Mann Center offers classical music, sports images

Typically, sports fans and Philadelphia Orchestra followers don't breathe the same air unless scrunched together on some Broad Street bus.

Yet Wednesday night they'll be under the same roof - the Mann Center for the Performing Arts - for a Philadelphia Orchestra concert titled "Symphonic Sports-tacular," a fusion of classical music and sports images seen on giant LED screens, all masterminded by New York City's WQXR-FM's midday announcer, Elliott Forrest.

Given how contentious special-interest groups can be in Philadelphia, you wonder if Forrest knew what he was getting into. "If I get mauled," he said Tuesday, "you'll know why."

Luckily, he's had plenty of inside advice and video footage from the area's five major sports teams, plus the support of veteran classical music comedian Peter Schickele (a.k.a. P.D.Q. Bach), who will perform his popular play-by-play version of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5. The evening ends with fireworks - always a crowd-pleasing safety net - at the Mann.

The lineup is formidable: The concert will be conducted by the New York Pops' Steven Reineke, who was game for the gig, and hosted by sportscaster Merrill Reese. The Voice of the Eagles reportedly needed some convincing.

But the fusion of music and sports isn't as unprecedented or unlikely as it might seem. In his 1998 basketball film, He Got Game, the director Spike Lee edited certain scenes to fit Aaron Copland's music.

Having created numerous video/orchestral presentations, Forrest seized on something similar: "Basketball is highly balletic, especially if you slow it down." Doctor J, for one, will leap while Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake soars.

Under the heading of respecting what you might not know, Forrest chose his athletic icons carefully. "I wanted to make sure the sports figure I was glorifying hadn't been involved with anything illicit lately," he said. "That was definitely on our minds."

Anybody lamenting the current state of sports in Philadelphia can retreat to the illustrious past via video of great moments in baseball, football, basketball, hockey, and soccer. Not that it's all about enshrinement: A section of fumbles and falls will be seen to the accompaniment of Smetana's Dance of the Comedians.

Schickele's Beethoven satire is considered a classic in its own right, but still isn't immune to controversy. "Some people feel that Beethoven's Fifth is sacred and shouldn't be fooled around with," says Schickele. "But those usually aren't musicians. We're having fun with something we love. I'm always impressed with the way an orchestra of Philadelphia's caliber is willing to jump in and do these outrageous things." (Players who miss notes end up in the penalty box. Nobody knows if conductor or orchestra will "win.")

Given that the sports and music communities both tend to be on the fanatical side and take offense easily, might each feel that the other has an unfair advantage? Forrest thinks not, believing the fusion will count for a lot: "I think people will look at sports in a whole new way and sports fans will hear classical music differently."

What makes Schickele's Fifth satire funny is its ring of truth. "When we talk about breaking up the theme and tossing it into little pieces ... that really happens in the piece," he says. "Many people never thought of it that way."

Contact David Patrick Stearns at dstearns@phillynews.com.