BWW Reviews: Pops and Peters - Oh, What a Night!

Opening Night at the Pops

The Boston Pops Orchestra

Keith Lockhart, Conductor

Bernadette Peters, Special Guest, with Marvin Laird/Piano and Cubby O'Brien/Drums

Wednesday, May 6, 2015, 8 pm at Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, MA

617-266-1492 or www.bostonpops.org

It is a welcome sign of spring in any year when the Boston Pops Orchestra takes the stage and fills Symphony Hall with its grand and glorious sound, but their presence is more gladly received this year after the seemingly endless winter of our discontent. The 130th season is also a celebration of Keith Lockhart's 20th anniversary as Boston Pops Conductor, and the opening night festivities included balloons, cupcakes, and an exquisite cake designed by Oakleaf Cakes Bake Shop as a towering stack of musical instruments. True to a longstanding tradition of featuring prominent Broadway performers, Tony Award-winning vocalist and actress Bernadette Peters was the special guest artist who brought sizzle to the second half of the program.

Lockhart opened the concert with a composition by his predecessor, Laureate Conductor John Williams, a piece with appropriate musical fanfare aptly titled "Sound the Bells!" The overture to Rossini's "The Barber of Seville" followed, bringing to mind Bugs Bunny and proving that we all know far more classical music than we think we do. Next came Rumanian Rhapsody in A major, Op.11 No. 1, written by then 19-year old Romanian composer George Enescu, considered one of the greatest composers of the 20th century. The orchestra excelled in this lengthy work, which begins with flutes evoking a pastoral scene, only to change themes and tempos repeatedly, offering many musical surprises until its conclusion.

Honoring another important anniversary coming up later this year, Lockhart and the Pops paid tribute to Frank Sinatra with the segment "Old Blue Eyes at 100," choosing three of their favorites from the voluminous canon of the Chairman of the Board. "You Make Me Feel So Young" had a nice and easy lilt, "Chicago" was swingin', and trumpet player Thomas Siders' clear and beautiful solo created the right mood for "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning." The bass instruments got their due as the foundation of the orchestra in the Pops' version of Meghan Trainor's hit "All About That Bass." It was a rare moment in the downstage spotlight for Lawrence Wolfe (Principal bass), J. William Hudgins (bass drum), Mike Roylance (Principal tuba), Gregg Henegar (contrabassoon), and Cynthia Meyers (bass flute), and they took advantage of it with style and showmanship.

After intermission, Joyce Kulhawik emceed the "appreciation-of-Lockhart" portion of the program, recounting some of his history as the second-longest tenured conductor after Arthur Fiedler (50 years), and she introduced a video (produced by WCVB-TV) showing Lockhart's debut on February 6, 1995, as part of the annual Salute to Symphony concert, leading the Pops on "Everything's Coming Up Roses" from Jule Styne/Stephen Sondheim's Gypsy. Midway through the screening, Lockhart ascended the podium and the live musicians took over to complete the song and bring us back to the present.

And speaking of presents, it's hard to imagine a better gift for the maestro or his audience than the terrific set performed by Peters, accompanied by Marvin Laird on piano and drummer Cubby O'Brien (yes, THAT Cubby O'Brien, one of the original Mouseketeers!). Wrapped in a gorgeous lavender, sequined gown with a slit up the front, Peters started with "Let Me Entertain You" from Gypsy, a Broadway show in which she starred as Mama Rose for over a year. Several of her song choices from musical theater were taken from roles she didn't play, but her interpretations were interesting. An amusing piece was "There Is Nothing Like a Dame" (South Pacific), normally sung by a group of horny sailors, and a minimalist version of "No One Is Alone" (Into the Woods) was lovely with only voice, piano, and cello.

Peters is strongly associated with Sondheim and packs her playlist with his songs. Arguably, the best part of her performance was a quartet of his well-known compositions, two of which came from roles she played. While the vocal aspect of each was amazing, the intensity of her character telling a story was like a mini-master class in both "Losing My Mind" (Follies) and "Send In The Clowns" (A Little Night Music), and she ignored the fact that "Joanna" (Sweeney Todd) and "Being Alive" (Company) are sung by male characters, making them her own with brio and panache. The audience responded with a thunderous ovation and was rewarded with an encore of Peters' own composition, a sweet lullaby to her dog entitled "Kramer's Song," written in conjunction with a children's book she penned to raise funds for "Broadway Barks," an annual dog adoption event which she co-founded with her friend Mary Tyler Moore.

The only way to fill the void once Peters left the stage was to turn the spotlight back onto America's orchestra for the perennial finale, John Philip Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever." The piccolos piped, the audience clapped in time, the giant American flag unfurled, and a bounty of blue and white balloons descended from above as starry projections washed over the walls of Symphony Hall in all its patriotic splendor. Pops and Peters - oh, what a night!

Photo credit: Winslow Townson (Bernadette Peter, Keith Lockhart, and cake baked for the conductor's 20th anniversary with the Boston Pops)

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