Whodunit headlines first Lollipops concert

The Richmond Symphony began its new Lollipops concert series yesterday with a program well-suited for children and the adults who brought them. If this concert is any indication, the series will be entertaining but not infantile, enriching but not overtly instructional.

The concert began with four movements from John Williams' "Suite for Orchestra from 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.'" With its immediately familiar tunes, it was a good choice to put everyone at ease. My concert companions, ages 6 and 12, definitely felt the magic.

The Williams piece is excellent "educational" music in that it's easy to observe how motifs can get broken up, slowed down, transposed or otherwise reused across several movements.

Associate conductor Erin Freeman knew her audience, however, and didn't drag things out with didactic discourse.

The headline work on the program, "The Composer is Dead" by Nathaniel Stookey, is a composition in the lineage of "Peter and the Wolf" and "A Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra." It doesn't have the charming story of the first or the methodically educational approach of the second. It is, however, very funny.

The words were written by Lemony Snicket, author of the "Series of Unfortunate Events" books. The piece is billed as a musical whodunit, a brilliant ruse with which to introduce the orchestra: A composer is dead, and the various instruments must provide alibis.

The trumpets, for example, were busy leading a parade. The violas were at home feeling sorry for themselves. The concertmaster--"the best violinist in the orchestra" -- would never kill someone who wrote music with which she could show off.

The humor was largely over the head of my 6-year-old, and she didn't think much of the outcome, but the 12-year-old was amused.

We were treated to Stookey himself, alive and dapper, narrating the piece. Unfortunately, the libretto is so witty, it almost becomes a distraction from the music, which is delightful. Although individual sections of the orchestra do get solos, Stookey wisely brings the full orchestra along most of the time to develop the motifs and to avoid a "And here we have . . . " tour guide feel.

About 40 minutes into the hourlong concert, my 6-year-old got restless and said, "Why did I have to come here?" "Because I wanted you to," I said.

No, it wasn't fair. But pay heed to the last line of "The Composer is Dead": "Those who want justice should go to the police station, but those who want something a little more interesting should go to the orchestra!"