Pops Prep for New Year with Gershwin and Friends

For New Englanders, one of the best ways to ring in the New Year is to spend it at Symphony Hall with the world renowned Boston Pops. This year's program, which has been warming up for the big night in four sold-out weekend performances, will usher in 2008 with a swinging program called "Gershwin and Friends." Showcasing some of the best big band dance music and romantic standards from the Great American Songbook, the program also features guest soloists Ron Raines (TV bad guy Alan Spaulding of The Guiding Light) and Kathleen Brett, a Canadian soprano best known for operatic and concert work throughout North America.

Maestro Keith Lockhart and a scaled down version of the Boston Pops orchestra got things rolling Friday night with an elegant medley of Gershwin tunes featured in the stage musical Crazy for You:  "I Got Rhythm," "Embraceable You," "I'm Biding My Time," and "But Not for Me." The rich musicianship set the perfect romantic mood for the evening and segued nicely into a jazzy Paul Whiteman arrangement of "An American in Paris." With trumpets simulating the honking of horns, drums beating out the percussive rhythms of heavy equipment, strings painting a more pastoral park landscape, and clarinets and French horns filling the air with the sultry sounds of late night jazz clubs, the Pops brought the streets of Paris to life in a glowing cacophony of at times harmonic, at times discordant, but always magnificent sound.

The next segment – during which Lockhart invited the audience to enjoy the dance floor kept clear at the front of the hall – brought Gershwin's "friends" into the mix. Glenn Miller's "In the Mood" and "Moonlight Serenade" gave couples the opportunity to first jitterbug then dance cheek to cheek. The next number – John Bambridge and Tommy Newsom's "Twelve O'Clock Jump" – included stellar solo riffs by Bob Winter on piano and Paul Nowinski on bass. A nostalgic "You Make Me Feel So Young" was followed by a rollicking "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B" and then a hauntingly romantic "Unforgettable" with Winter again featured on the keys.

Lockhart and the Pops brought the first act to a jubilant end with a rousing rendition of Benny Goodman's "Sing Sing Sing." The trumpets and trombones added a fun bit of choreography to the piece, and the drum solo by percussionist James Gwin would have made Gene Krupa proud.

The second half was all Gershwin, with Ron Raines and Kathleen Brett giving voice to some of George and Ira's most memorable romantic ballads. A lack of cohesion in the song selection and a disparity between the orchestral and vocal stylings, however, made the sequencing feel a bit choppy. Raines took the stage first with gusto and wrapped his powerful if slightly raspy baritone nicely around "They Can't Take That Away from Me" and "Our Love Is Here to Stay." When he later returned for "Love Walked Right In" and "I Got Rhythm," though, he seemed less comfortable. He handled the syncopation of the latter song well, but there was a stiffness in his demeanor and a sameness in his delivery that was more perfunctory than interpretive. His volume level never modulated during the evening, which made his duets with Brett, including "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off," a bit presentational and harsh.

For her solos, Brett displayed a lovely and sure lyric soprano which was most aptly suited to the operetta-like trifle, "By Strauss." She was flexible and fun as she added trilling vibrato flourishes that gently mocked both the popular music of Gershwin and his peers and the three-quarter waltzes of Strauss. Her technically precise soprano worked against the more sultry pieces she was asked to perform, however. Both "A Foggy Day in London Town" and "The Man I Love" lacked the silky depths that would come more naturally to a torch singer, and her light and airy diction contrasted sharply to the orchestra's jazzy instrumentation. Since these same songs also sat a bit uncomfortably for Marin Mazzie this summer at Tanglewood during the Pops' Gershwin tribute, the maestro might want to consider featuring a more jazz savvy singer for such standards next time or change the program to play to a classical soprano's strengths.

The vocal portion of the evening came to a close with a medley of romantic tunes sung in duet – "Embraceable You," "Somebody Loves Me," and "'S'Wonderful." The finish seemed a bit anticlimactic, but the Pops orchestra got the joint jumping one more time with the Louis Prima blast, "Jump, Jive 'n' Wail." Once again the horns were on their feet and moving, and conductor Lockhart bounced to the beat, as well. The encore was the signature "Stars and Stripes Forever," but this time the arrangement had a distinct New Orleans jazz flair to it. New Year's Eve in Boston promises to be sweet and sassy, cher.

PHOTOS: Keith Lockhart, Ron Raines, Kathleen Brett (courtesy the Boston Pops)

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