AROUND TOWN/MUSIC: Pasadena Pops, Cal Phil to open summer seasons

By Robert D. Thomas

Music Critic

Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily
News

This article was first
published today in the above papers.

Contrary to what a well-known critic at the 300-pound
gorilla on Spring St. wrote a couple of weeks ago, there’s a lot more to
summertime music in Southern California than Hollywood Bowl (although I will
discuss the Bowl season in two weeks).

Consider the Pasadena Pops and the California Philharmonic,
which kick off their 2011 summer campaigns during the next fortnight, each
offering programs of amiable music and the opportunity for enjoying munching
and music under the stars (even if the latter aren’t always visible in the
ozone).

The Pops returns to The Lawn Adjacent to the Rose Bowl with
four concerts beginning this Saturday at 7:30 p.m. when guest conductor Michael
Krajewski leads a program celebrating the 125th anniversary of Pasadena that
includes a fireworks display. The program has both classical selections —
Rossini’s William Tell overture and
Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture — and a
healthy selection of familiar pops fare as well, including God Bless America, 76 Trombones and (appropriately enough) Everything’s Coming Up Roses.

Krajewski is a major figure in the world of Pops orchestras;
he’s the principal pops conductor of the Houston Symphony and the Jacksonville
Symphony Orchestra, and is the first person to hold that title with the Atlanta
Symphony Orchestra.

On July 23, one of the world’s most decorated
composer-conductor figures, Marvin Hamlisch makes his first appearance as the
Pasadena Pops’ principal pops conductor when he leads the first of three
concerts that will conclude the 2011 season. Hamlisch is one of just two people
to have been awarded Emmys
(he’s won four), Grammys
(four), Oscars
(three), and a Tony
plus a Pulitzer
Prize (the other to capture that quartet is Richard Rodgers). Hamlisch
has also won three Golden Globes.

In recent years, Hamlisch (who attended The Juillard School
and graduated from Queens College) has focused more on conducting. In addition
to his new Pasadena post, he is principal pops conductor for the
Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Dallas, Seattle and San Diego symphony orchestras.

In the three concerts at the Rose Bowl, Hamlisch will focus
on what he knows best: his own music on July 23, Broadway on Aug. 6 and motion
pictures on Aug. 27.

Information: 626/ 793-7172; www.pasadenasymphony-pops.org

Meanwhile, Music Director Victor Vener and the Cal Phil open
their summer series on June 25 at 7:30 p.m. in the Los Angeles County Arboretum
with the return of “Beethoven and the Beatles.” The program repeats the
following afternoon at 2 p.m. in Walt Disney Concert Hall. Soloists are “The
Fab Four,” a group that looks like the Beatles and does its best to sound like
them, too. The Beethoven is the Egmont
Overture and Symphony No. 5.

The back-to-back concert pattern continues for remainding
four programs except for the second one — “Andrew Lloyd Webber meets Puccini”
(another of Vener’s tried and true oldie-but-goodie offerings) — when the
Disney Hall concert is on July 3 and the Arboretum event is July 9.

The balance of the season is July 23/24 (“Dancing Under the
Stars,” with a mix of classical and popular selections); Aug. 6-7 (“Rodgers and
Hammerstein in Europe,” a curious title since the music includes South Pacific and Oklahoma, neither of which were set in Europe); and Aug. 23-24
(“That’s Entertainment”).

Information:
626/300-8200 ; www.calphil.org

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