Music Reviews : Sidlin Farewell in Long Beach

Now reluctantly the ex-music director of the Long Beach Symphony, Murry Sidlin closed his eight-year tenure with the orchestra Saturday evening. From a long, superficially unlikely program in an uncommonly stuffy Terrace Theater, Sidlin created a moving, sometimes magical, melodramatic farewell.

Mendelssohn’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” music is the sort of colorful, programmatic score that Sidlin has always served well, and musically he kept it in high gear. The decision to make a quasi-dramatic cantata of it, however, undermined the achievement.

Cynthia Galles and John Rose provided a schizophrenic, amplified Shakespearean narration that could only have confused those who didn’t know the original play and bored those who did. The effort provided an excuse to do all the most incidental bits, but added little in context or continuity.

It also reduced the two vocal numbers to a distinctly secondary status, appropriate to a full production of the play, but disconcerting in concert. Soprano Mary Rawcliffe sang sweetly and clearly, if somewhat blandly, ably seconded by soprano Kathleen Burkholder and the Cal State Long Beach Women’s Chorus.

Sidlin himself gave Puck’s benediction, choking momentarily when he came to “and so, good night, and so, goodbye.” A prolonged and nearly unanimous standing ovation brought the soloists back, but the conductor did not return--possibly the most emotionally charged exit since the Trapp family fled in “The Sound of Music.”

The relationship of Milhaud and Mozart to this might seem purely alphabetic, but by emphasizing clarity and verve with his small orchestra, Sidlin made it work. He began the program with a taut, well-defined reading of Milhaud’s “La Creation du Monde,” at once raucous and controlled, exuberant and poignant.

Concertmistress Kathleen Lenski and principal violist Kazi Pitelka took very effective command of Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, in smoothly integrated playing of great luster and expressive nuance. Sidlin framed their work fluently.