Symphony brings curtain down on summer
Around these parts, the end of summer is signaled by the musical thunder of the Spokane Symphony.
Spokane’s traditional Labor Day event, the symphony’s free Comstock Park concert, is Monday at 6 p.m.
You might even say that the end of summer will come two days earlier in Liberty Lake. The symphony will perform the same program in a free concert at Pavillion Park on Saturday at 6 p.m.
This actually constitutes a cutback in the concerts-in-the-park schedule. A third concert, at Audubon Park on the north side of Spokane, was axed this year due to “very serious belt-tightening,” according to outgoing symphony executive director John Hancock.
Still, thousands of people will gather at these two locations to enjoy what has become a holiday rite: a blanket, a picnic basket and some Copland, Sousa and John Williams.
Meanwhile, a new tradition may be taking shape in Coeur d’Alene, where Opera Plus singers and the Coeur d’Alene Symphony will present their first-ever “Labor Day Musical Picnic” in City Park on Monday at 1 p.m.
The “All American Songbook” program will range from Sousa marches to traditional American songs. There also will be a competition for best themed picnics in the categories of “So Coeur d’Alene,” “Idaho Elegance,” “Labor Day” and “American Musical,” with opera and symphony tickets as prizes.
The Spokane concerts will be the first official introduction of new music director Eckart Preu, and longtime Labor Day attendees will notice a few changes.
For one thing, the concert will no longer end with the “1812 Overture” by Tchaikovsky. Preu has created his own program, which will close with music from John Williams’ “The Phantom Menace,” followed by encores including Mendelssohn’s “Wedding March” and Strauss’ “Radetzky March.”
This could cause some grumbling among the tradition-minded in the crowd. Previous music conductor Fabio Mechetti once took some heat for deleting the traditional “Stars and Stripes Forever.” Preu has kept “Stars and Stripes Forever,” but moved it to the middle of the concert, where it will be guest-conducted by Spokane Mayor Jim West.
The rest of the program will feature Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man,” Gershwin’s “Porgy & Bess,” Nielsen’s “Aladdin Suite,” Strauss’ Overture to “Die Fledermaus,” Glazunov’s “The Seasons – Summer,” Grieg’s Suite No. 1 from “Peer Gynt” (Anitra’s Dance), Alford’s “Colonel Bogey March,” Steffe’s arrangement of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” and Anderson’s “The Typewriter.”
As always, picnics are welcome, some of which will be quite elaborate. Concessions will also be available.
The Comstock concert will also feature the annual “Spokane Arts: A Season Preview” event, in which 41 arts organizations set up booths and pass out information, along with the popular “Musical Instrument Petting Zoo,” where kids can play instruments. The preview event will run from 4 to 7 p.m. on Monday.
“A Season Preview” may be another tradition going by the wayside. The Spokane Arts Commission has already announced that it will no longer be able to organize the event in 2005, due to budget cutbacks.