Callaway puts plenty of sparkle into the Vancouver Symphony's holiday concert

The Vancouver Symphony’s holiday concert with Liz Callaway glowed with homecoming atmosphere on Saturday evening (December 11). Patrons of the orchestra enthusiastically greeted the musicians with applause in Skyview Concert Hall for the first time since the pandemic shut down that venue in March of 2020. Because of a ban on outside vendors by the school district, the orchestra performed its first two concerts of the season in Portland’s Newmark Theatre and the Cowlitz Ballroom of the ilani Casino. So, it was heartening to see the auditorium at about two-thirds capacity, and there must have been a good-sized crowd online. They received an outstanding show by Callaway and the orchestra under the direction of Salvador Brotons.

Seasonal decorations, including Christmas lights wrapped around a double-bass, poinsettias lining the front of the stage, and greenery draped around the rail of the conductor’s podium, added to the concert’s festive mood. Brotons gave Callaway a rousing introduction, and she launched into “Something’s Coming” from "West Side Story." Next came a lively, pop-styled arrangement of “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair” with principal trumpet Bruce Dunn adding some extra licks.

Flavoring her selections with humorous anecdotes, Callaway recalled singing Grizabella for five years in “Cats” and how fun it is to sing it now “without whiskers.” She gave “Memory” a terrific climax at the end, which elicited sustained applause from the audience. Callaway followed that with “Broadway Baby” from “Follies” and the snippet of lines that she sang in her first Broadway show, “Merrily We Roll Along,” which, she also noted, closed after two weeks.

Acknowledging her longtime collaboration with Stephen Sondheim, who recently passed away, Callaway gave a passionate performance of “Send in the Clowns” from “A Little Night Music.” She closed out the first half of the program with two signature numbers – “Once Upon a December” and “Journey to the Past” – that she has made famous in the Disney animated film “Anastasia:”.” That combo brought down the house, resulting in a standing ovation.

After intermission, Callaway sang a splashy arrangement of “Joy to the World” to a pulsating beat. She also gave poignancy to “Grown-Up Christmas List,” then jolted us with a bracing “Jingle Bells” in a refreshing arrangement by Jack Gold and Marty Paich that required some tricky meters and modulations. She wound things up with “God Bless My Family,” which was written by her sister Ann Hampton Callaway and contains a beautiful message, and finally a soothing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” that I am sure had some online listeners reaching for a glass of eggnog.

The concert opened with Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess: Selections for Orchestra” in a superb arrangement by Robert Russell Bennet that put the spotlight on various members of the orchestra and a fun exchange between the woodwinds and the brass when they played “It Ain’t Necessarily So.” The orchestra served a delectable slice of Viennese pieces with Suppe’s “Poet and Peasant Overture,” Strauss Jr’s “Emperor Waltz” – both of which featured fine solos by principal cellist Dieter Ratzlaf. After transitioning to Strauss Jr’s lighthearted “Tritsch-Tratsch Polka,” the orchestra wrapped up the evening with the Strauss Sr’s “Radetzky March” in which Brotons got the entire audience clapping rhythmically with gusto.