Fab Four fab at Cal Phil; Webber next

The faux Fab Four were as fab as always with the California Philharmonic orchestra June 29, providing a special opportunity for attendees to see “The Beatles” doing things they never did for real, such as performing the group’s later hits live on stage, and in concert with a full orchestra. Also unreal: watching the other “Beatles” perform with each other on their solo hits such as John Lennon’s Imagine and Paul McCartney’s theme from the James Bond 007 movie “Live and Let Die.”

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The program on a day that was quite hot but cooled down considerably by showtime at sunset drew an impressive opening night crowd estimated at more than 3,500 for the annual summer Festival on the Green concerts on the expansive infield of the Santa Anita Park horse race track. The sizable crowd was even more remarkable given the unprecedented competition literally across the street at the L.A. County Arboretum where the Pasadena Pops was staging its second outdoor concert of the summer at the exact same time with Broadway singer/actress Bernadette Peters, likely its most high-profile program of the season, which drew an audience variously estimated at somewhere between 4,000 – 6,000. No complaints were heard from attendees or City officials about traffic issues getting to the venue or entering and leaving the parking lot, which costs $15 per vehicle at Santa Anita. The Pops concert apparently ended earlier than CalPhil, with Pops attendees reporting they heard the Beatles songs still playing as they were leaving that program. The two orchestras face off again with dueling programs this Saturday evening, July 13, when the Pops’ conductor Michael Feinstein presents a program of MGM movie music, and again Aug. 10, when the Pops presents its own “Classical Mystery Tour” tribute to Beatles music.

After an apaprently unplanned on-stage presentation of appreciation to CalPhil music director Victor Vener by the Arcadia Firefighters Assoc., the first half of the June 29 program featured traditional classic numbers such as Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony, The Pastoral, with maestro/conductor Victor Vener’s non-traditional but crowd-appealing pre-performance explanation of the origin of the piece and notations of what to listen for. He also stopped between movements to allow the audience to applaud, something he told the audience that Beethoven nd others used to do back in the day, and so he could provide more verbal guidance.

Vener then steered the program into the pop music portion with an orchestral medley of Beach Boys hits, which was enjoyable but tends to sound like elevator music when there are no vocals. A lack of vocals for classic pop rock hits was not a problem for the second half of the program, which featured the popular Beatles tribute band. The quartet not only sound like the originals in speech and song, but they also make an effort to physically remember the lads from Liverpool — “McCartney” even plays left-handed — and also make a couple costume changes to reflect the various periods of the Beatles during their brief but prolific six-year period between arriving in the U.S. in 1964 and breaking up the band in early 1970. And there are additional hair and clothing changes for the post-Beatles solos by McCartney and Lennon. Not only were many of the Beatles songs produced with a full orchestra that never left the recording studio, Vener said the written orchestration was discarded after the recordings and had to be painstakingly re-created by Roger Allen Ward, whom he beckoned for an on-stage introduction to an appreciative audience. Later, the crowd burst into spontaneous cheers and applause for the CalPhl trumpeter who belted out impeccable challenging solos during the performance of The Beatles Penny Lane that were quickly and properly recognized by the audience. With multiple teenage “American Idol” contestants recently proclaiming complete unfamiliarity with Beatles songs, and with some thirty-and-forty-somethings in the June 29 Arcadia audience noting that they recognized the songs but never knew they were Beatles tunes, the Fab Four and Cal Phil can be applauded for not only introducing and keeping alive classical music from previous centuries, but also doing the same for pop rock classics of only 40-50 years ago.  

CalPhil’s next program July 13 is called “Andrew Lloyd Webber Meets Puccini” and features singers Lori Stinson, Christopher Campbell and Cedric Berry, along with the Cal Phil Chorale, who are prepared by Chorus Maestra Marya Basarba. They will provide vocals to such acclaimed musical masterpieces as Phantom of the Opera, La Boheme, Evita, Sunset Blvd. and Tosca. as well as Nessun Dorma from Turandot.

1. July 27: Concert-goers will want to break out their best dancing shoes for Dance Fever. Dancing With The Stars sensation Derek Hough, fresh off the heels of his most recent Mirror Ball Trophy victory, takes center stage with the orchestra during a fun-fueled line-up of songs including tributes to Elvis, Abba and Michael Jackson. More surprises are on tap for the don’t-miss program that also includes Dance of the Seven Veils, Romeo and Juliet, Hava Nagila and Ritual Fire Dance.

2. Aug. 10: Rodgers, Hammerstein and Gershwin. The acclaimed orchestra is joined by in-demand special guests, sensational Broadway stars Kim Huber and James Barbour and mesmerizing pianist Bryan Pezzone. The spectacular San Gabriel Mountains will come alive with the sound of sensational music including highlights from such classics as Oklahoma!, Sound Of Music, South Pacific and Carousel, as well as performances of Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue and An American in Paris.

3. Aug. 24 Season Finale: Les Miz and Bernstein. Singers Randal Keith and Melissa Lyons, stars of Les Misérables on Broadway and the National Tour, join Cal Phil and the Cal Phil Chorale in an enthralling season finale that features powerful performances from selections of Les Miz and Candide as well as On The Town and Symphonic Dances from West Side Story.

— By Scott Hettrick