By Eileen Wingard
SAN DIEGO — Two weeks after their well-attended concert at the Lawrence Family JCC, TICO (Tifereth Israel Community Orchestra) was back at its home territory, Tifereth Israel Synagogue, presenting a program of totally different repertoire. Fortunately, most of the offerings were familiar works that the musicians probably performed before, either with TICO or in other contexts.
One of the musicians recalled that the last movement of the LArlesienne Suite No. 2, the “Farandole,” she had played with her high school orchestra, and I remember hearing TICO perform Richard Rogers’ Victory at Sea at previous Pops concerts. However, one work, the Concerto for Tuba and Orchestra, Death Valley Kangaru by Micah Levy, was totally unfamiliar and its unpredictable rhythms and meter changes provided some stumbling blocks as a few notes fell, unintended, into pauses. The tuba soloist, William Nakamura, did a fine job making the tuba, that elephant of the orchestra, sound beautiful and negotiating the hopping, kangaroo-like leaps with agility. As the printed program notes explained, the work was inspired by the kangaroo-rat of Death Valley.
Since Death Valley is the lowest place in the Americas and the tuba is the lowest sounding instrument in the orchestra, composer Micah Levy selected it as his solo instrument. TICO s assistant conductor, Robert Zelickman, did a heroic job, signaling the changing meters, but the rapid pace and the unexpected syncopations could have used a bit more rehearsing.
The opening LArlesienne Suite No. 2 by the French composer, George Bizet, conducted by the orchestra’s founder and director, David Amos, received a strong performance. Particularly memorable was the principal flute, Ken Kahan’s beautiful solos in the “Intermezzo” with harp accompaniment, simulated by the electronic keyboard, played by Rick Spencer, and the bold bow strokes of the string section in the “Farandole,” leading to its thrilling climax.
Zoltan Kodaly’s Hary Janos Suite was the second selection on the program. The six-movement suite came from the Singspiel, Hary Janos, that Kodaly had written. It was about the tall tales of a mythical soldier in the Napoleonic War. Kodaly’s friend and colleague, Bela Bartok, encouraged him to create a suite out of the six episodes of the stage work. Kodaly and Bartok were also musicologists who went into the hinterlands of Hungary to collect folksongs on which they often based their compositions. They are credited with being the founders of modern Hungarian music.
Detailed program notes about the Kodaly work were included in the printed program, written by Laszlo Eosze, Kodaly’s biographer, who also happened to be a relative of TICO’s principal clarinet.
Such printed program notes were a welcome addition. Generally, TICO’s printed programs contain bios of the conductors and the soloists, but no notes about the selections. Rather, the conductors introduce each work with a few brief comments.
TICO did a fine job of accenting the opening syncopations in the third movement’s “Song,” and the fifth movement’s “Intermezzo,” reflective of Hungarian speech. The principal violist, Franklin Au, played the “Song’s” opening solo with confidence, and the electronic imitation of the cembalo served well throughout the movement. There was also some beautiful clarinet solo work by principal clarinetist, Joseph Stein.
Concluding the concert was Richard Rodgers Victory at Sea, a medley of tunes written for a TV documentary about the Navy during World War II. It was orchestrated by Robert Russell Bennett. Particularly beguiling was the tango for the segment, “Beneath the Southern Cross,” which was the popular song, “No Other Love Have I. “The segment, “Fiddlin off-Watch,” featured the concertmaster, Bryce Newall, in a lively fiddle tune. The “Hymn of Victory,” and final “Main Theme, were played with appropriate grandeur to end an enjoyable concert.
TICO’s next program will be April 6 at 3 p.m. and April 8 at 7 p.m. at Tifereth Israel Synagogue, featuring the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2, performed by Ines Irawati, piano and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No 6, Pathetique.
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Eileen Wingard is a freelance writer and a retired violinist with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra.