The Bloomington Symphony Orchestra’s September 6 children’s concert was a great success. Many thanks go out to the management and merchants at College Mall for their support. An excerpt from the Herald Times review:
Music review: Bloomington Symphony Orchestra
Surprising eastside venue proves to be a success for Western-themed concertBy Peter Jacobi H-T Reviewer
September 8, 2008It wasn’t an expected place for the start of Bloomington’s new music season, but it proved a happy choice, even inspired. And so was the content for the intended audience.
Decked in jeans, denim shirts, bandanas, cowboy hats, and some even in boots, members of the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra gathered in the center court of College Mall Saturday afternoon, with the Target circles of red in the background, to perform a “Western Roundup” family concert.
All the set-up rows of seats were filled with the very young and the not so. And dozens upon dozens stood to the rear and sides, some just coming and going, but many stopping by to stay. More than one youngster was heard pleading with a parent who had more rushed shopping in mind to “let me hear the music.”
Conductor Charles Latshaw, cowboy dressed and speaking “Western” as he announced the bill of fare, added to the informality of the occasion. Not only that, but he conducted with an obvious care for the music and the event. Though acoustical bounce and echoes tended to mush the instrumental output, one could easily discern the snap and gusto that the BSO musicians were giving this special assignment.
Everyone seemed taken by the opportunity. Here, first, was an audience of children who, given this exposure, might be led toward adulthoods favoring attendance at symphony concerts and, then, of adults, perhaps not all inclined to patronize the BSO but tempted to following this pleasant exposure.
Latshaw chose a varied repertoire, the all of it, however, tied somehow to the American West. One heard a medley of themes from cowboy movies (“The Magnificent Seven,” “The Good, The Bad and the Ugly,” “Hang ’Em High”). There was a beautifully arranged suite of music from the musical “Oklahoma!” The stirring tune “Shenandoah” was played with a tonal glow. A lively “Pops Hoedown,” written by Richard Hayman, was followed by a couple of excerpts from Aaron Copland’s ballet score, “Rodeo.”
A sing-along brought a change of pace for the audience, this as those who had been listening became lusty vocalists for the likes of “She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain” and “Home on the Range” and “The Yellow Rose of Texas,” among others.
For some who came, Latshaw’s announcement that the concert would close with the Overture to Rossini’s opera, “William Tell,” might momentarily have caused puzzlement, but that all ended when the orchestra reached the climax of the piece, which sports a most familiar theme: that of the “Lone Ranger.”
There were cheers. These were awfully good to hear, and deserved for this well-considered concert. May the mall folks and the BSO continue to collaborate on such happenings.
