A Grand Slam for Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops

Summertime. To many people it means that the fish are jumpin' and the cotton is high. To others it means plenty of sun, surf and sand. Yet to another faction of the world's population, summertime means participation in America's favorite pastime: baseball, where peanuts and Crackerjacks reign supreme and the crack of a bat sends shivers of excitement down even the most jaded spine. Keith Lockhart, the conductor of the world renowned Boston Pops Orchestra, falls into the latter category. The handsome maestro is an avid baseball fan and has been since his youth.

"Fortunately, for my future in Boston," the Poughkeepsie, NY native recounts, "I was never a Yankees fan. When I was a little kid I sort of followed everybody and I thought every team was cool, but around the time when I really got into following a team was the year the Mets won the series. I was just about ten years old, which is the perfect timing for that sort of thing. I remember running home from school to turn on the TV to see the ends of games because back then they still played day games. So I became a Mets fan and I stuck with that until I moved out of New York. Any Yankees or Red Sox fan will tell you with all good humor that it's much easier to go from being a Mets fan to a Red Sox fan than from being a Red Sox fan to a Yankees fan!" Continuing with the recollections of his youth, Lockhart recalls, "I was the typical American Little League kid who slept with a baseball glove under his pillow and did things like that.

Lockhart's enthusiasm for baseball has resulted in his latest recording with the Boston Pops, a CD entitled "The Red Sox Album". It's an excellent collection of music that is related to the City of Boston's beloved baseball team. The album is the fruition of a concept the conductor has had for some time. "I had this idea kicking around for two or three years. At one point I thought about it as being an All-Boston sports album because there was that time when it looked like Boston was going to win the Super Bowl, the NBA Championship and the World Series in one season. It turned out that Patriots didn't win and I realized a baseball album would be a lot easier to do because it's a sport that has enough romance and popular culture surrounding it, with many great movies inspired by it. You can't make a hockey album because there just isn't enough material," he comments with a laugh.

"I spoke to one of the owners of the Red Sox," Lockhart continues, "and he was very enthusiastic and the whole Red Sox organization fell behind it in a big way. This was very necessary because you can imagine how tight an enterprise like major league baseball is. You have no idea how difficult it could be to get the clearance just to call it "The Red Sox Album" and to use the logo and all that sort of thing. They shepherded it through all that stuff and it's being sold at Fenway Park; at the big city kiosks; and at Barnes and Nobles thoughout the region, as well as on-line with the Boston Pops. The whole idea was an exposure thing. It's amazing to realize how many people are in the Red Sox nation and how many are-to one extent of another-in the Boston Pops nation. So far the CD is moving very well."

When questioned about whether he has a favorite piece in the recording, the genial conductor replies, "It has to be a new-to-us version of "Casey at the Bat". There are four or five other versions of this but I have to say this one is just brilliant. It's amazingly charming and really well-done." This particular version is narrated by Broadway regular Gregg Edelman who scores very high points with the maestro. "He was really great. Some of those narrated versions of the poem can be done by anybody or someone with no musical background and others require the timing and musical intelligence of a singer. This is one of the latter ones and Gregg was brilliant. He brought that sort of All American boyish sensibility which he does so well into this. It worked very well. There was another narrated version that we actually toured with about 12 or 13 years ago and the late Curt Gowdy did the narrating. He was someone whose voice I grew up listening to and working with him was great fun."

The recording also features music from Randy Newman's score for the movie THE NATURAL , "It's a gorgeous score; noble and full and I'm very happy with the music we recorded from that. Then there are pieces we recorded specifically for the Red Sox nation: Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" which is played at Fenway Park in the eighth inning, and "I'm Shipping to Boston" which has a definite Celtic feel to it. Pitcher Jonathan Papelbon danced a jig to this tune when the Red Sox clinched the American League East Division title and repeated it when the team won a World Series berth." One of the most unique aspects of this recording is the rendition of John Phillip Sousa's "The National Game". Not only is the music a cheery march, but it features slugger David Ortiz actually providing the percussive crack of a bat throughout the piece. It's a novelty that is a must for any true baseball aficionado.

