Doing the Noble Thing Badly

The ideal pops concert is played in a park, and its program is as light and harmless as a passing cloud--Gershwin, Sousa, Leroy Anderson. This follows the old axiom that serious music, like aged whisky, should be saved for cold winter nights.* But the music that Conductor Andre Kostelanetz chose to open the New York Philharmonic "Promenades" series last week had real substance--Shostakovich, Ravel, Alan Hovhaness.

Such enterprise might easily be mistaken for coming to the picnic in overcoat and vest, especially since the Philharmonic is a beginner at a game best played in Boston, and a rather stuffy beginner at that. But the mood Kostelanetz was after was something on the order of refined amusement. The staid rows of amber seats had been removed from Philharmonic Hall and replaced by tables and chairs as closely packed as in a Paris cafe. As the orchestra played, the audience sipped champagne and gazed around the hall. To such a cheerful atmosphere, Kostelanetz merely wanted to add music worth listening to.

But things turned out unhappily. The modern dancers who interpreted the New York premiere of Hovhaness' Meditations of Orpheus danced nimbly and well, but the choreography failed to suggest much beyond a battle over a nightgown. The gown was worn by Eurydice (Dancer Cora Cahan) over flesh-colored tights and, as New York Daily News Critic Douglas Watt observed, it seemed Orpheus wanted it. (P.S.: He got it.) Excerpts from Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and Ravel's Piano Concerto in G were deformed by the Philharmonic's raucous and jarring performance.

The champagne was enough to insure the audience's good humor, but the critics could scarcely express their discontent. "A tasteless hodgepodge," said the Times. "A grab bag of cheap tricks," grumbled the News. Poor Kostelanetz-- he did the noble thing, but he did it badly. He had tried to elevate the pops concert to a level beyond simple, forgettable amusement. With the response he got, he no doubt wishes he had stuck to schmaltz. But the Philharmonic's program for the rest of the 20-concert series includes much that is seldom performed and deserves attention. The credit for good intentions, at least, belongs to Kostelanetz.

* Orchestras obey this law so piously that Beethoven and Brahms are rarely played outside of the basketball season.

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