Symphony Shines In ‘Spring Fling’

Spokane Symphony At The Met Sunday afternoon, May 10, The Met

The Spokane Symphony proved once again that classical music is perhaps best suited to the cozy confines of The Met.

That was particularly true in this concert, which was subtitled “Spring Fling.” This final concert of the season combined three different elements - Baroque chamber music, children’s music and French orchestral suites - all of which benefit from being heard in an intimate setting.

All of these elements worked beautifully together. The concert had only one major disappointment, but since it had nothing to do with the actual music, we’ll deal with that at the end.

Meanwhile, the music was delightful right from the beginning.

The opening piece was the Concert Royaux No. 3 from the French Baroque composer Couperin, and our appreciation of it was vastly improved by conductor Jung-Ho Pak’s minilesson at the beginning. He had the clarinetist play the melody without embellishments, and then with the trills that make Baroque music seem so, baroque.

This was played by a six-piece ensemble, with clarinet, flute and violin taking lead roles in different sections.

The second piece was Calvin Custer’s musical setting to the words of “Talking to the Sun,” a collection of poems from around the world. Custer’s music was bright, lively and always interesting, evoking comparisons to Stravinsky and Copland. During one Navajo folk poem, the music almost sounded like something Stephen Sondheim might have written.

The Spokane Children’s Chorus, always professional in sound and demeanor, did a superlative job of singing the accompanying text.

The next piece, Poulenc’s “The Story of Babar, the Little Elephant,” was the clear crowd-pleaser for the numerous children in the audience. Spokane teacher and storyteller Karrie Brown gave a lively reading of the famous children’s story, and Poulenc’s music was vivid.

You could almost hear the elephants cavorting on the beach, the sounds of city traffic and the joyous celebration of Babar’s coronation.

The concert came full circle with Ravel’s “Le Tombeaude Couperin,” which was Ravel’s homage to the style of Couperin. Once again, Pak made the music more meaningful by giving a short demonstration of the difference between Ravel’s original piano suite and his finished orchestral suite.

Pak opened our ears to the beauty of this orchestral setting.

Which leads me to the concert’s only disappointment. We were expecting a farewell speech, or at least some farewell comments, from Pak, who is making his final appearance with the Spokane Symphony before taking over the resurrected San Diego Symphony.

Certainly he is not required to turn his last concert into a sentiment-fest. Yet it left some of us in the audience feeling as if we did not get the chance to express our appreciation properly.

Maybe he will say his farewells tonight, during the reprise concert at The Met at 7:30 p.m.

If not, we’ll have to express our appreciation some other way.

Pak, you are a delight; you’ll be missed.