Symphony gives Fox truly grand opening

The Spokane Symphony gave a spectacular introduction of its new home to a wildly enthusiastic capacity audience Saturday. The newly renamed Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox proved well worth the wait. The hall looks great in its art deco resplendence, but best of all, it sounds wonderful.

The first of the evening’s well-deserved standing ovations went to Myrtle Woldson whose $1 million contribution got the Fox restoration project under way and whose additional $2 million gift made sure the project would be completed. The hall’s new official name honors her father, Martin Woldson, a Spokane business magnate who died in 1958.

Music director Eckart Preu chose a program that could scarcely have been better designed to show off the new hall. The orchestra began program proper with Beethoven’s Overture to Goethe’s play “Egmont.” But even from the drum roll and first notes of “The Star-Spangled Banner” that prefaced the concert, the orchestral sound had an in-your-ear presence I have never experienced with this orchestra in any of the other halls where I have heard the group play.

The “Egmont” Overture gave a clear idea of what the orchestra’s sound really was: a rich, resonant foundation of cellos and basses, great clarity in the melodic exchanges of the solo woodwinds and in the punctuating chords from the brasses, and high definition playing from the violins.

Preu’s selection of the evening’s soloist, mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, was an inspired choice, too. One American singer is quoted as saying that mezzos in opera sang only “witches, bitches and boys.” Von Stade has avoided the witch territory, and has only recently added more villianesses to her roles. But it was a boy’s role – that of Cherubino in Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro” – that internationalized Von Stade’s career. And her singing of the lovesick teenager’s “Non so piu, cosa son” has the same irrepressible excitement and vocal agility she has brought to the part dozens, maybe hundreds, of times in the world’s opera houses.

Von Stade seemed clearly to be having fun in the title role of “La Grande Duchesse de Geroldstein” in two arias from that operetta. And she had even greater fun singing her encore “Ah! Quel diner je viens de faire” (the “Tipsy Aria”) from Offenbach’s “La Perichole.” It was interesting to hear the Habanera from Bizet’s “Carmen” sung with such refinement, though I like my Carmens a bit earthier.

On the more serious side, Von Stade showed the elegance of her vocal control in Charlotte’s aria from Massenet’s “Werther.” And the unusual (for 19th-century opera) saxophone obbligato was played with matching sensitivity by Gregory Yasinitsky.

Following intermission, Donald Thulean, the Spokane Symphony’s conductor when it last played concerts in The Fox, mounted the podium to conduct Hans-Peter Preu’s “Fanfare for The Fox.” Eckart Preu’s older brother made a clever amalgamation of styles – music suited to Hollywood film scores, a bit of swing, and a touch, now and then, of cartoon music – that fit The Fox’s history as a movie house.

Eckart Preu conducted the concert’s finale, Respighi’s orchestral showpiece “The Pines of Rome.” This is a work that has just about everything needed to show off an orchestra and a concert hall. There was the magical evocation of children playing noisily among “The Pines of the Villa Borghese,” followed by the somber atmosphere of sacred chant in “The Pines Near the Catacomb.” Even more beautiful, though, was the nocturne in which the moon outlines “The Pines of the Janiculum” ending with a recorded nightingale’s song. Good balance between the quiet string parts and the recorded birdsong is easy enough to achieve on recordings, but not so easy in live concerts. From where I was sitting in the balcony, Saturday’s balance was near perfect.

The ear-filling tumult of Respighi’s finale, “The Pines of the Appian Way,” the distant approach to the full force of the marching blare of Caesar’s legions, made a triumphant finale. The sound of the symphony’s augmented brass sections, on stage and in the balcony, were mighty impressive. The final pages of this movement were encored after a prolonged ovation.

The gala evening was a magnificent beginning of a new era for the Spokane Symphony in its new home. Preu quoted Goethe, “To those who follow, you can say, ‘We were there.’ “