pops stole the show

July 25, 2006 performance reviewed by Dave Conlin Read.

Tanglewood on Parade, the annual day-long extravaganza for the support of the Tanglewood Music Center, which provides full tuition, room and board for 150 or so fellows every summer, closed with the Gala concert in the Shed with four conductors taking turns leading the T.M.C. Orchestra, the Boston Pops, and the Boston Symphony.

Google map of the TMC Class of 2006.
Click the map to visit our sister site,
LenoxMap.com, where we've plotted the hometowns
of all 157 Fellows of the T.M.C. Class of 2006.

The programming for this wonderful event is always interesting and always pleasing, especially since it always ends with Tchaikovshy's 1812 Overture, complete with mortar and cannon fire and fireworks over Stockbridge Bowl. It began this year with B.S.O. Music Director James Levine conducting the B.S.O. in a taut and sprightly performance of George Gershwin's Cuban Overture.

Next was the T.M.C. Orchestra's stirring performance of T.M.C. alumni Leonard Bernstein's Suite from On the Waterfront, with T.M.C. conducting program coordinator Stefan Asbury on the podium. On the Waterfront, Elia Kazan's 1954 movie starring Marlon Brando, was the only score Bernstein wrote for film.

After intermission, Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops earned best in show honors for their performance of the Duke Ellington composition, Harlem (arranged by Luther Henderson). The piece began as a commission by Arturo Toscanini for his NBC Symphony, but was premiered instead by Ellington in a 1951 benefit for the NAACP.

It is an intriguing, captivating, and evocative work that takes the listener on a tour of Harlem. Along the way one is presented with a panoply of images including, according to Ellingtown's own descriptions, "Upbeat parade," "Girls out of step, but kicking like crazy," "Chic chick," "Church," "Civil rights demandments," and "March onward and upward."

Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockhart.
photo © Michael Lutch

Lockhart, who spends his extra-Boston/Tanglewood time as Music Director of the Utah Symphony, did a terrific bit of alchemy in transforming his orchestra into a full-fledged big band with all the chops required by the Duke's score.

Pops conductor laureate John Williams followed with his own Suite from JFK, with Pops trumpeter Thomas Rolfs and horn player Richard Sebring soloing. Never mind the cortroversail nature of the Oliver Stone movie the music was scored for, this was as stimulating as any of WIlliams' music we've heard, richly textured and evocative of Stravinsky in parts.

Maestro Williams remained at the podium for the 1812, which was given a masterly reading by the massed orchestras, leading up to the great riot of music and noise. The audience clapped wildly then turned away from the stage and responded to the fireworks show with a succession of "oohs" and "ahhs."

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