Pops’ holiday celebration so delightful
By Robert Nesti
Saturday, December 10, 2005 - Updated: 12:20 AM EST
The weather outside was frightful and traffic a nightmare, but inside festively decked Symphony Hall it was Holiday Pops, and Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops Orchestra banished any thoughts of inclement weather, at least for a couple of hours.
The opening night program presented the unique blend of the serious and frivolous: Where else do Bach and Mozart hobnob with Santa Claus?
Those composers were part of the first, more serious section that mixed musical pieces with narrated texts in a sampler intent on evoking those special holiday feelings.
To this end the orchestra was joined by the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and soprano Kathryn Skemp for a thoughtful mix of the familiar (“O, Holy Night”) and the lesser-known (Robert Frost’s “Stopping By The Woods on a Snowy Evening,” beautifully arranged for male voices).
The orchestra showed off its rich sound most memorably with a Hollywood-styled arrangement called “Christmas Canticles”; while Skemp’s warm soprano was nicely displayed in a Mozart concert aria and the inevitable “Silent Night.” She segued nicely to Broadway-styled singing in the second half with a lovely version of the Alan Menken ballad “A Place Called Home.”
In fact everything nicely lightened up after the intermission. Lockhart, dressed in a red shirt and black suspenders, was considerably less stiff leading the orchestra in jazzier arrangements, such as the big band-styled Santa Medley. The final sing-along gave the audience the opportunity to join in the classiest orchestra and chorus in the country, which is certainly a seasonal treat.
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