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Pops Goes Christmas! Year 38 at Symphony, Year 18 for Keith Lockhart |
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Dec 24, 2012 at 12:00 AM |
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Mon. Dec. 24 Christmas comes but once a year. But for Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockhart his orchestra Christmas – OK, the Holiday Pops show – is up at Symphony Hall through Christmas Eve at Symphony Hall. That’s a lot of visits from Santa and many jingling sleigh bells. Does Lockhart – who is conducting his 18th Holiday Pops Season – so you wonder, does he ever tire of this? "If you go into it with the right attitude it’s fine," says Lockhart, whose merry men and women will be joined as always by the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. "And the thing is, people love it. It’s a really vocal embrace that you don’t find at concerts any other time of the year. It’s the most fun time of the year even though there are an awful lot of them." JSInk: It’s that time of year again. How are you doing? Lockhart: Oh, ho ho ho and all that. ‘Tis the season. Why does this show work year after year? The great thing about this is we started in 1974, 37 years ago, and it’s grown hugely since then. It really has become, for a lot of people in this area, an unviolatable part of their Holiday tradition. That’s wonderful. We just want to keep it up. We want them to be that happy with the experience, tell their kids and have the same thing happen 20 years from now. When you will still be up on that podium. A little creakier than I am now. It’s a long haul, this string of shows. How do you keep boredom at bay? Basically, it comes down to professionalism. It’s our job not to be bored and to turn in a great performance. You say, "How does someone who’s performed ‘The Sound of Music’ 600 times do it?" Well, the idea is there are still people paying for the tickets and it’s their very first performance. But on top of that, I think it’s about audience reaction. These concerts are so warmly received, it’s as if you feed off their energy, and you end up having a great time too. And we do try to change each year and make things a little different for us and the people coming. From what I’ve seen, it seems the first half of the show is the more serious/spiritual music and the second half more silly/fun. That’s a fair way to put it. Obviously, it’s not totally linear and it’s not a solid line of demarcation at the half. That having been said, all concerts are journeys and on a journey like this you have to go in that direction. It’s kind of silly to start off with "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer" and end with the "Hallelujah Chorus." It just doesn’t have the right feel to it. People appreciate the holiday for different reasons - some for the more secular fun reasons and some for the deeper meanings behind it. I should stop you because you just said, "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer," and that might lead someone to think you might actually play it. (laughs) Well, you I know I have considered it and abandoned the thought many times. Good thinking. But do you have any more rock- oriented Christmas songs? The Christmas concerts are a more traditional sort of thing for everybody. Even people who would normally exist to a different beat, somehow at Christmas want to go for the traditional. It is a conservative time of year. Exactly. That’s what tradition is, right? I know we’ll being seeing you with Santa exchanging words of wisdom. What do you hope to accomplish with your talk with Santa? I always hope to gain for myself and the public a deeper knowledge of what goes on in Santa’s world. We only see him for that fleeting time. And we’re obviously very grateful that during what seems to be a very busy time of the year for him, he takes the time to see us, the Boston Pops. If you needed more proof that the Boston Pops has some pull, there you have it. But I see Santas in a lot of shopping malls. How do you know this is the real Santa? That’s the kind of question where, "If you have to ask …" I just know, I know it’s the right Santa. Tickets: $127-$28. Check website below for times. 301 Massachusetts Ave. 888-266-1200 www.bostonpops.org |
