Music: Light program matches GBSO high standards By Erik Eriksson News-Chronicle With a cheery program entitled "Gotta Dance," the Green Bay Symphony Orchestra, led by music director Bridget-Michaele Reischl, brought a midwinter glow to the Weidner Center last Saturday night. Described as a concert of light classics, it fit Reischl's healthier, more substantial definition of the term and proved wholesome and sumptuously played. Her podium manner ever more comfortable and expressive, Reischl held to the high road of performance: nothing casual or slap-dash was allowed to slip through. Indeed, the entire program matched the orchestra's best standard - and that, for a regional orchestra is invariably a very high one. Reischl pays heed to the great traditions of symphonic music. Thus, she weaves her way authentically through a broad swath of the literature: Central, northern and southern European; Russian; English; American; and all manner of other musical nooks and crannies. These musical currents have been absorbed into her bloodstream and flavor her interpretations. In other words, she reaches out to embrace the composer rather than shoehorn his sensibilities into one generalized style. Saturday's first two numbers were examples. Brahms' Hungarian Dance No. 5 is familiar enough to have become a bit of a warhorse, but it holds manifold riches within the folds of its gypsy draperies. The orchestra's timbre matched its dark colorings beautifully and the musicians followed closely Reichl's flexible tempi, the swells and lingerings before the music returned to speed. Brahms' passion for gypsy themes was stamped in every measure of this eloquent performance. Likewise, Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture was bracingly atmospheric, again drawn in rich colors and unfailing attention to detail. The razor-sharp attacks would have done credit to many a major orchestra. By contrast, Shelley Hansen's "Groove" brought to life the world of the street dance beginning with an Irish flavor, shifting almost imperceptibly to klezmer and finishing in a blaze of incandescent salsa. The transitions were managed deftly and the conclusion cooked with all the heat of a Latin jazz band. Gunther Schuller's arrangement of Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag" strutted the first segment to a jaunty ending. The second section of preintermission music brought the evening's soloist, xylophonist Linda Siegel, on stage for three items by American xylophonist and composer George Hamilton Green (1893-1970). Siegel, assistant principal percussionist with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, seemed not quite settled in during the intricate and repetitive "Xylophonia" which carried on a bit too long. "Log Cabin Blues" and "Spanish Waltz" were markedly better, and an encore, another Green composition called "Rainbow Ripples," was best of all, despite the lack of tonal shading afforded by the xylophone. After intermission, an arrangement of excerpts from Leonard Bernstein's "West Side Story" (not the more familiar Symphonic Dances) caught much of the tang of the composer's great score, although the arrangement was itself a little tame. The efficacy of a superb arranger was everywhere evident in Ralph Hermann's purple velvet medley of Duke Ellington themes. A good case can be made for deeming Ellington America's greatest composer. His band, populated by many musicians who stayed with him for decades, was his laboratory, an ensemble from which he could draw a remarkable spectrum of colors and exotic rhythms. With the strings of a symphony orchestra available to him, Hermann could add to the color range and his genuine understanding of the jazz idiom gives his work the ring of truth. Reischl's direction and the orchestra's execution proved that their exquisite accompaniment for jazz singer Diane Reeves last May was no fluke. This was on the level of a good Hollywood sound stage ensemble. Also welcome was the presence of oboist Howard Niblock's few solo lines. Lovely. Three Johann Strauss II favorites, beginning with an echt-Viennese "Blue Danube Waltz" and moving to two propulsive polkas (reversed in order from the program) led to the presentation of the "Bay Area Battle for the Baton" winner. Dee Geurts-Bengtson, Executive of Special Events for the Green Bay Packers, took to the podium to lead the "Beer Barrel Polka," managing to conduct and dance the polka at the same time, even turning now and then to invite the audience to join in. Afterward, the audience partied on with a festive polka event in the lobby.