Pops Are a 'Work in Progress' for Keith Lockhart

When Keith Lockhart took to the stage at Symphony Hall this past Friday night, he welcomed the audience to the 131st season of the Boston Pops, noting that for the past 22 years he's been honored to be its conductor. From the way the orchestra responded to him over the next two hours, it is obvious the feeling is mutual. As Arthur Fiedler and John Williams did before him, the perpetually boyish Lockhart has left his mark on the orchestra - easily one of the most popular in the world - into the 21st century by delicately balancing tradition with innovation.

For instance in the first half of Friday's program the orchestra played the "Largo" from Dvorak's "New World" symphony, then followed with a crowd pleasing arrangement of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" - a seemingly odd juxtaposition. Then for the evening's second half he welcomed an unlikely musical choice: Seth MacFarlane, the wunderkind of animated television, film director and comic who has carved a niche in Adult Contemporary music scene as a Sinatra-styled crooner.

Both he and the orchestra sounded terrific in his hour-long set in which he sang American Songbook standards in arrangements by such legends as Gordon Jenkins, Billy May and Nelson Riddle. It is doubtful those charts ever sounded better than they did Friday night. For his part MacFarlane's dark baritone grew richer and more nuanced as his set continued, which ended with him and his combo alone on the stage singing "One For My Baby" in some of the voices of his animated characters. He also laced his set with some very funny zingers at such targets as varied as Donald Trump and Dunkin' Donuts.

The concert marked a spectacular start to the season, which Lockhart talked about recently with EDGE as he prepared for the opening night concert.

Keeping relevant

b>EDGE: You have been here for 21, or is it 22 years-

Lockhart: I've been here a long time -- 21 or 22 years. 2015 was my 21st season, but they called it my 20th anniversary. It's a bit confusing, but call it what you will. It's like saying I am 39.

EDGE: How do you feel at being at the podium for such a long stretch?

Lockhart: It is strange. I love this job and feel very blessed to have been here all this time. But to be anywhere for that chunk of time, you just kind of go 'wow.' Think of the number of things that have changed in Boston, in the world? Think of how many people have cycled through the orchestra, retired, gone on, come into the orchestra? Now we have orchestra players that are young enough to be my kids. So all those things affect you.

EDGE: One thing you have done is to initiate programming to make the orchestra relevant. Is innovation your mantra?

Lockhart: It's a continuous work in progress. There is an element of the Pops that is reflective of the time we are in. We do play the classics, but we need to be responsive to popular tastes and nostalgic trends. The easiest things to do is to fall into the trap of coming up with something that works and do it over and over again until it doesn't work anymore. We try to avoid that by thinking about what kind of things we can do and what are audiences would like to hear. And to fit them into the tradition of what the Pops is about. I think we have succeeded in presenting what the Pops should present, which is the widest possible array of quality musical entertainment.

The art of conducting live films

EDGE: One such programming addition is presenting full-length movies on a screen behind the orchestra with you conducting the score.

Lockhart: That's become a very popular thing worldwide. Kind-of amazingly so with films that you might not think that you would want to hear an orchestra play the score live. In this case we did 'Wizard of Oz' and 'Singin' in the Rain;' this year 'Raiders of the Lost Ark,' which has an incredible score, and we have a close relationship with that film's composer. And oddly enough this is the 30th anniversary of the release of the film, which in itself is frightening. So I am thinking that this going to be a big hit. ('Raiders of the Lost Ark' will be screened on Friday June 3 and Saturday June 4.)

EDGE: But it must be extremely difficult to conduct against a movie being played without break?

Lockhart: The live orchestra is one of the hardest thing you can do as a conductor. Accompanying a soloist, you are accompanying them, but they are listening to what you are doing, so there's give and take. But there is no give and take with a film. If I blink at the wrong time, I am off by a half-second, then I have to catch up with the film. And with some of these films it is continuous music for like an hour. It is very hard to keep that precisely timed, but it is one of those things you can pat yourself on the back and say, 'I nailed it tonight.'

EDGE: Last year you had a big success with Pops on Demand, in which the audience programmed what you played. Are these concerts back?

Lockhart: Pops on Demand made such a big splash. Every now and then you have an idea and you think maybe people will like that and you do it. If it just happens to click just right, you are amazed by how much people like that. That's the case with the Pops on Demand concerts. I couldn't believe the audience response in the house. People were so invested in the concert because they had a voice in what was going to be played. It was a lot of fun. There was a lot of friendly rivalry in the audience with what were their favorite songs. And the orchestra was engaged by the audience's engagement. We decided to make it a semi-regular feature. I think we are the only orchestra to try to do a live polling and immediate result kind-of concert. (Pops on Demand concerts are on May 25, June 6 and 14.)

