Bowl opener offers Santana to Stravinsky

For decades, the first Classical Tuesday concert of the Hollywood Bowl season in July was considered the opening night, with all of the attendant hoopla and whatnot. Yet over the years, as “pre-opening” events accumulated, the traditional opening night began to seem rather redundant.

So, starting in 2000, the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame concert in late June became the real opening night, geared to as many different tastes as can be crammed into a single evening. It doesn’t add up to any kind of a coherent whole, nor can the individual segments satiate the appetites of the fans of each genre. But the formula is a draw, for the huge old amphitheater looked virtually full Friday night.

This year’s concert was anchored by the two Hall of Fame inductees, classical pianist Andre Watts and Latin rock guitarist Carlos Santana, and the only thing they had in common was backing by John Mauceri and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.

Alas, there were few signs of the fire-eating Watts of yore in the third movement of the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2, nor was the orchestra consistently in sync with the soloist. The performance took a few minutes to settle in, with Watts finally starting to probe the material upon the second statement of the Big Tune.

The Santana segment, however brief, was more satisfying. He brought members of his road-tested band along, fluidly sailing through his signature electric guitar riffs as the orchestra diligently, if not always audibly, fell in behind. Santana neatly summed up three phases of his career -- the hot, late-’60s Latin rock breakthrough, with “Soul Sacrifice”; the post-jazz-rock period, with the 1976 ballad “Europa (Earth’s Cry Heaven’s Smile)”; and his astonishing 21st century renaissance, via the “popera”-flavored “Novus” with baritone Jubilant Sykes.

Elsewhere, the oddball act Blue Man Group beat on drums, threw marshmallows and performed an agreeably humorous micro-concerto on a collection of white PVC pipes. Mauceri and company knocked off a serviceable rendition of “Jupiter” from Holst’s “The Planets” and, because of very noisy fireworks, an inaudible one of the finale from Stravinsky’s “The Firebird.” And there was lots of talk by others -- too much talk.