E. Haig’s Review of Sac. Phil’s Queen Pops Concert

The Sacramento Philharmonic, now fully resuscitated, as its recent symphonic concerts have clearly established (in recent months Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony and Tchaikovsky’s 4th were wonderfully delivered under the baton of Andrew Grams), offered its first “pops” concert last weekend.  Pops concerts by symphonic orchestras gained appeal in the 1960s and ‘70s when Arthur Fiedler (then resident conductor of the Boston Symphony) transformed his orchestra into the Boston Pops.

The idea is that you have the same classically trained musicians playing non-classical pieces, thereby expanding the appeal of the orchestra to a wider audience.  Fiedler’s orchestra blazed a trail that most other symphony organizations now emulate in one form or another.  The New York Philharmonic, for example, offers pops concerts in the park (Central Park in Manhattan) during the summer months.

Sacramento hasn’t had much of a pops tradition (either under the old banner of the Sacramento Symphony or in the current guise of the Sacramento Philharmonic), but with the re-shuffling of the management staff, presumed continuing concerns about budgets and funding, and the “ascension” of resident conductor Michael Morgan to emeritus status, the opportunity (if not need) to broaden the organization’s audience is obvious.

And if this first pops offering is any indication of their appeal, pops concerts should become a mainstay of every concert season.  A capacity audience at any Community Center Theater event is a rarity in Sacramento, but the house was packed for the “Music of Queen,” as the evening was billed.

Queen was a classic-rock band that produced at least two dozen top 40 hits in the 1970s and 80s.  Some of those hits (“Bohemian Rhapsody” in particular) are orchestral in scope, and many are just great music in any genre.  Other groups of that era (Chicago, the Eagles, Led Zeppelin, and Procol Harum come to mind) occasionally performed with full orchestral accompaniment, and Queen’s music would certainly suggest itself for that kind of treatment.

For the concert, Queen’s songs were arranged by conductor Brent Havens, who is also credited with having arranged the songs of the Doors, Michael Jackson and the Who for similar performances.  Mr. Havens was as much a cheerleader as a conductor at the concert, at one point even giving up his baton to Kitty O’Neal of KFBK radio.  She was introduced just as “Kitty,” and did what most non-conductors do when they are given a full orchestra to conduct (wave your hands, hopefully in time with the music).

But the real star of the night was Brody Dolyniuk who fronted a crisp four-piece band as lead singer and master of ceremonies.  Mr. Dolyniuk readily admitted that he was not a Freddie Mercury look-alike, but he did a pretty good impersonation of his singing on twenty of the group’s songs, and he really made the concert the success it was.  He was appealing in every way a lead singer of a rock group can be, displaying a first-rate tenor voice, prancing around the stage and even into the audience, and exuding charisma as he introduced songs or waved to his wife and daughter in the audience.  In conversation with him after the concert, we learned that he also sings lead for several of Mr. Havens other “Music of …” performances.  He’d certainly make an excellent Roger Daltrey or Robert Plant.  Multi-talented, he also played guitar and keyboards for several songs.

The rest of the band consisted of George Cintron (lead guitar), Justin Avery (keyboards), Dan Clemons (bass) and Powell Randolph (drums).  Mr. Cintron, in particular, stood out with some very fine solo efforts (especially on the intro to “Hammer to Fall”).  The man can flat out pick it.  And Mr. Randolph came close to knocking our socks off with a powerful drum solo on “Stone Cold Crazy.”

The orchestra played its part in the proceedings, although, candidly, it added less on most of the arrangements than might have been expected.  On a lovely jazz tune “Melancholy Blues,” principal trumpet James Rodseth offered a nice solo.  That tune was one of the evening’s highlights, with a sweet piano intro by Mr.  Avery.  We were glad the orchestra was there, but Mr. Havens’ arrangements didn’t highlight their talents.

Which is probably as it should have been, since the band was really the thing, and the show really belonged to Mr. Dolyniuk.  Among the standout songs in the two sets (separated by an intermission) were “Tie Your Mother Down” (which opened the concert), “Another One Bites the Dust” (the first song that had most in the audience on their feet, dancing), “Under Pressure,” “Killer Queen,” “The Show Must Go On,” “You’re My Best Friend,” “Who Wants to Live Forever” and “Find Me Somebody to Love.”

The second set ended with the trio of the group’s biggest hits, “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “We Will Rock You,” and “We are the Champions.”  In earlier times, matches would have been lit in praise of the band, but on this night Mr. Dolyniuk praised the orchestra, Mr. Havens, and his bandmates, and the audience regaled all of them with a well-deserved and heartfelt standing ovation.