ago sequels.
By Janos Gereben
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GARY SHELDON - CONCERT REVIEW |