STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
The couple from Boise had never been to Sun Valley before. But, while watching Diana Krall swelter in 103-degree heat at the Idaho Botanical Garden on Saturday, they went online to see if they could score tickets to see her at the Sun Valley Summer Symphony Gala on Sunday.
The 1,500 seats in the Pavilion had sold out by midday the first day they went on sale to the public.
But the couple was able to score one of 2,000 tickets for the Pavilion lawn. And, so, Sunday night they laid down their blanket on the front row next to the Pavilion, reveling in the much more comfortable temperatures in the 70s.
“In Boise Diana would start one song, then say, ‘Let’s not do that,” remarked the couple. “All she wanted to sing about was ‘Hot. Hot. Hot.’”
There was no starting and stopping Sunday night, as Krall moved effortlessly from one song to another, drawing applause up front when she sang a song the audience recognized, such as Nat King Cole’s “L-O-V-E.”
The symphony, under the direction of Alasdair Neale, led off the two-hour concert with Leonard Bernstein’s “Times Square: 1944” from “On the Town” and George Gershwin’s “An American in Paris.”
Krall then took the stage with her four-piece band, entertaining the audience the rest of the night with contemporary jazz stylings approached with her unique simplistic style.
The 52-year-old British Columbia native who’s married to rock star Elvis Costello bore none of the chattiness of her Gala Benefit predecessors, such as the flirty Kristin Chenoweth or the earnest Audra McDonald.
Instead, she was serious, engrossed in tinkling the ivories. The five-time Grammy Award winner reserved her words for the briefest of introductions and the songs themselves, only once appearing to take in her surroundings. She seemed to register a look of amazement when she did.
“Her voice was silky and sultry. Very relaxing and mellow,”said Sun Valley resident Joyce Fabre.
At times, she seemed perfectly content to pause from her own playing to sit back and enjoy the talented playing of her band members, each of whom have been part of other great adventures, from performing with Paul McCartney to winning two Grammy Awards with The Nashville Bluegrass Band.
And, no wonder, because those musicians, wowed the audience.
“They were spectacular!” said Hailey resident Marie Gallo.
Come encore time, she turned to a couple songs by her husband Elvis Costello.
The benefit, co-chaired by Deb Mello and Maggie Sturdevant, helps fund two weeks of free symphony performances and music workshops for students.
One of the most memorable for Sun Valley residents Marci and Vince Onofrio was that of Garth Brooks, whom Steve Wynn brought out of retirement to play at his Las Vegas casino and the Pavilion. Four thousand people crowded onto the Pavilion lawn, and world renowned violinist Itzhak Perlman, who would perform the next evening, watched from inside the Pavilion, along with members of Sun Valley owners Earl and Carol Holding’s family.
“It was enormous—cowboys and cowgirls from all over,” recalled Marci Onofrio. “A huge line waiting to get in started at noon for a 6:30 concert.”
Wynn’s former wife Elaine Wynn rented a giant 14-by-25-foot LED screen from San Francisco for the concert. The symphony board voted to keep it an extra night for the Itzhak Perlman concert.
It proved so popular that symphony leaders decided to bring it back, even as it was rolling down the highway bound for Salt Lake City. And it’s been part of the symphony ever since, with camera crew and operators providing lawn goers with up-close-and-personal takes on the orchestra as it plays.
“That was a game changer,” said Marci Onofrio. With the screen, the stereophonic surround-sound on the lawn and the music coming from inside the Pavilion, it’s like sitting on the front row even when you’re on the lawn.”
POPS NIGHT ON THURSDAY
Pops Night comes early this year—on Thursday, Aug. 3. That’s when Time for Three will conclude its three-year residency with the symphony by performing a number of popular songs with a symphonic flair.
Among them: “Bitter Sweet Symphony,” composed by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Richard Ashcroft; “Sweet Child o’Mine,” composed by Guns & Roses and Time for Three’s own arrangement of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.”
Those songs and others will be flavored with Camille Saint-Saens’ “Symphony No 3,” Gustav Mahler’s “Symphonies No. 1 and 3” and Antonio Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons.”
Time for Three, made of up of three stings players, will also perform the world premiere of “Songs of Joy,” a song commissioned by the symphony that got a boisterous reception when the trio performed an excerpt at the River Run Lodge last winter.
ON FRIDAY, AUG. 4, advanced students and ensembles from the Summer Music Institute will perform at 6:30 p.m. in the Pavilion. The Philharmonia Orchestra, Chamber Singers, Encounter Chamber Orchestra and Sun Valley Youth Orchestra will play Mozart’s “Gloria” from “Coronation Mass in C.”
Students will also perform at 3 p.m. Friday, Aug. 4, in the Pavilion. And they’ll perform at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 5, at Our Lady of the Snows and 4 p.m. Saturday Aug. 5, in the Community School Theatre.
ON SATURDAY, AUG. 5, the symphony will perform Brahms “Symphony No. 1 in C Minor” at 6:30 p.m. in the Pavilion.
All concerts are free.