P.D.Q. Bach brings laughter back

PETER SCHICKELE AND UTAH SYMPHONY, Abravanel Hall, Friday; also 8 p.m. today (355-2787).

Who would have thought how well a piccolo and contrabassoon could sound together? Or would have imagined what vocal magic would be created by an off-coloratura soprano, tenor profundo and basso blotto? Or how much mileage you can get out of a tune that's amazingly child-like in scope?

The musical world has P.D.Q. Bach to thank for these musical oddities. He went where no one else dared. And where he went, people still shake their heads in disbelief.

The last, and according to P.D.Q.'s discoverer, Professor Schickele, least of J.S. Bach's numerous offspring was thrust on the unsuspecting audience in Abravanel Hall Friday evening. Peter Schickele, a k a P.D.Q. Bach, a k a Professor Schickele, unleashed his comic genius on the Utah Symphony and associate conductor Scott O'Neil in a madcap concert that left the audience with tears of laughter streaming down their faces.

Schickele, who was the evening's "intellectual guide" as well as basso blotto and piano soloist, introduced himself as the head of musical pathology at the University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople. Appearing in his usual disheveled state, Schickele gave the audience a brief summary of P.D.Q.'s life and work, calling him a "musical midget."

The concert opened with the "Safe" Sextet, S. R33-L45-R (pass it once) 78, so-called because Schickele found it in a safe in a building that was being demolished. The work is scored for the "forgotten" instruments of the orchestra — piccolo; English horn ("an oboe that's taken Viagra"); bass clarinet, contrabassoon, harp ("a nude piano") and celesta ("the castrato of the keyboard family — especially true since it was first used by Tchaikovsky in 'The Nutcracker.' ")

The professor was also represented on the concert with his "Unbegun" Symphony, a work that consists only of the Minuet and Finale movements, "because I was born too late to write the first two." The work is a fabulous pastiche of tunes ranging from Mozart to Stephen Foster to Beethoven, with a slew of others thrown in for good measure.

The first half ended with P.D.Q.'s "Twelve Quite Heavenly Songs," a song cycle based on the signs of the Zodiac and sung by Michele Eaton, David Dusing and Schickele. The texts are nonsensical, and the entire work is a hilarious spoof of baroque and classical cliches.

After a holiday interlude of "Joy to the World" and Leroy Anderson's "Sleigh Ride," the second half concluded with P.D.Q.'s "Variations on an Unusually Simple-Minded Theme," S. 1, "the only obstacle between now and the end of the concert." The work showed that P.D.Q. was ahead of his time in the way the woodwind players stood and moved side to side in big band fashion.

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E-mail: ereichel@desnews.com