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Moonrise Piano Tuning and Repair. Lance Levine, RPT. lance@moonrisepiano.com 978-618-8627

LOCKHART, HOLIDAY POPS GIVE A JOLLY GOOD CONCERT FOR ALL

Author(s): Richard Dyer, Globe Staff Date: December 13, 2001 Page: B16 Section: Arts

" `Jingle Bells' comin' at you," announced Keith Lockhart, and so it did. Last weekend the city began to look like Christmas, and Symphony Hall was sounding seasonal when the Holiday Pops began its annual run of performances last night.

There was a lot of high-spirited tomfoolery beneath a giant snowflake and the flickering faux flambeaux. At one point, the trumpet section leaped up wearing reindeer antlers; the bass section twirled their instruments on their pins and pulled on their Santa Claus hats. Mr. Claus himself paid an early visit from the North Pole and bantered with Lockhart, who read a letter from "Betty in Boston" about how she was looking for a right jolly old elf with a belly that shook like a bowlful of jelly. Lockhart himself, his Armani tux accessorized with a crimson tie and cummerbund, was a one-man band, whistling in one number, leading a community sing seated on the lip of the stage like Judy Garland at the Palace, squeaking through Alvin's high-flying line from "The Chipmunk Song," delivering his one-liners like the practiced actor he has become, and leading a jolly good concert.

The fun rested on a more solid base of musical integrity than some Holiday Pops concerts of Christmases past. Much of the program celebrated the serious aspects of the season, and paid tribute to the mood of the nation since Sept. 11, with a diverse selection of quality music, ranging from Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus" through old French carols, arrangements of American folk songs, and a gorgeous piece from Respighi's "The Adoration of the Magi," from "Three Botticelli Pictures" - a work Lockhart counts among his favorites, he said, and that he's never been able to program before.

There was also a first-class soprano soloist, Sharon Baker, who will alternate over the Holiday Pops series with Mara Bonde, Carole Haber, and Jean Danton. Baker knows how to sing - in two old French carols, in "O Holy Night," "I Wonder As I Wander" and "Gesu bambino," her voice sounded as pristine and dew-kissed as it did when she arrived on the scene two decades ago. She was lightly miked, but the high notes flew beyond the amplification to reach everyone in the hall directly. The program's other soloist was radio and television commentator, and former Globe columnist, Mike Barnicle, who delivered the text of "Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus" with homespun grace.

It was a big evening for John Oliver's Tanglewood Festival Chorus. A group of about 50 voices sang in most of the works on the program, delivering everything from Handel to "Frosty the Snowman" with enthusiasm and discipline. The Boston Symphony Orchestra is still on tour and the Boston Pops will not report for duty until Dec. 17, but the freelance Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra stood in with its characteristic zip and polish - the BPEO recently returned from its own nine-concert nationwide holiday tour with Lockhart. The ensemble was as spiffy as the solo work.

A few arrangements remain on the tacky side; the opening "Joy to the World!" had a bad case of modulation fever. The last section of the program was called "Christmas is for Children," but Lockhart properly dedicated it to the child that is alive in all of us at this time of the year.

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LOCKHART, HOLIDAY POPS GIVE A JOLLY GOOD CONCERT FOR ALL