It was more, a lot more, than just a few scary scores and people dressed up in costumes.
This year, the Golden State Pops Orchestra and Maestro Steven Allen Fox opened their 2013 season, the orchestra’s 12th, on Saturday night at the Warner Grand Theatre in San Pedro, collaborating with Varese Sarabande records and record producer Robert Townson to present the “Varese Sarabande 35th Anniversary Halloween Gala.” The concert featured the orchestra, flautist Sara Andon, the Golden State Pops Chorale and six guest conductors in a program that mixed brand-new works with American and world premieres of older works, all played with the Pops’ usual flair.
There was theatrical smoke blowing onto the Warner Grand stage, and members of the Chorale had decked themselves out with eye-shadow, but this was not an ordinary Halloween show. Townson was host and presented an evening of music that featured a number of works from recent movies, plus classic works by composers Elmer Bernstein and Bernard Herrmann. There were costumes in the audience, too (including a young boy in a suit of heavy fur that must have been very uncomfortable), but the focus was on stage.
Townson introduced each number with appropriate comments. The first, appropriately, was the “Varese Sarabande Overture,” a compilation of music from the scores of five films, including Herrmann’s “Psycho” and Jerry Goldsmith’s “The Omen” conducted by Joseph LoDuca, an effective and loud introduction to what was to come. Maestro Fox was next, presenting the end title from John Williams’ “Dracula,” a piece that proved elegant and even quiet in its spirit of finality.
Herrmann apparently said that his favorite movie score he ever composed was the one for “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir,” which had enough of a Halloween connection to be featured alongside “The Mummy” and “Dracula.” Conducted by John Debney, the work was gentle and even elegiac, a contrast to other works on the lengthy program.
Lee Holdridge conduced his Emmy-award winning theme from “Beauty and the Beast,” and then returned to the stage for a suite from Georges Delerue’s score for “Something Wicked This Way Comes,” with Andon as flute soloist. She was dressed in a very tight evening dress but managed to flute with dexterity and a little passion in the short work. She and Edelman returned in the second set (she in another designer number) and collaborated on a suite Edelman had created from Elmer Bernstein’s score for “Ghostbusters.”
The work was a surprising revelation: much more than just a crowd-pleasing movie score. It was passionate and delicate, and it gave Andon’s flute plenty of range for delicious expression and delicate passages. It was billed as the world premiere of the work by Townson, and it should not be the last time it is heard.
Edelman continues with a performance of his score for “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor,” which was noisy, and a suite from “True Blood” by Nathan Barr. Marco Beltrami opened the second half conducting a suite he put together from his scores for “I, Robot,” “Hellboy,” “Mimic” and “Knowing” that was a crowd pleaser.
For the concert’s end, Maestro Fox, with the band Philm and the Chorale, played a suite from the film “Ghost Rider,” and a brief encore from “Omen.”
Townson did a fine job of introducing the music, and the concert — the second in a row between Varese Sarabande and the Pops — was interesting and even occasionally exciting. The audience included plenty of folks who were there for the film music and were willing to shout there approval. Only the Chorale seemed a little out of place. They sang well and were clearly heard, but since the music provided offered little but passionate syllables, they didn’t get much to do.
Next on the Pops schedule for Dec. 21, is another collaboration between Varese Sarabande and the orchestra, the “Varese Sarabande 35th Anniversary Gala,” which will include more film music, including Herrmann’s music for “A Christmas Carol.”
John Farrell is a Long Beach-based freelance writer.
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