 Music makes the Holidays. Religious or secular, solemn or silly, the two go together like the milk and cookies you leave for Santa (provided he's not becoming lactose-intolerant).
Wow. Two seconds into 'Troika', I was having visions of dashing through the snow. This piece, from Sergei Prokofiev's 'Lt. Kije Suite', is some of the most picturesque music I've ever heard. Fast-paced and light-hearted, with more of that festive brass and ringing percussion, Troika is in fact about a sleighride, but I didn't know that until Maestro Hal Weller told us so. See? If you do your homework in advance, you're deprived of these delightful surprises The next two pieces, 'Sleighride' by Leopold Mozart and 'Sleighride' by Leroy Anderson, are also about sleighrides. I had heard the former tune, but its slow, majestic ¾ tempo sounded more like aristocracy waltzing in an Austrian castle than someone freezing his hiney off  in a sleigh. Now, I grew up with an LP record of Leroy Anderson's 'Sleighride', played by his own orchestra, and I can tell you the Phil's rendition of this picturesque tune was PERFECT - right down to the authentic post-horn, an old European trumpet which used to announce the approach of the postman but which is now used for making horse noises in orchestras.Our narrator, Kurt Mische, suggested that a ticket for the Philharmonic's Jaguar Raffle makes a great gift, and he was right. Think about it: if the recipient doesn't win, it was the wonderful thought that counted; if he or she does win, you never have to give him/her another gift, EVER. The Holidays also wouldn't be complete without singing. Cantor Daniel Friedman, who cut his teeth singing professionally on the stage but now performs every Shabbat at Temple Beth Sholom, here in Las Vegas, performed the 'Hannukah Medley', mixing English and Hebrew and treating us to a bit of traditional Jewish history. A note on the amazing creativity of musicians: this piece uses a minor key (giving it a solemn old-world sound) but conveys great joy at the same time. How different it is from some of Stephen Foster's nineteenth-century tunes sung recently by Christópheren Nomura; those songs used only major keys but managed to sound terribly melancholy. At one point, Daniel's microphone cut out, but he simply cranked up his rich tenor and made me wonder why the mic was there in the first place. 'Greensleeves' is a wonderful tune that most of us recognize, and Ralph Vaughan Williams' 'Fantasia on Greensleeves' contains the beautiful 'What Child Is This?' melody with low notes from the flute over flowing strings. It also contains a more brooding section with woodwinds over a very interesting 'underlapping' counterpoint played low on the strings. More singing! Rosa Tulaganova, a marvelous vocal student from UNLV, performed Giulio Caccini's 'Ave Maria'. Okay, she needed the mic. Her soft voice and fluttering vibrato were utterly inspiring, but the concert hall's acoustics didn't help her much. Gorgeous, lush chords from the strings blended wonderfully with her soprano, though.  Here they come. It took a while for the entire Green Valley High School Concert Choir to enter the stage behind the orchestra - so large is the group - but Handel's 'Messiah' is worth the wait. The four movements featured singing by the entire choir as well as by male and female soloists and small groups. The third movement ('Rejoice!') again featured Rosa singing solo and backed by the choir. The final movement, the Hallelujah Chorus, was sung with great finesse like the others but didn't blow us away with sheer volume like I expected. Don't teenagers love to shout?
 George Frederick Handel reportedly composed 'The Messiah' in just 24 days.History has it that when the three-hour work was performed for King George II, the monarch was so inspired by the final movement that he rose from his seat and stood. His entire court followed suit, and it started a tradition that now obligates modern audiences to stand for the Hallelujah Chorus. Darned kings and their obsequious courtiers. The entire piece is so joyously celebratory that it always sounded rather smug to me, as if the singers were proclaiming, "Hooray! Great to be a Christian this time of year, eh?" I'll bet Cantor Friedman could offer a pretty melodic rebuttal. Okay, now we can talk about 'The Nutcracker'. After intermission, Associate Conductor Dr. Richard McGee led the Philharmonic in four of the most popular pieces from this Christmas classic about a wooden doll and a little girl's dream. The March is probably my favorite movement. I like it played at a stately pace, but it is usually a bit faster because, in the ballet, it depicts the toy soldier jumping and fluttering his feet in midair - and even the strongest dancer can stay airborne for only so long. Say, I never marched like that when I was in the service! (Probably a good thing, too.) 'The Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy' featured beautiful melody from the celesta and bass clarinet. Trepak, also known as the 'Cossack Dance', is an energetic piece that races along and builds to a big, sudden ending. Finally, 'The Waltz of the Flowers' hardly needs explaining, although I'll say that the Phil has a terrific harpist. I play my Nutcracker CD so much at Christmas that my family roll their eyes whenever I put it on. Tough. But wait - there's more! The choir sang Gustav Holst's 'Christmas Day', a wonderful panorama of themes from such traditional carols as 'Christ Is Born Today' and 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen', which overlapped and alternated in an often complex manner. Male and female soloists from the choir were featured here and also in the next piece, John Rutter's 'A Candlelight Carol', in which choir and orchestra were conducted by Green Valley High's choir director, Kim Barclay Druseldum. Leading two ensembles as large as these must be like herding cats (though I've actually done neither), but she handled it masterfully. Under her direction for 12 years, this choir has won tons of awards, including a Grammy, and hearing them, I don't wonder why.  Dr. McGee returned to conduct the orchestra and choir in Irving Berlin's 'White Christmas', which featured wonderful choral harmonies, and, in the second verse, a rather odd arpeggio from flute and xylophone which didn't seem to fit the song's elegant flow. Then he launched them into the most fun piece of the evening, Craig Courtney's 'Musicological Journey Through the Twelve Days of Christmas'. Courtney adapted each verse to emulate a different musical style, starting with Gregorian chant (!) and proceeding through Medieval Faire music, Bach, Handel, Mozart, Wagner, Strauss, and Tchaikovsky, finishing huge in the unmistakable style of John Philip Sousa.What a blast! This piece had to be quite challenging, as it took actual renditions of these composers' works and altered them in both music and lyrics. Maestro McGee challenged us to guess correctly the source of each verse, and I got about eight of the twelve - not bad for a farm boy. One thing I'm sure of is that Merle Haggard was conspicuously absent. To conclude, your instructions are as follows (trust me, I'm a professional):
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Reviewed December 14, 2002, by Robert LaGrone, Las Vegas Jetsetters Magazine Entertainment Editor.    
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