'My Funny Valentine' on a red clarinet to start all in all, a grand time

02/16/04

Steve Sucato   Special to The Plain Dealer

Love was in the air Friday night at Severance Hall as the Cleveland Pops Orchestra presented its Valentine's Day program, "In Love with Love."

The two-hour concert featured a variety of romantic music from stage and screen, as well as a few classical works.

The program opened with conductor Carl Topilow playing a red clarinet and leading the orchestra in Rodgers and Hart's "My Funny Valentine." The orchestra's smooth tone and pace created a relaxing atmosphere in the hall that lingered throughout the evening, with only a few deviations

An appreciative audience of all ages was engaged by the program's first-half selections, which included "Tara's Theme" from "Gone With the Wind," music from the 1997 blockbuster "Titanic" and soprano Margo Watson joining the orchestra in "I Could Have Danced All Night" from "My Fair Lady," as well as "Hello Young Lovers" and "Something Wonderful" from Rodgers and Hammerstein's "The King and I."

The elegant Watson delighted the audience throughout the evening with her lovely voice, sparkling stage presence and opulent gowns, which she changed with each set.

The rather lighthearted first half ended with the evening's heaviest musical work, Poulenc's Concerto in D minor for two pianos and orchestra. Performed with animated intensity by husband-and-wife pianists Antonio Pompa-Baldi and Emanuela Friscioni, the piece was the most textured on the program, moving from sections of percussive pluckiness and punch to others of mesmerizing beauty.

The program's second half returned to gentler musical expressions of love and romance, with selections from "Gypsy," "The Secret Garden" and a medley of love themes from Hollywood movies, including "Somewhere My Love" from "Doctor Zhivago."

"Alto Amore," written by principal trombonist Paul Ferguson for his wife, was the first of several works in the second half that showcased the individual talents of orchestra members. Principal flutist Mary Kay Ferguson was featured on the mellow, 1970s-style tune.

Later, Watson returned, joined by principal bassoonist Ted Soluri (sans bassoon). The pair crooned "A Whole New World" from Disney's "Aladdin" a fitting send-off for Soluri, who Topilow announced had accepted a position as principal bassoonist with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.

Louis Maurer's Concertante for four violins and orchestra, Op. 55, provided the evening's most rousing highlight, as violinists Nicholas DiEugenio, Jun Iwaski, Ko Sugiyama and Nathan Olsen put on a display of bravura playing accompanied by choreographed comedic banter. That had the audience both chuckling and shouting bravos in a standing ovation at the end.

Thoroughly entertaining, the Cleveland Pops Orchestra's program lived up to its ambitions and its title.

Sucato is a free-lance writer in Erie, Pa.

To reach Steve Sucato: entertainment@plaind.com