Something for everyone at Redwood Symphony’s Halloween family concert

Dr. K described the event as part concert, part classroom. The first piece was John Williams’ theme from “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” led by assistant conductor Kyle Baldwin. This was preceded by Dr. K introducing each instrument in the orchestra and having its principal play a bit. Most of them chose excerpts or variations on the “Harry Potter” theme but there were exceptions. Concertmaster Danny Coward played a bit from his solo in Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade.” A French horn player played Williams’ “Imperial March” from “Star Wars” while one of his colleagues, dressed as Darth Vader, stood up and gestured threateningly.

The concert concluded with John Philip Sousa’s “Washington Post March,” featuring guest conducting stints by 10 children who’d won a raffle held at intermission. Each bearing a souvenir Redwood Symphony-branded baton, they were escorted in turn by Dr. K up to the podium for stints of about 30 seconds each while the music played continuously. Some waved their arms around enthusiastically. A couple had figured out how to give a 2/4 beat. Others were not quite sure what to do or held their hands down by their sides, so they were given a little physical guidance by Dr. K.

More substantive music came with excerpts from Maurice Ravel’s orchestration of Modest Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition.” Dr. K explained that this choice was in keeping with an educational theme that music sets up pictures in listeners’ minds. With Mussorgsky, memorializing a deceased friend’s artwork, the pictures were already there. Dr. K presented a comparison between the opening chord of “The Great Gate of Kiev” in Mussorgsky’s original for piano, played by Joy Lai on an electronic keyboard, with the blast of Ravel’s full orchestration. The orchestra went on to play “The Great Gate” in grand and fulsome style.

But the major work on the program was the premiere performance of the orchestrated version of “A Country Fair” by distinguished local composer Kirke Mechem. Mechem, 99, was present at the performance. The Redwood Symphony has played a number of his works before, including his opera of “Pride and Prejudice” in 2019.

“A Country Fair” is a suite of about 15 tiny movements, most of them dances, often whirling around until the dancers are said to have run out of breath. There are also some slow movements, a fanfare and a concluding march. The music is lively and attractive. The orchestration is extremely imaginative. In the opening dance, the melodic line shifts to a different instrument about every other bar. In another movement, an organ-grinder is played by a solo double bass. A funhouse-mirror scene is played by flute and clarinet in inversion, moving in opposite directions up or down the scale. Redwood Symphony’s instrumentalists handled these complexities with ease.

To help put pictures of what’s going on at the fair in listeners’ minds, the music is accompanied by an elaborate narration, delivered by Walter the Giant Storyteller (Walter M. Mayes), a Palo Alto children’s librarian who does much stage and musical theater work. Somewhat out of his normal character, he played the title role when Redwood Symphony put on Stephen Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd” in 2013.

Redwood Symphony’s next concert will be a regular season event that’s not quite so easy for children. Dmitri Shostakovich’s enormous and mysterious Fourth Symphony will anchor the evening. On the other hand, child listeners might enjoy the overture for winds and percussion by Felix Mendelssohn and the concerto for bassoon by W.A. Mozart that will begin the program. It’s Saturday, Nov. 23, 8 p.m., at Cañada College.