But it still has $4 million in debt and its endowment is $24 million, low for an orchestra of its size.
The music, as well as the items for sale, sound rather upscale for a rummage, but the prices are "like really ridiculous low," says the orchestra.
Even with the introduction of a few singers (Cynthia Scott on "When Lights Are Low" and the orchestra's trombonist, Vincent Gardner, singing the ersatz cowboy lyrics in "Cow Cow Boogie"), most of them reflected the compression of the recordings.
Many players remained from its celebrated decade under Reiner, but morale was low, and the orchestra was $5m in debt.
The lights go down, and the orchestra intones the low E flat that to Wagner's ears was the sound of the birth of the world.
"So Far So Good," in which small themes recur as they move around the orchestra over low, shifting harmonies, had the same kind of slowly developing phrases as the first movement of Schubert's Eighth Symphony, which followed it on the program.
"She died," she whispers, setting off a low groan in the orchestra.
After running low on funds, that orchestra tried to reinvent itself under Mr. Dare with eclectic programs seeking to appeal to non-classical music audiences.
She sings her monologues with passionate abandon, the top register mostly soaring above the orchestra, the low notes sometimes sweet, sometimes forceful.
And the line was intoned by Jose van Dam with the sullen, irrefutable force of a man turning into an animal, backed by low sounds in the orchestra having the same tone.
