Review: TICO’s Annual Pops Concert

By Eileen Wingard

LA JOLLA, California — At TICO’s (Tifereth Israel Community Orchestra) annual Pops Concert, Robert Zelickman was named the orchestra’s assistant conductor. After the concert’s opening two selections, an unfamiliar Sousa March, “Hands Across the Sea,” and a familiar Strauss waltz, “Voices of Spring,” the orchestra was warmed up for Zelickman as he mounted the podium to conduct “Three Dances from The Bartered Bride by Smetana.”

Robert Zelickman is known in San Diego since 1981 as principal clarinetist for the San Diego Chamber Orchestra, lecturer on Jewish music and conductor of the Wind  Ensemble at UCSD, co-director of the Second Avenue Klezmer Ensemble, soloist, chamber musician, and teacher.

The three dances, “Polka,” “Furiant,” and “Dance of the Comedians” were played with precision and dynamic contrasts and characterized by exciting energy.

The violins executed the spiccato passages cleanly in the Dance of the Comedians and the trumpets were outstanding. TICO responded well to Zelickman.

Conductor David Amos and TICO are to be commended for selecting Zelickman as their assistant conductor. This bodes well for the orchestra as they enter their 50th anniversary season.

Next on the program was “The Chinese Rhapsody” by Xian Xinghai, conducted by Franklin Au, TICO’s co-principal viola. Xian Xinghai was the first Chinese composer influenced by Western Music. He was born in 1905 in Macau, on China’s southern coast. His early musical training was at the National Music Institute at the Peking University and the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. At the age of 24, he was accepted as the first Chinese student at the Paris Conservatory. Next year, he returned to China, and wrote many songs protesting the Japanese occupation. In 1940, he traveled to Moscow to write film scores.  Because of the Nazi invasion, he was not able to return to China. He died in Moscow in 1945 at the age of 40.

The Chinese Rhapsody was based on five Chinese folk songs, the culminating one, a dance. The rhapsody began with pizzicatos. Wood blocks, Chinese gongs, and cymbals were prominently featured to lend a Chinese flavor to the interesting work.

The first half of the program culminated with “Elgar’s Pomp” and “Circumstance March No. 4,” beautifully rendered under the baton of TICO’s founder and conductor, David Amos.

After intermission, selections from “Man of La Mancha” were nicely played, with changes of tempo and spirit well-adhered to. One of conductor Arthur Fiedler’s (founding conductor, Boston Pops) favorite novelties followed, “The Syncopated Clock” by Leroy Anderson.

The concert concluded with two dance episodes from “Rodeo” by Aaron Copland, “Saturday Night Waltz” and “Hoedown” before the concert finale, the obligatory Sousa March, “Stars and Stripes Forever,” with the piccolos shining.

Amos is again planning a creative program for the upcoming 50th anniversary season of TICO, to include the fifth symphonies of composers Tchaikowsky, Beethoven, Shostakovitch and Schubert. Dates for concerts in Tifereth Israel’s Cohen Social Hall are December 3, matinee, December 5, evening, February 6, 2024, evening, April 14, matinee, April 16, evening, June 16, matinee, June 18, evening, and August 4, Annual Pops Concert.

The concert was well-attended with some young faces in the front row, a wonderful opportunity for students to experience a symphony orchestra up close.

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Eileen Wingard is a freelance writer specializing in coverage of the arts. She may be contacted via eileen.wingard@sdjewishworld.com