BSO, Tim Sample perform for children

“Early one mornin’ Hubert opened the front door of his trailer and decided to go pokin’ ’round the puckerbrush out back,” said Tim Sample as he began “Hubert and the Wolf,” the Maine humor version of Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf.” Sample adapted the musical tale to be performed in conjunction with the Bangor Symphony Orchestra’s Annual Youth Concert, which took place March 19 at the Maine Center for the Arts.

Under the direction of conductor John Halstrom, the BSO performed two concerts to sold out audiences of children ranging in age from 3 to 13. Approximately 3,200 children from all over the state sat and quietly listened to several pieces including Rossini’s “Overture to `Semiramide,”‘ Ginastera’s “Two Dances from the Ballet Estancia,” and Bloch’s “Suite Habraique Rapsodie” (featuring high school student Alan Seager on the viola) before listening to Sample narrate the story of young Hubert and his encounter with his animal friends and the wolf.

In the Sample adaptation, Hubert sees a bird sitting on the old Philco television in his back yard and her singing is so beautiful, he can tell she’s as “happy as a clam in the mud during high tide.” Hubert’s duck, Thelma, soon joins in the fun and flaps about in the water like Andre the Seal. The group is complete when Ol’ Buck the tomcat comes snooping around looking for trouble.

Soon the wolf appears and eats Thelma, and the remaining characters band together and catch the wolf by lowering duct tape from a tree and snaring him in a sticky noose. “Outta state hunters,” who had been “shootin’ their guns off every few seconds for most of the mornin”‘ because they thought the wolf was a 12-point deer, help Hubert and his friends secure the wolf. The group forms a strange procession as they lead the wolf to the Rumford Zoo.

Because Sample felt the death of Thelma had been left unresolved in the original story, and that this was potentially upsetting to children, he ended his version with a reassurance that Thelma was swallowed whole and had set up housekeeping inside the wolf’s belly. She and the wolf had gained world fame as “the notorious quacking wolf of Rumford, Maine.”

“That worked out rather nicely,” said conductor John Halstrom as he came backstage after the performance.

“I thought it was a blast,” said Sample.

And the children?

They were a captivated audience that laughed willingly and applauded heartily as they watched and listened to the most famous children’s orchestral piece.

Tim Sample and the BSO will repeat “Hubert and the Wolf” during the BSO family concert scheduled for March 30 at the Maine Center for the Arts. For tickets, call 581-1755.