By Lyn Bronson
The Monterey Symphony really whooped it up last night and presented a two-hour Christmas concert at Sunset Center that had a little something for everybody — we heard serious music, Christmas carols, some great brass playing, a movement from a Mozart piano concerto, dueling violins and, toward the end, the whole audience singing along with bass Louis Lebherz in a sweetly sentimental rendition of “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas.” Wow! All that was lacking was some live reindeer and Joe Truskot dressed up like Santa to give us a hearty “Ho, Ho, Ho.”
The captain in charge of the ship during these proceedings was the versatile Leroy Kromm, Monterey Symphony Chorus Director, who during the evening also sang and played the piano. Although it seems as though he is up to any challenge, he did have a few bad moments as the pages of the score threatened to close up on him during his great piano accompaniment of Lebherz’s rendition of “White Christmas,” a minor annoyance he dispatched flamboyantly. Considering the complicated procedures getting people on and off stage, moving the stands and chairs in and out, changing the lighting setups, and letting us view occasionally the gorgeous dark red velvet curtain under the proscenium arch, this was a very smooth production that flowed from one set to another quite easily.
