SIMON AND GARFUNKEL TRIBUTE FAILS TO THRILL.

Anyone hoping to hear the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra offer a unique take on the music of ’60s icons Simon and Garfunkel would have been disappointed by Saturday’s show.

The evening featuring Jim Witter played more like a Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel tribute act with some orchestral music in the background.

The audience seemed genuinely entertained throughout — including a spontaneous standing ovation for Cecilia — but did hundreds pack TCU Place despite -34 C temperatures for fairly routine renditions of the pop duo’s classics?

Not until midway through the second set with a resounding version of The Sound of Silence was the potential of combining the traditional classics with a full orchestra realized.

Only occasionally and usually in the background did the orchestra’s musicians get the chance to show off their pop chops. The horn section was terrific on I Am A Rock and The Boxer arrangement gave the orchestra a too-rare chance in the spotlight.

The evening could have been a lot more compelling had it not been overpowered by two guitars and an electric bass.

Was a conventional rock drum set necessary when the symphony boasts a percussion section?

Simon and Garfunkel’s hits stand up with minimal instrumental support so giving the orchestra a bigger role to play would not have been that big a gamble.

Unless you lack confidence in the vocals.

Witter’s voice is fine, but he’s not Paul Simon. Or Art Garfunkel, whose talent sometimes gets forgotten due to his failed solo career.

More importantly, Ian Tanner — a Christian rock star like Witter — who usually played Garfunkel to Witter’s Simon, is not Garfunkel either.

The band started the second set with two Everly Brothers classics — one of Garfunkel’s influences — while the orchestra sat silent.

This proved more suitable for Witter and Tanner, whose voices fell short of complementing each other the way Simon and Garfunkel did.

Giving Tanner a chance to sing a couple of solo songs proved to be a nice gesture but a questionable decision — especially on a quiet song like For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her.

Instead of trusting Tanner with Garfunkel’s biggest signature song, Witter started Bridge Over Troubled Water as a solo while playing the piano. Again, despite Witter’s banging on the keys, the song built nicely to include the entire orchestra for a magnificent ending.

Witter deserves credit for getting the staid symphony crowd singing along and clapping, but went overboard by repeating the chorus of Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover for the third time so the audience could repeat the rhyming names.

“I know it’s a night at the symphony, but feel free to sing along,” Witter said. “You know these songs, right?”

Yes, we know these songs so well and they are such standards they beg for a more original treatment.

Witter repeated “groovy” and flashed the peace sign, but his musical knowledge seems suspect — he admitted he had never heard the song America before he started the tribute show seven years ago.

The symphony failed to fully embrace the concept — despite being encouraged to dress in ’60s garb, only one tie-dyed T-shirt in the bunch.

Maestro Victor Sawa poked fun that he still wore his signature tuxedo on a night when the pop promise of the evening went unfulfilled.