THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 1, 1994 TAG: 9407010355
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: GUY FRIDDELL
LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines
If you have never been to the Harrison Opera House in Norfolk, perhaps because you're more of a concert-band kind of guy or gal, then Saturday evening is your chance.
The Tidewater Winds is opening its 10th season in that palace with selections chosen with you - and me - in mind.
Which is not to say that opera-goers won't like them, too. There are few who can resist, among other things on Saturday's program, some of the great marches to which the nation has gone to war.
Did you ever hear John Philip Sousa's ``Esprit de Corps''? Or his ``Jack Tar March,'' which could be Norfolk's theme song? Or John Cheetham's ``Dover Crossing,'' fit for commemorating D-Day?
And much of the menu is semi-classical, including highlights from ``West Side Story.''
The two-hour concert, showcasing all kinds of music celebrating America - a veritable fireworksdisplay of melodies - is free and open to the public. It begins at 7:30 p.m.
Instrumentalists for the Winds - players of trumpets, clarinets, cornets, tubas, oboes, euphonium, and what not - are drawn 70-strong from among the finest musical aggregations in Hampton Roads, including the Virginia Symphony and the Armed Forces School of Music.
The band's founder and leader, Sidney Berg, said Friday that the concert will feature music of John Williams, Ferde Grofe, George M. Cohan, Leonard Bernstein and John Philip Sousa.
My eye, running down the musical lineup, spied ``Ja-Da,'' a spirited piece that, in my childhood, was popular with the older generation.
Listen, if ``Ja-Da,'' the lyrics of which are, in large part, a staccato repetition of the two-syllable title, were the only piece I recognized on the program, I would not miss tomorrow night's concert.
When the strains of ``Ja-Da'' run through my mind, a picture arises of my elders, then in their mid-30s, doing the fox trot, an entire pavilion of them bobbing about, an ennobling sight, while we excited children raced around outside.
When I hear ``Ja-Da,'' I'll have to grip the arms of the seat - or maybe rope myself in place, like Odysseus passing the Sirens - else I'll spring to my feet and gallop around the aisles.
Another fetching piece is ``Variations on America'' by Charles Ives, a wealthy insurance man and something of a maverick who, as a hobby, composed what he pleased, Berg said, including a variety of versions of the patriotic hymn ``America.''
Then there is the Winds' presentation in brass of Gershwin's ``Rhapsody in Blue,'' composed for the piano, mainly, which will be missing, just as it was arranged by Fedre Grofe, who wrote the ``Grand Canyon Suite.''
``What do you suppose Gershwin would think of a `Rhapsody' done with winds?'' I asked Berg.
``If he had seen it on paper, he would cringe, but when he heard it, he would have been pleased,'' Berg replied.
Well, we'll see. Or hear. by CNB