By Eileen Wingard
SAN DIEGO — What glorious Gershwin at the San Diego Symphony’s August 17 and 18 Bayside Summer Nights concerts! Conductor Rob Fisher assembled an outstanding trio of vocalists to sing the Gershwin songs and led the San Die Symphony in a splendid rendition of An American In Paris.
Before conducting Gershwin’s famous tone poem, he introduced us to the differently pitched car horns, whose sounds are sprinkled throughout the piece. The many solos were beautifully rendered by the principal woodwind and brass players, including the tuba, played by veteran symphony principal and former Pops Conductor, Matt Garbutt. Concertmaster Jeff Thayer shone in his solo violin passages. One could certainly envision the streets of Paris through the eyes of an American tourist, while listening to this well-paced performance.
In the first half of the program, the multi-talented Robert Fairchild, former principal dancer of the New York City Ballet, displayed his prodigious abilities as vocalist and tap dancer.
Soprana Aundi Marie Moore sang two of Gershwin’s most famous ballads, “Someone to Watch Over Me,” and “Embraceable You.” Although her voice sounded a bit breathy and tremulous in these songs, after intermission, when she sang selections from Porgy and Bess, her operatic soprano soared with emotional fervor. She was most convincing in “Summertime” and “My Man’s Gone Now.”
The hit of the evening, however, was bass-baritone Norm Lewis, who portrayed Porgy in a recent Broadway production. His voice was rich and robust, with wonderful enunciation and star-power acting ability. He WAS Porgy when he sang “I Got Plenty of Nuttin,’” “Bess, You Is My Woman Now,” and “It Ain’t Necessarily So.”
The San Diego Master Chorale and the San Diego Symphony participated in the wonderful performance of the Porgy and Bess music, arranged by Robert Russel Bennett.
The concert opened with a spirited rendition of the Overture to Girl Crazy.
Rob Fischer introduced the music and the performers with enough information to enhance our listening pleasure.
The final concerts of the San Diego Symphony’s Bayside Summer Nights will be the 1812 Tchaikovsky Spectacular under the direction of Sameer Patel, the SDSO’s brilliant Associate Conductor, in a program to include works by Borodin, Glinka, Khachaturian and Rachmaninoff as well as Tchaikovsky.
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Wingard, a retired violinist with the San Diego Symphony, is a freelance writer specializing in coverage of the arts. She may be contacted via eileen.wingard@sdjewishworld.com