here was a full house for the opening of Holiday Pops last night, as there is likely to be for each of the remaining 34 concerts of the series. Holiday Pops will enlist two orchestras, two choruses, four alternating gospel singers, and five conductors. There is also a new corporate sponsor, Target, which offered free coffee and cookies at intermission for the entire opening-night audience.
Holiday Pops has come a long way since the early 1970s, when Arthur Fiedler decided to see what would happen if he scheduled a couple of Christmas Pops concerts. Not all of the journey has been upward - the politically correct change of name being only one example. Last year the series seemed to be working toward a nadir of the commercial, the tasteless, and the slipshod.
This year, however, things are looking up. There was a better variety of different kinds of good music, and a clear distinction between ''Christmas'' (seasonal music of primarily religious orientation before intermission) and ''holiday'' (secular music, fun stuff, and novelty tunes in the second half).
Centenarian Symphony Hall got all dolled up for the occasion. There were boughs of holly, or at least green stuff, suspended across the stage, suspended from a pair of decorative French horns. A large snowflake hung from the center, above the musicians, while projections of snowflakes and a sleigh with reindeer illuminated the side walls. Eggnog appeared on the menu, and the traditional Pops punch is vaguely red (no cherries in the pitchers, though). The orchestra and chorus were in their usual black-and-white, but after intermission, Keith Lockhart reappeared in a red cummerbund and tie, with a glimpse of scarlet socks.
The first part of the program featured a chorus from Handel's ''Messiah,'' in Mozart's version, with added clarinet parts, the prelude to Humperdinck's ''Hansel and Gretel,'' three excerpts from Menotti's ''Amahl and the Night Visitors'' performed in honor of the opera's premiere on television 50 years ago, and some new arrangements.
The best of these were by Pops Gospel Night director Charles Floyd, who created a medley of three ''Christmas Spirituals'' featuring a gospel singer. The opening night soloist was Renese E. King, who works during the week at Berklee College of Music and on weekends at the Union Methodist Church and the Roxbury Seventh Day Adventist Mission. She has a phenomenal, wide-ranging voice and she wasn't going to let any arrangement tie her down (Floyd left her plenty of room). Best of all, she had a message to deliver, so that's what she did. The audience went wild.
The Tanglewood Festival Chorus sang backup to that, but held the spotlight and shone forth in Handel's ''And the Glory of the Lord,'' a quietly lovely new arrangement of the ''Coventry Carol'' for chorus and harp by Angela Morley (Susan Robinson was the harpist), and ''A Christmas Flourish,'' a medley of carols marred by modulation fever and a wobbly-legged bass line.
Lockhart may have overdone the crouch-and-jump bit, but he brought energy and informality to the proceedings, and the Esplanade Orchestra, which has been touring the land in Holiday Pops programs, was certainly on top of the music. (The Boston Symphony is still out of town, and reports for Pops duty Monday.)
There was one horror in the second half of the program, ''Joy!,'' a jazzed-up arrangement of traditional Christmas pieces; it was offensive to hear a vulgar ripoff of Handel's ''Hallelujah!'' chorus in the absence of the real thing. It may be time, too, to retire the Pops's slurpy arrangement of ''White Christmas,'' played in a dim religious gloom and threatening to end with the Dresden Amen; concertmaster Joseph Scheer played the violin solo for all it's worth, and then some.
Concertgoers of a certain age must have enjoyed the vocal arrangement of '''Twas the Night Before Christmas'' that they grew up with; our household recording was by Fred Waring. Raymond Scott's ''The Toy Trumpet'' remains charming, and Bruce Hall played it delightfully. Lockhart reminded us that the drummer of Scott's band was John Williams Sr.
There was a nifty new singalong arrangement of novelty tunes from Christmases past by inventive Danny Troob, who put ''The Chipmunk Song'' into a nice high key so everyone could squeal along with Alvin.
Mr. S. Claus from the N. Pole made his annual appearance with better banter than usual - he told of Rudolph appearing on ''Survivor'' and being voted off the team. ''But there were some irregularities within the vote, so there will be a recount.'' ''By hand?'' asked straight-man Lockhart; ''No, by hoof,'' said the wily Mr. Claus.
The program ended with what everyone must have wanted the most, the return of Renese E. King, who filled ''Silent Night'' with soul-stirring joy.
