Christmas Comes to Sunset Center
by
Lyn Bronson
The Monterey Symphony really
whooped it up last night and presented a two-hour Christmas concert at Sunset
Center that had a little something for everybody — we heard serious music,
Christmas carols, some great brass playing, a movement from a Mozart piano
concerto, dueling violins and, toward the end, the whole audience singing along
with bass Louis Lebherz in a sweetly sentimental rendition of “I’m Dreaming of a
White Christmas.” Wow! All that was lacking was some live reindeer and Joe
Truskot dressed up like Santa to give us a hearty “Ho, Ho, Ho.”
The captain in charge of the
ship during these proceedings was the versatile Leroy Kromm, Monterey Symphony
Chorus Director, who during the evening also sang and played the piano. Although
it seems as though he is up to any challenge, he did have a few bad moments as
the pages of the score threatened to close up on him during his great piano
accompaniment of Lebherz’s rendition of “White Christmas,” a minor annoyance he
dispatched flamboyantly. Considering the complicated procedures getting people
on and off stage, moving the stands and chairs in and out, changing the lighting
setups, and letting us view occasionally the gorgeous dark red velvet curtain under the
proscenium arch, this was a very smooth production that flowed from one set to
another quite easily.
In addition to Louis Lebherz,
whose voice is splendiferous in its dramatic resonance and musical solidity (his
performance of the Mozart aria, Per questa bella mano was impressive), we
heard some fine singing from soprano Kali Wilson, alto Peter Thoresen, tenor
Trey Costerisan and bass Joseph Mace. Especially moving were the performances of
Handel’s Dixit Dominus and Pergolesi’s Magnificat. Surprisingly
effective was the duet rendition of Handel’s Passacaglia in G minor by violinist
Thi Nguyen and violist Vladimir Khalikulov (I’ll bet his friends call him
Vladimir Kalishnikoff), which was one of the standout performances of the
evening.
Making her debut performance
with the orchestra, pianist Lucy Faridany performed Mozart’s Concert Rondo in D
Major. There were supposed to be some important woodwind parts to augment the
string ensemble, but the woodwind parts mysteriously failed to appear on time,
so Ms. Faridany did splendidly without them. Her performance demonstrated
technical mastery, a nice feeling for Mozartian style, and some fine dramatic
and soulful playing in the Adagio section.
After the concert was over,
there was more caroling in Sunset’s lobby and a reception to meet the artists.
There was no question that the audience had a good time. Well, so did I.
