By D’LYNN WALDRON, PHD. Special to the Daily Press
The Santa Monica Symphony was recently met with a standing ovation at its last performance of the year.
An audience of 2,000 of all ages in the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on May 30 roared for conductor and music director Allen Gross, violinist Roger Wilkie and symphony members during the concluding concert in this season of the symphony’s 59-year tradition of admission-free concerts.
The program began with Ravel’s ‘Le Tombeau de Couperin’, which appropriately for Memorial Day, was written as a tribute to six of his fellow soldiers who fell on the battlefields of World War I.
Under Gross, the orchestra fully expressed the variety of emotions Ravel intended for this piece, and the symphony’s solo woodwind players handled the virtuositic demands of the score with ease.
The next piece was Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto #2 in G Minor, Opus 63, with a virtuoso performance by acclaimed violinist Roger Wilkie. Wilkie’s emotional engagement with the music brought into full realization the lyricism of the first two movements and then the powerful statement of the last movement.
Following the intermission, the orchestra played Mozart’s marvelous last symphony, #41 in C Major, later named “The Jupiter.” Gross seemed to have the soul of Mozart in the tips of his fingers as he guided the orchestra in the intricacies of the playful passages, which are interwoven with the profound elements of the Symphony in a display of the theatrical genius that has made Mozart’s operas enduringly popular.
The “Jupiter” is Mozart’s culminating statement that life is to be enjoyed, and so was a fitting conclusion for 59th season in the Santa Monica Symphony’s tradition of admission-free concerts that that have brought joy into the lives of the hundreds of thousands of people of all ages. There were people at the concert who had come as children and were now bringing their grandchildren.
The many children brought to this concert, some as young as 5 years old, all listened and watched with enraptured attention, proving that good music, well played, is enjoyed by all ages.
As part of the symphony’s outreach to the schools, on May 23, the children of Grant Elementary School were invited to talk with Dr. Gross, who is a professor of music at Occidental College and Caltech, and relates wonderfully with small children. Wilkie played passages of music for them. The children then attended a rehearsal of symphony orchestra in their auditorium.
In another part of the symphony’s outreach, in April, 1,600 elementary school children enjoyed a special concert of “A Colorful Symphony” based on the children’s classic “The Phantom Tollbooth.”
The Symphony’s 2004-2005 60th Anniversary season of five concerts begins with a concert on October 10th, 2004, and will conclude May 29, 2005, with the most popular symphony in the classical repertoire. There will also be special events for the children of the Santa Monica/Malibu Unified School District.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 5, 2004. Read the original PDF.