Boston Pops With Guest Artists Maya Beiser and John Pizzarelli
Keith Lockhart Conducts During 124th Season
By: Charles Giuliano - May 13, 2009
In a beloved, 124 year old Rite of Spring, with lots of crack, snapple and Pops, last night, Keith Lockhart conducted a richly diverse program featuring appearances by the guest artists cellist, Maya Beiser, and jazz guitarist/ vocalist, John Pizzarelli with his quartet.
During the Pops season they take up the rows of seats at Symphony Hall and create a more intimate cabaret ambiance. It is fun to order food and drink while enjoying the lighter fare of the Pops orchestra with its emphasis on accessible music. And nobody does this better than the charming and masterful Keith Lockhart. He is an engaging host.
Lockhart has at his command some of the finest musicians from one of the world's great orchestras. Now and then he evoked the full blast of that excellence. Most remarkably, during the sequence with Pizzarelli, he got the Pops Orchestra to swing showing off its deep roots and chops. Particularly, in the brass section with nice grooves and gut bucket funk from the bones. I would swear you were hearing the cats wailing with Basie, Duke or Kenton.
Part of the charm of an evening of Pops is its glittering variety. The evening started with the overture for the film "Ben Hur" followed by a tasty bit of sculduggery the "Devil's Dance" from the "Witches of Eastwick."
There is a strong relationship between Pops and music from films. John Williams was the Pops conductor before Lockhart took up the baton (actually he conducts bare handed) in 1995. To the delight of Tanglewood audiences Williams returns each summer for a Film Night. Last year the audience was thrilled when Stephen Spielberg walked on stage to narrate a sequence with Williams. Be still dear heart.
Not surprisingly the first set performance by Maya Beiser, whom Lockhart introduced as the "Queen of Post Minimalist Cello," performed from her film scores. Her first such effort was "Blood Diamond." She has worked on several films since then and for this occasion Beiser performed a world premiere arrangement of Howard's "The Village" a rhapsody for cello and orchestra.
Of special note to Berkshire residents, Beiser is a founding member of "Bang on the Can" which performs each summer for several days at Mass MoCA. Beiser is mostly known for her work with avant-garde composers Philip Glass, Steve Reich and Brian Eno. Last night she showed her chops in a solo of the exotic melody of "Kashmir" based on the rock anthem by Led Zeppelin. She interacted with a taped sound track.
After an intermission, when we ordered dessert and stretched a bit, Lockhart introduced John Pizzarelli the son of the jazz guitarist, Bucky Pizzarelli. Lockhart reminded us that he was one of the first artists to perform with him and has returned many times since. It is easy to understand their synergy. Pizzarelli is a charming performer whose warmth and wit lit up Symphony Hall with mega watts of pure star power.
There is a long standing romance between jazz and classical composers and orchestras. It started from the very beginning when the ambitious ragtime artist, Scott Joplin, composed an Opera, "Treemonisha". Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" was written for the Paul Whiteman Orchestra. Igor Stravinsky composed the "Ebony Concerto" for the Woody Herman Band. Duke Ellington composed many ambitious scores starting with the seminal "Black, Brown and Beige" in the 1940s.
Last night it was abundantly evident that somebody cooked some terrific charts for the collaboration between Pizzarelli and Lockhart. This went far beyond the mode of "Bird and Strings" or "Billie Holiday and Strings" as the music was deeply nuanced while the quartet became nicely embedded with the orchestra. They was jamming man. You sense that the musicians really enjoyed this occasion to get down and stretch out.
The music Pizzaerlli performed with his brother Martin on bass, Tony Tedesco, drums, and Larry Fuller, on piano, was taken from their latest CD "With a Song in My Heart- The Music of Richard Rogers." In addition to a smooth attack on guitar he is an evocative, nuanced vocalist. He made a reference to the late trumpet player/ vocalist, Chet Baker, when performing one of his arrangements and it was entirely apt.
Instead of scat, or riffing on tunes, Pizzarelli is a master of the technique of vocalese which are sounds in pitch with what he plays on guitar. It was an approach first developed by the bass player Slam Stewart. This was most evident on the improvisations based on "Happy Talk" from "South Pacific."
The set was interspersed with colorful anecdotal material in which Pizzarlli informed us that Rogers did not enjoy musicians messing with his music. He expected it to be performed as he wrote it. He played a few bars of a tune in ¾ time then Peggy Lee's hit romp. When they met at a social occasion Lee was stunned while putting out her hand in greeting, when Rogers said to her in a frosty manner "It was written as a waltz." Pizzarelli amusingly stated that Rogers would likely not be pleased with the liberties he takes with the compositions. We, of course, were just delighted.
As a special treat Beiser was called out to jam with Pizzarelli. He played "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught" from "South Pacific" while she went off on another tangent from Sondheim's score for "Into the Woods." It was a compelling riff.
After the guests artists departed Lockhart brought it all back home, as they have for the past 124 years, with the Sousa march "Stars and Stripes Forever." There were projection of flags and fire works on the walls of Symphony Hall as he locked into the downbeat.
We will hear it again on the Fourth of July on the Esplanade. After which the Pops will be headed for Tanglewood. You bet.