11.27.07
Boston Pops’ arrangements predictable; vocalists delight
Arkansas Democrat Gazette
Eric E. Harrison

The last time the Boston Pops visited Arkansas was... well, maybe never.

Boston Pops Music Director Keith Lockhart noted that Sunday afternoon’s concert by the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra with the nine-member male vocal ensemble Cantus at the Fort Smith Convention Center was the first Pops appearance in the state in its 125-year history.

“A mistake we promise not to repeat ever again,” he added.

The concert kicked off a national Christmas season tour for the Esplanade Orchestra, the Pops’ “second label” ensemble consisting of top Boston musicians who are not members of the Boston Symphony (but probably more familiar to most folks because they’re the ones on TV for the Pops’ annual July Fourth concert).

Lockhart was in fine form as conductor and showman, redshirted for the occasion (the male orchestra members wore tuxedos with red bow ties and cummerbunds) and, after the intermission, in red socks (with a quip about how popular those are in Boston at the moment).

Far and away, most of Sunday’s best moments involved Cantus, which delighted the crowd of 2,200 (a very respectable number, considering tickets were going for $70 and $100) with Harry Simeone’s musical setting of Clement Moore’s poem “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” and especially the animated TV special version of Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas, arranged by Danny Troob (the Whos are on first), with all three basses punching out the immortal “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.”

Other Cantus highlights: two lively Argentine carols, an inspiring version with tenor solos of “O Holy Night” and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on Christmas Carols. They also went out into the audience and served as vocal coaches and encouragers for the traditional Boston Pops sing-along and even pitched in for at least one encore. (Since the program not only didn’t list which singers had solos in which pieces, but didn’t name the singers at all, I can’t give proper credit where credit is due.)

The orchestral portion of the program, while certainly wellplayed, was pretty predictable — a carol arrangement called Christmas Canticles; Pat Hollenbeck’s setting of “Tomorrow Is My Dancing Day”; arrangements of “The Christmas Song” and “Frosty All the Way,” another carol medley in a jazzy idiom; and Leroy Anderson’s de rigueur Sleigh Ride and A Christmas Festival, yet another medley of Christmas tunes.

Lockhart helped a little by adding a little on- and off-podium clowning, with able assistance from the six double-bass players and Santa Claus, who came ho-ho-ho-ing up the aisle from the back of the hall and engaged in some stagy banter with Lockhart, including a story he blamed his cutting off in the middle on the writers’ strike, of course.