Review Three

MUSIC REVIEW | PATRIOTIC POPS

DOWNPOUR SCATTERS CROWD, BUT PATRIOTISM STILL ABOUNDS

The Columbus Symphony Orchestra’s annual Fourth of July “Picnic With the Pops” concert, performed last night on the lawn at Chemical Abstracts Service,
was not for summer soldiers and sunshine patriots. Only the truly hardy stayed on the grounds as the winds picked up and rain began to fall midway through
the second half of the 2003 edition of the”Patriotic Pops” program.

Too bad, because guest soloist Marsaisa Byrd — an extraordinary singer from South Carolina — had just come onstage to perform the touching plea Bring Him Home
from the musical Les Miserables, a prayer for a soldier in a different time. It couldn’t have been fun, singing while many in the crowd were gathering their things
and running for the exits.

Maestro Albert-George Schram, the orchestra’s perennial pops conductor, doubled as a weatherman and consulted the oracles (aka Doppler radar), moving the program along as quickly as he could. But even Schram wasn’t fast enough to outrun the downpour.

Patriotic spirit flourished until then, however. Schram was assisted at the beginning of both halves by a color guard of Vietnam veterans. They brought in the Stars and Stripes for the Stokowski arrangement of The Star-Spangled Banner to open the concert.

After intermission, they displayed the flags of each branch of the U.S. military for a much appreciated Armed Forces Salute. The crowd warmly honored those who have served or are now serving their country.

In honor of the Ohio Bicentennial, Schram led a singalong of the official state song, Beautiful Ohio. (He didn’t trot out the state’s official rock song, Hang on Sloopy, even though it is probably much better known.)

Byrd closed the first half as soloist in lush arrangements of four spirituals. He is the ideal vocalist for an orchestra facing a financial crunch: with a voice spanning five octaves, he can sing virtually anything but soprano. A highlight of the second half was the world premiere of the orchestral arrangement of a recent piece by Grove City resident James Swearingen, a composer and head of the music education department at Capital University in Bexley. Flight of Valor briefly depicts the struggle of those aboard United Airlines Flight 93 on Sept. 11, 2001, and focuses on the spirit of patriotism, determination and sacrifice that must have guided their actions. A boogie-woogie version of The Battle Hymn of the Republic was the only wet blanket, musically speaking, of the evening.

bzuck@dispatch.com