Former Tucson Symphony Orchestra conductor Robert Bernhardt returns to the podium this weekend to lead the orchestra in a program that has him giddy with excitement.
“I try to put John Williams as often as I can on a concert because I just adore” the music, he said. “And each time I do them I try to fit ... music that hasn’t been done too frequently and I try to craft the concert to the city.”
And he knows a thing or two about Tucson. He was the TSO music director for nearly 10 years in the late 1980s to mid-1990s.
“I love the orchestra. I love Tucson” said Bernhardt, the longtime principal pops conductor of the Louisville Orchestra and the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera. “The first time I met John Williams was in Tucson when I was music director and our relationship began there. He came twice as a guest conductor when I was there.”
Bernhardt has more reasons than he can count on why you shouldn’t miss this weekend’s SuperPops concerts, which kick off the series’ season. Here are three of them:
1. Bring the kids:
“This would be an incredible first concert for anybody, including anybody who would wants to introduce their pre-teens to the symphony. There is so much music that they know, first of all. It’s John Williams. It plumbs the depths and rises to the heights of all emotions and it’s mostly great fun. The orchestra is the star of the show.”
2. We get to see Concertmaster Lauren Roth shine:
“It turns out that some of John’s music for solo violin has taken off on the concert stage. As soon as ‘Schindler’s List’ came out in ‘93, it wasn’t a year before great violinists were playing it as an encore to Mendlessohn and Tchaikovsky concertos. Since then we’ve seen a couple of just spectacular solo arrangements for ‘Fiddler On the Roof’ ... and the ‘Por una cabeza,’ which was the tango for ‘Scent Of A Woman,’ which John orchestrated for Itzhak Perlman. ... It’s just a tasty, lovely little solo for violin and orchestra.”
3. From the concert hall to the movie theater:
“When I hear the music, I immediately go back to that moment in the film and it takes me right there. John’s music is going to live up to the 50-year rule and what I mean by that is what will be listening to in 50 years? I do believe that much of what John has written is going to be part of society 50 years from now, and I think that is truly remarkable.”
