For the past 18 years, Washingtonians who love melodic music, corny jokes and mingling with friendly folks in the holiday spirit have spent New Year’s Eve at the Kennedy Center with Murry Sidlin and the National Symphony Orchestra. For Sidlin, dean of the Catholic University School of Music and popular guest conductor around the world, this is the one concert when he knows that everybody has come of his or her own volition to have fun amid semiserious trappings. This year, his guest is Spanish guitarist Pepe Romero, the second son of the “Royal Family of the Guitar.”
“Pepe will perform ‘Concierto de Aranjuez’ by Joaquin Rodrigo, a lovely, tuneful work that has been played by many guitarists, but Pepe studied with Rodrigo and claims the prize,” Sidlin said. “We met many years ago in Milwaukee when I was conducting all four Romeros, the father, Celedonio, and his three sons.
| Onstage |
| New Year’s Eve at the Kennedy Center |
| Where: Kennedy Center Concert Hall |
| When: 8:30 p.m. Saturday |
| Info: $50 and up; 202-467-4600; kennedy-center.org |
| Following the concert, guests are invited to the Grand Foyer Party featuring waltzing and swing dancing from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. and a big balloon countdown at midnight. |
“I went to their dressing room and was afraid to knock because I heard them arguing loudly behind the door, but when they opened it, they were all smiles and greeted me warmly. They’ve worked with me many times since, sometimes as soloists, sometimes with the father and Pepe in a duet, and recently in a quartet of two sons with two grandsons. All are marvelous musicians.”
Sidlin is not surprised that American audiences take Spanish guitars to their hearts because certain folk elements transcend all borders. As a melting pot, we are exposed to music from many cultures and quickly latch on to appealing melodies and rhythms. To appease eclectic tastes, he has chosen a variety of selections for the evening, among them favorites by Rossini, Strauss, Glinka, Bernstein, Sousa, Elgar and the ever popular “Auld Lang Syne.”
“This audience loves melodies, so I’ve planned music filled with them,” he said. “I’m also including Tchaikovsky’s ‘1812 Overture’ because we’re going into 2012. Each time we meet on New Year’s Eve, I’m pleased that the audience laughs at my pathetic jokes. The punch line to my introduction of Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ sometimes comes out as ‘Wrap Sadie in Blue,’ or I may explain my decision to forgo a piece by Janacek or Smetana with the remark that he is the most revered canceled Czech.
“When I ask the audience to sing along with me, they always oblige. And there are often surprises none of us expect. One year, a young man came up during intermission to see our soloist, soprano Arianna Zukerman, the daughter of Pinchas and Eugenia Zukerman. He told her, ‘You sang so beautifully, you must be handsomely rewarded.’ With that, he knelt and proposed to her. And she accepted. Whatever happens, my job and that of the orchestra is to make sure that everyone has a good time.”
