Symphony overcomes inconveniences for a spectacular season-opening concert

DOWNEY – Concert-goers made their way on duckboards and temporary ramps to cautionary yellow-ribboned side doors where attentive ticket-takers waited.

“It’s a triumph,” said Joyce Sherwin. “Every person in this Lobby got in here by a different route.”

Joyce is Concert Production Manager for the Downey Symphonic Society, and she congratulated Venue Tech’s Amber Vogel for the unimpeded sweep of concrete that is the new patio. Patrons good-naturedly accepted the minor inconveniences as part of the improvements that, like the future Theatre Plaza and re-configured Library, represent Downey tax dollars at work. Thanks to tax-payers for approving Measure S.

Amber Vogel and Joyce Sherwin. Photo by Lorine Parks

“I know this was an important night,” said Amber, “and I just Put my foot down. It had to be ready.”

How new was the patio floor? “They just finished it yesterday,” said Amber.

The thought did occur, while climbing the stairs to the balcony, “By the next concert in January, maybe the elevator will be installed.”

An air of high energy filled the lobby, where an art show, “Retro: Iconic Images From the Past,” covered the walls.

Jorge del Toro’s ceramics dated from 1974. “My high school years,” Jorge said, “when my work showed a Hispanic influence.”

One was a small jaguar perched on a gourd, another showed a Mezo-American’s features incised on the iridescent glaze. Its feet were snarling animals.

Jorge’s wife Caroline Estrada-del Toro’s black and white “Untitled” photograph showed a young woman caught between shadow and light.

“My youngest daughter,” said Carolina. “She loves to pose for me.”

Pat Gil who curated the art show for the Downey Arts Coalition along with Andrew Hernandez, introduced me to artist Basma Kassem who stood by her large painting of a Native American in feathers and furs silhouetted against an empty prairie. Basma lives in Long Beach grew up in Syria.

“The figure is from my imagination," she said. “He is sighing at the end of the day. But there is always tomorrow.”

Basma Kassem stands next to her original painting. Photo by Lorine Parks

Dorothy Pemberton looked striking in black and white polka dot pajama pants with a sparkly sequin tank top and a black velvet jacket. “This jacket was my mother’s,” said Dorothy, in keeping with the Retro art theme, “it’s from the 1950’s.”

An enthusiastic audience filed into their seats for Maestro Sharon Lavery’s downbeat, and the Brahms Festival Overture started the evening on an upbeat note. The barely disguised University Drinking Song got the full Brahms sonority.

Violinist Strauss Shi strode out for the Bizet Carmen Fantasie, stood squarely facing the audience and produced a technique that fire-bombed everyone out of their seats. Using Franz Waxman’s masterful orchestration, Shi did things with the violin that I didn’t even have words for, but it didn’t matter. in his hands the violin became the gypsy Carmen, sharp and demanding in her Habañera theme song. His instrument evoked the tender Don Jose and Michaela love duet, then the crazed crowd cheering the Toreador.

How to top that? The intensity remained, but with Tchaikovsky’s Valse-Sherzo it became feverish. Shi’s tiny precise movements on the fingerboard were performed at hummingbird speed; double stops and cadenzas stunned the listeners. As always Maestro Lavery displayed an extraordinary sympathy to the needs of the visiting soloist.

On his second curtain call Shi received a bouquet of white roses across the footlights from a young admirer. He gave the bouquet to Maestro Sharon, whom he knows from USC’s Thornton School of Music where as a young virtuoso Shi is studying, and Musical Director Maesto Sharon teaches.

The audience needed a time out. Seen at intermission: poets Frank Kearns and Clifton Snider talking shop as they made their way across the lobby. Frank’s new book, “Pleasant Street,” has just come out, under the Los Nietos Press imprimatur.

Long-time patrons Mary Golay and Adele Alexander agreed they were impressed by the violinist. as was Don Marshall, president of the Downey Symphonic Society. “Awesome in every sense of the word,” said son Zach Marshall, and his son JB agreed. Greg Welch and Ryan Keene admired the entire string section.

Lars Clutterham was thanked from the stage for bringing some of his student string players from the Downey Foundation for Educational Opportunities. They brightened the balcony. Last April’s guest conductor of the opening piece, Aaron Saldana, was presented with a plaque for his efforts and an honorary baton. He was awarded the opportunity by high bidder Bernice Mancebo Stumps.

Karol and Hop Morrison arrive at Saturday’s concert. Photo by Lorine Parks

Part of the fun of intermission is picking up news-in-the-making. “I’m opening an art center in Downey,” confided painter Roy Anthony Shabla. “I can’t tell you where just yet, but rents for artists’ space are reasonable. We will have studios, a gallery, a small theatre and a conference room. We’ll invite musicians and have monthly meetings. And there will be a place for poetry.”

Spotlight on the Featured Section of the Evening: the percussion, specifically, the cymbals. Although they are used only rarely, they are the kind of instrument that is appreciated when they come in on time, and would become infamous if they were played on the wrong beat. Timing is everything.

From my newly chosen seat in the balcony, the whole orchestra is exposed, from the back row French horn player seated on the riser, to the far side front principal bass player. I could make out the difference between soft tufted heads of the drum sticks for the bass drum and the set of mallets for the timpani.

“To play, or to be part of the percussion section,” advises the Oregon Crusader Cymbal Technique Packet, “you must be able to push yourself mentally to approach every count, every time, all of the time, with clarity and confidence. You will own your cymbals like they are an extension of your body. You will be pushed to exhaustive lengths every time you put on your cymbals, thus you must be trained to endure.” The big symphonic piece of the evening was about to test that resolve.

Maestro Lavery’s baton signaled the call for horns and bassoons to open Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Concerto in F minor. The same summons occurs in Beethoven’s famous Fifth, but Tchaikovsky responds in a different manner, with a personal melancholy that says he is at first unwilling to take on the heroics. Little sighs on the flute echo that.

The long first movement also features strings that sing lyrically, suggesting his Serenade for Strings melodies, that he wrote just two years later. The first movement is written in part “in movimento di Valse,” and the temptation to sway with Tchaikovsky is hard to resist. But the call to conscience becomes more insistent.

The Symphony becomes personal and intimate with the melancholy melody of the oboe. Strings play pizzicato throughout the third movement and one almost expects the Sugar Plum Fairy to appear, so remarkably does Tchaikovsky suggest themes he will later expand and borrow from himself

In the vigorous finale, Tchaikovsky incorporates a Russian folk song, and peasant vigor takes over, until the Fate theme sounds again on the horns. Folk music and Fate finally harmonize as Tchaikovsky seems to have come to an uneasy balance. Lightning bolts come from the percussion section, constant drumming on the three timpani as well as beating on the big bass drum, with cymbals clashing and crashing, a vigorous and triumphant end. Still, all cannot be well. Too much still unsaid.

The Downey Symphonic Society invites the public to celebrate Ludwig van Beethoven’s 250th birthday at its next concert Jan. 18, 2020. Pick up the dialogue between the Downey Symphony Orchestra and the audience. Surprises abound. Tickets at downeysymphony.org.