STAR TREK AT THE SYMPHONY

OK, I'm a geek.

The CSO pops played the music of STAR TREK tonight with Erich Kunzel conducting. Guests were John "Q" DeLancie and Robert Picardo of Voyager.

The concert had a lot of problems. It was too long, and the banter between the 2 Trek alums was terribly written. (By them.)

The pieces on the concert were in chronological order, from Sandy Courage's music for the pilot, through the 6 movies and the three TV shows. In almost every musical choice, they played the main title music, which provided a lot of redundancy. ST: The Motion Picture main title, AND The Next Generation? They are the same piece!

Add on ST II: Wrath of Khan, AND ST III Main Title AND End Title???

Throw in the lousy music from VI, a piece from Generations, and the theme from DS9, and there was a LOT of fluff and redundancy. The orchestra sounded good for the most part, but the brass section could have used a few more rehearsals, and the percussion was persistently loud.

The best piece of the evening was the suite from "The Cage." Unlike most of the other music, it was not just a theme, it was actual score music from the pilot, which was used many, many times in the series. It was surreal hearing the music and re-imagining the many scenes it had played under. Alas, they never played the Kirk/Spock "fight to the death" music, perhaps the most memorable music from the whole history of Trek.

There is a great history of composer involvement with the show. Courage's horn call is simple but brilliant. The samba theme is dated, but a beautiful melody. Jerry Goldsmith scored TMP, V, and wrote the theme for Voyager, and James Horner scored II & III (borrowing liberally from his predecessors). If they had stuck to that material, and maybe threw in some more material from TOS, it would have been a much more enjoyable evening.

A very small number of people came in costume. The best were a few Klingons. Most wore lame uniforms.

The hall was not sold out, and a considerable number of people left at intermission and did not return. It was a long concert.