3,000 SPAC Audience Enjoys Musical Magic of Peter Nero

by Marilyn Nason, The Post-Star, August 15, 1970

It was worth waiting a full year to hear Peter Nero with the Philadelphia Orchestra doing his “Fantasy and Improvisations for Piano and Orchestra” last night at Saratoga Performing Arts Center with 3,000 attending.

Just a year ago, we heard Nero in rehearsal with the orchestra on the morning of his concert with Arthur Fiedler as guest conductor, as they worked on this very unusual work, only to have it “scratched” that night as the performance started, because Nero was not satisfied with the results.

Last night, he should have been more than satisfied. The orchestra was excellent. Nero and his trio perfectly blended with the orchestra and young, dynamic Donald Johanos as guest conductor, a perfect match for this contemporary work—a blend of jazz, symphonic sections and a thoroughly interesting blend of moods and tempos.

Nero wrote the work three years ago to show that combining a jazz trio with a symphonic orchestra is possible and he proved it last night conclusively. He is now at work, he told us backstage, on something even newer in the blending of a rock group with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Why not?

Nero is an excellent pianist and he proved it in the uptempo solos in his work with the orchestra, then later really put on an amazing show of his piano artistry in a post-program series of encores with his trio of David Troncoso, bass, and Cecil Ricca, drums.

Opening works last night were the brief overture to “Oberon” by Weber and the contemporary, descriptive delight of Ibert’s “Ports of Call’ which is never played often enough as a program-filler to suit me.

Major work of the evening was the familiar Fourth Symphony of Tchaikovsky. What need be said about this universally acclaimed favorite of symphonic music? Under the baton of young Johanos, it took on some interesting new aspects, quite individual in tempo and purpose, especially in the second movement. A long-time favorite, this work always adds immeasurably to the orchestra’s portion of the SPAC season and can be programmed yearly without displeasing anyway to be sure.

To prove that human nature is a constant variable, the SPAC management had announced in elaborate news releases and through all the media this week that the great Peter Nero and his trio would play a group of encores after the program last night. They even went to the trouble and expense of printing a special program announcing that “There will be no encores following the performance of the Fantasy and Improvisations. They will be reserved until the end of the concert.”

“Plain enough? Well, apparently no one reads a program thoroughly, for half the audience got up to leave at the end of the Tchaikovsky Symphony and were halfway to the parking lot when some noted the reappearance of the piano, drums and bass of Nero’s group. They began murmuring in surprise, applauded hesitantly and still didn’t seem to know what was going on until Nero appeared onstage. To this moment, I’ll wager many have yet to see the note in their specially printed program explaining it all.

Nero offered “I Got Rhythm” in improvisations of the masters, a fine bit of fluff he also did last year. He did a Beatles tune and a very spectacular medley from “Hair.”

Tonight, Eugene Ormandy conducts the orchestra with Evelyn Mandac, Joanna Simon, Capitol Hill Choral Society and Saratoga – Potsdam Chorus in Mahler’s Second Symphony. Bach’s “Chorale-Preludes” will also be featured at 8:30.