-
Singer Diego Navaira, seen earlier this year, stood out in “Hey Jude” during Friday night’s “Revolution: The Music of the Beatles. A Symphonic Experience.” It was the San Antonio Symphony’s first concert in this season’s Pops series.
Singer Diego Navaira, seen earlier this year, stood out in “Hey Jude” during Friday night’s “Revolution: The Music of the Beatles. A Symphonic Experience.” It was the San Antonio Symphony’s first
Photo: Marvin Pfeiffer /Staff Photographer
Image 1 of 1
Singer Diego Navaira, seen earlier this year, stood out in “Hey Jude” during Friday night’s “Revolution: The Music of the Beatles. A Symphonic Experience.” It was the San Antonio Symphony’s first concert in this season’s Pops series.
Singer Diego Navaira, seen earlier this year, stood out in “Hey Jude” during Friday night’s “Revolution: The Music of the Beatles. A Symphonic Experience.” It was the San Antonio Symphony’s first
Photo: Marvin Pfeiffer /Staff Photographer
The universal and ever-growing appeal of Beatles music will always flow from the creative ways the songs can evolve, simply because of the melodies and the harmonizations at their core.
That fundamental supported Friday night’s San Antonio Symphony concert, the first of this season’s Pops series, “Revolution: The Music of the Beatles. A Symphonic Experience.”
For this weekend, the show added a local connection as San Antonio native singers Diego Navaira and Emilio Navaira IV, sons of the late Tejano giant Emilio Navaira, were among the six touring musicians in a band sharing the stage with the symphony.
The brothers were joined by vocalist Colin Smith, guitarist-singer Greg Mayo, bass guitarist Josh Myers and keyboardist Andy Roninson. Emilio IV handled the drum set role, playing all out, in a concert that presented 26 program-listed Beatles hit songs and three encores before an audience of about 800 at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts. The songs were arranged for orchestra and rock band by Jeff Tyzik.
What made the concert so special was what wasn’t there. No 1960s Beatles costumes. No phony British accents. No imitations of John, Paul, George and Ringo mannerisms. No one asking on stage the outdated question: “Are there any ‘screamers’ here?”
It was just musicians on stage grooving to the best Beatles hits, doing it so well and in their own way while still faithful to the spirit of the songs.
The audience members, old and young, needed nothing more. They knew what to do, starting with a clap-along for the first song, “Get Back.”
Highlights included “Yesterday,” “Hello, Goodbye” and “Here Comes the Sun” that had audience members swaying in their seats.
Having as much fun as anyone was symphony Associate Conductor Noam Aviel, who adroitly led the orchestra. Two of the orchestra musicians who stood out were John Carroll, playing the famous trumpet solo for “Penny Lane,” and flutist Mark Teplitsky for his role in “The Fool on the Hill.”
The orchestra was especially prominent in “Eleanor Rigby,” the funky “I am the Walrus” and “Let It Be.”
The vocalists were strong, especially Smith and Diego Navaira in “Hey Jude” and Mayo in “Yesterday.”
By the concert’s end, many in the audience were up and dancing for “Twist and Shout,” the listed program’s final piece. Then came the encores, and the dancing continued for “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “A Hard Day’s Night” and “I Want To Hold Your Hand.”
If the two surviving Beatles musicians — Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr — had been present, they would have had a blast hearing and seeing it all.
“Revolution: The Music of the Beatles” repeats at 8 p.m. Saturday, at the Tobin Center downtown.
hendrickd53@yahoo.com