Composer David Shire Headlines Rockland Symphony Orchestra Concert
Splendid Performance Enthralls Audience
Rockland Community College in Suffern was the venue for a remarkable performance of original compositions by David Shire in early February. Seated at a grand piano at the front of the stage, Mr. Shire shared the podium with RSO’s longtime associate conductor Marvin von Deck in one of the finest concerts that this community arts organization has ever presented. Guest stars included Erik Lawrence on the saxophone and Lynne Wintersteller, who sang six songs from films and Broadway shows.
Classical Tradition Meets Film and Stage
Mr. Shire charmed the musicians on stage as well as the audience with remarks between each piece—he and Mr. von Deck first met in the back row of a yoga class, and eventually hatched the idea for this concert while their friendship blossomed during the arduous process of keeping up with their instructor’s contortions. Other details about Mr. Shire's long and distinguished professional career as a film score composer and songwriter, including his Oscar for the song, “It Goes Like It Goes,” from Norma Rae, emerged throughout the afternoon’s performance, which ended promptly at 5 p.m. so that the few football enthusiasts attending could get home in time to watch the Superbowl.
My favorite piece of the afternoon was the haunting piano theme from Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation, about a paranoid surveillance expert who earns his living by tape recording the details of other people's private lives. The original score was just for solo piano, so Mr. Shire wrote an orchestral score to accompany the piano part especially for the Rockland Symphony. The musicians were obviously thrilled to be playing a piece written just for them and under the baton of the composer himself, and their energy and intensity carried the haunting sound of the piece to professional levels. Apparently Mr. Coppola had originally insisted that no “sweetening” could be added to the spare score of the original movie, and Mr. Shire drew a laugh by apologizing to the absent auteur for daring to make these changes. Later, I found myself checking around the auditorium to see if the piece had been recorded—but only because it was something I wished I could put on my Ipod.
Other standouts of the concert were “Manhattan Skyline,” from the dance studio scene in Saturday Night Fever, and a selection of Mr. Shire’s songs sung by the Broadway star, Lynne Wintersteller, with warmth, dramatic coloration and great skill. Notable among these was “A Widow’s Song,” which evoked the heartbreak felt by a wife who has lost her soldier husband to the Iraq War. The saxophone solo in “With You I’m Born Again,” which was a big hit for Billy Preston, was also a highpoint. Two non-Shire pieces also were included in the program, The Star Wars Suite by John Williams, and the Overture to the Barber of Seville, by Rossini. If only the latter had been Rossini’s “The Thieving Magpie,” used by Stanley Kubrick to such good effect in Clockwork Orange, all the pieces could have been claimed to be from soundtracks!
Many Palisadians, including Mr. Shire’s wife Didi Conn and son Daniel, turned out to see the performance, which attracted about 300 people from around the county. The symphony plans to supplement its schedule with events in smaller venues by ensembles comprised of symphony members. The first such event, held in honor of Mozart’s birthday earlier in the winter at the geothermal home of RSO board co-president Paul Nagin, garnered $13,000 for the organization. More events of this kind are planned for the future.