Who Was That Conductor?

     Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, and Frank Langella have all portrayed Dracula, but it’s doubtful they have the musical talent and show biz savvy of Long Bay Symphony Orchestra conductor Charles Evans.   The Halloween Extravaganza presented Sunday October 30 by the LBS and conductor Evans was not only a first rate orchestra concert, but a colorful and fun multi-media show, perfectly suited for Halloween.

     The audience’s attention was focused on the stage’s atmospheric lighting and on the costumes and makeup of many of the musicians, when in swooped concert master William Terwilliger, complete with cape and ghastly face.  Moments after he directed  the customary tuning, two smoke machines sent out obscuring billows, and a coffin was carried in. There was a dramatic pause…the coffin opened…and up popped the Count himself!  Well, actually it was Charles Evans, who was perfectly attired as Dracula, and after a few humorous opening remarks in an effective central European accent, the concert began with Bach’s well known Toccata and Fugue in D minor.

     This composition, originally for organ, was transcribed for orchestra by Leopold Stokowski , and this transcription is probably more familiar to most listeners than the original.  Program annotator Richard Rodda  included comments by Stokowski,  who described the “…freedom of rhythm and plasticity of melodic outline.”  Evans led the Long Bay through all the majesty and grandeur with an absorbing reading as flexible as any organ solo performance.

     Bach’s music dates from the early 18thcentury,and the next composition, Humperdinck’s “Witch’s Ride” from his opera Hansel and Gretel, dates from the late 19th. The LBS gave a smooth and engaging performance of this music, which is rather tame considering its subject.  But, the atmospheric red lighting, and the appearance of Christie Karavan  in costume as a shrieking, cackling witch, running  down the aisle to act as “Sorceress of Ceremonies” added a wonderfully humorous excitement.

    Concert master William Terwilliger played the violin solo part in Sain-Saen’s “Danse Macabre”, which features plenty of “The Devil’s Interval”, a peculiar sounding pair of notes  truly evoking the diabolical.  Evans and the Long Bay skillfully displayed the tapestry of orchestral colors and textures in this celebrated example of French  program music.

     Franz Liszt, arguably the first “triple threat super star” as composer, conductor, and virtuoso pianist, was as fascinated by the darkly supernatural as any of his 19th century fellow artists.  Evans and the LBS gave an exceptional rendering of the “Mephisto Waltz  No. 1” displaying all of Liszt’s subtle, shifting harmonies  and variety of tone color.  The absolutely compelling drive to the finish by the full orchestra was accomplished with wonderful precision and no ragged edges, in a controlled frenzy of excitement.

     The second half of the program began with Grieg’s familiar “In the Hall of the Mountain King”, part of the incidental music he composed for Ibsen’s  Peer Gynt. Here, the multi-media aspect of the concert was fully realized, with dancer Stacy McFarland, six actors with speaking parts from Atlantic Stage, and an off stage men’s chorus from the Carolina Master Chorale, directed by Timothy Koch, all contributing to this colorful and dramatic presentation.  The category of incidental music for plays is arguably the ancestor of movie and television music, and the Long Bay showed how effective really well played orchestral music is in establishing mood and tone for a dramatic presentation.

     The concert concluded with two movements from Berlioz’s “Symphonie Fantastique”, one of the truly great orchestral show cases.  Evans switched the order of the last two movements, and had “Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath” (V) precede “March to the Scaffold” (IV).  No matter. These movements showed the talent and skill of this fine orchestra, from the various solos to the section work, to the blazing brass-saturated conclusion of “Scaffold”.  There was a final humorous touch, with a silhouette depiction of the beheading which ends this movement, and moments after that, a bat was caught in a shaft of moonlight, with that strange accented voice bidding you farewell, and leading  you to wonder…just who was that conductor? 

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William Hamilton taught music for 28 years in the Music Department of Coastal Carolina University.  He composed the music for CCU’s Alma Mater, wrote incidental music for several plays, and still actively plays jazz with the group U ‘n I.