It's also refreshing fare for those who are only casual fans of the sport.
It isn't just the release of the new CD that has Lockhart brimming over with excitement these days, it's also the opening of another season of the Pops at Symphony Hall, which coincidentally is located less than a mile from Fenway Park in Boston. It's not just the proximity of the two venues that links the Pops with the Sox, but also the serving of food and drink during the performances. Hot dogs and peanuts are hawked throughout the ball games and champagne and light meals are served throughout the concerts. "Serving food and drink is something that's been part of the Pops since their very first concert in 1885. The first audiences of these events were familiar with the wine gardens in Vienna and the beer gardens of Germany in the summers and most of the musicians at that time were primarily German . They'd mostly played those beer gardens in the summer because they'd leave the Boston Symphony, which only played about 20 weeks in those days. The Pops was actually formed to keep those musicians together and recreate that feeling of music and refreshment. The funny thing is that Boston was puritanical at that point and it needed a special license to serve alcoholic beverages in a place where music was happening because there was fear that Symphony Hall might turn into a speakeasy. There was actually one year that the Pops didn't exist because they hadn't filed the required paperwork in time."

For those who have attended Boston Pops concerts in Symphony Hall know that the auditorium undergoes a radical physical transformation to accommodate the bistro-like setting when the Pops are performing. "When the Hall was built in 1900," the conductor elucidates, "it was constructed specifically with the capacity to transform into a completely different setting for the Pops. Basically the rake that allows the orchestra seats to raise toward the back of the house removes so you get a flat floor. There's a counterbalanced platform elevator right in the center of the auditorium that takes all the seating down into the basement. All the chairs and bistro tables come from the opposite direction. It takes about 36 hours and a big crew to do the whole thing. It was radically innovative for the time the theater was built."

The 124th Opening Night performance of the Boston Pops will take place on Wednesday, May 6th and will feature none other than the original Marian the Librarian, Barbara Cook. "I did TV with Barbara for an ‘Evening at Pops' concert seven or eight years ago and to be perfectly honest, thought that it was my last opportunity to work with this great legendary singer. Not to be morbid, but I just assumed that she wouldn't be performing. According to all reports she still sounds great It's a thrill and an absolute honor to share the stage with her again. "

What is the rehearsal period like when a guest performer of Barbara Cook's stature plays with the Pops? Lockhart explains, "Well, there's one rehearsal with the orchestra-which is all we give to anybody-and she'll come in with her own pianist and perhaps a drummer and bass player. Some performers bring their own trio because they feel very comfortable with them and I basically link the orchestra with the trio."
Tony Award winner Victoria Clark will be making her Pops debut during the new season. "I'm very excited about this," remarks the maestro," I've only heard her on recordings but everyone says she has a phenomenal voice and they're all in love with her so I'm really looking forward to working with her." Ms Clark will be part of the Pops programs that are dedicated to the music of Richard Rodgers. Broadway favorite Linda Eder comes back to the Pops this season . "She'll be doing her new Judy Garland show and we're all eager to be part of that"

It's baseball that keeps returning to thus particular conversation with Keith Lockhart, though. For several of our Red Sox-themed shows, we're doing a segment called ‘Baseball on Broadway'. We've put together an attractive 20-25 minute show that features music about baseball from various Broadway musicals. Obviously there's DAMNED YANKEES," says Lockhart, "but there's also ‘The Game of Baseball' from RAGTIME, a baseball song from the Kander and Ebb review AND THE WORLD GOES ‘ROUND, the baseball song from YOU'RE A GOOD MAN Charlie Brown and there's a new show that's going to be opening in Boston in about a year called RED SOX NATION and we'll be premiering some music from that in these shows. It should all be fun and a little different from the standard Lerner and Loewe and Rodgers and Hammerstein songs."

As summer approaches, it's apparent that the living won't be easy for either Keith Lockhart or the Boston Pops. They'll be exploring new musical territory and paying tribute to some of Broadway's greatest talent. They'll also be recognizing the gang at Fenway Park who are very much part of the Bostonian culture and is virtually a knuckleball away from Symphony Hall.

To visit Keith Lockhart's website, go to: www.keithlockhart.com

To purchase Boston Pops tickets or to buy the "Red Sox" CD, go to: www.bso.org

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