Caught off guard?

EDGE: Have you been caught off guard by a selection that the audience picks?

Lockhart: It is pretty hard to do for us, it would pretty impossible to do anywhere else because of the amount of repertoire you have to have at your fingertips. Orchestras aren't like a band in a nightclub -- you can't just say, play this and play this in 'A,' because everyone needs written music. So when we do it, you have as many as 30 pieces of music that could be played. Not only does that require an extensive library, it also requires an orchestra that can play anything at a drop of the hat, and we have an orchestra that can play it. Every now and then I would come to a piece we really don't know well and I think, 'they're not going to pick that.' And of course they do. So I have learned my lesson with that.

EDGE: You also have a program of symphonic rock. Is a symphony orchestra playing rock something of an oxymoron?

Lockhart: I don't think it is (an oxymoron). One of the things that the Pops ahve done forever is to translate various popular idioms of music and translate them into orchestral voices basically. We did that with swing stuff in the Glenn Miller era, and certainly with the Sinatra ballads and things like that. The funny thing is that the core of nostalgia for most of our audience now is 1970s and 1980s pop and it is definitely a different kind of sound. It is harder to translate rock and make it sound like something you would hear in an elevator. But we have really great orchestrators and arrangers who really lived in the rock and roll idiom but also know how to write for orchestra. I think we have a couple of gorgeous new charts coming. We have music from The Who and The Rolling Stones and Police and U2. I think it's a great chance for us to update our repertoire. It is one of the things I am most excited about. Plus a cameo appearance in that concert by Tom Shoals from Boston, who has appeared with us before; but is one of Boston's entry into classic rock and roll. (Classic Rock will be performed on June 10 and 11.)

Puppets and Broadway

EDGE: You also are doing a program with puppets. How did that come about?

Lockhart: I am excited about this. UConn has one of the most famous puppetry programs in the entire world. They have graduate degrees in puppetry offered and people that graduate from the program end up working with Julie Taymor on 'Lion King,' and end up on 'Avenue Q' or the Children's Television Workshop or "Sesame Street" as puppet designers and puppeteers. We only found this out because we play as Storrs every holiday season, and one year they asked if we could use a narrator of their choice. They sent us a picture of a puppet, and we thought they were joking; but they wanted to show off their puppetry program. And they were so good, so professional. That wonderful combination of student enthusiasm and professional chops let us to want to take to Symphony Hall. We are doing two things with them -- a full production of 'Peter and the Wolf,' and we are also commissioning five new pieces all set to Leroy Anderson tunes. Some are things we play all the time, some not a bit more obscure; but each one of them with a different puppet story told in a different style of puppetry to show the range of what modern puppetry entails. (Puppets Take the Pops) takes place in two performances on Saturday, May 21.)

EDGE: And there's a considerable amount of Broadway talent -Sutton Foster, Marin Mazzie, Jason Danieley and Liz Calloway - coming this year. Has Sutton Foster played with the orchestra before?

Lockhart: Sutton Foster was suppose to be here last year, but she was on her honeymoon and ended up with laryngitis. We didn't ask how that happened, but she lost her voice 24 hours she was to be on stage with us. So we asked her to come back when she can. And she's fabulous. We have worked with nearly every Broadway star you can mention at one point or another, both of the current generation or previous generation, it's great to keep it continuing.

We have Mandy Patinkin, who actually sang in my very first concert with the Pops. He was on that television show in May of 1995. But he's only been back once. It's great to welcome him back. It's funny a lot of people only know him as Saul Burns from 'Homeland' or Diego Montoya from 'Princess Bride.' But people don't know him from 'Evita,' where he was the original Che Guevara, or as George in the original 'Sunday in the Park with George.' He's an incredible musical theater performer and I worked with a lot even in the years prior to my coming to the Pops. But I haven't worked with him in a decade now so I am looking forward to renewing that musical relationship. (Sutton Foster appears with the Pops on Thursday, May 26 and Friday May 27; Mandy Patinkin appears with the Pops on Tuesday, June 7 and Wednesdays, June 8.)

Marin Mazzie returns

EDGE: The husband-and-wife team of Jason Danieley and Marin Mazzie have been Pop regulars for the past few seasons; but she missed last year because of a cancer diagnosis. Recently Ms. Mazzie has spoken forthrightly and eloquently about her cancer diagnosis, which is now in remission.

Lockhart: She's been surprisingly public about her fight with ovarian cancer. I just worked with her and Jason Danieley in the Czech Republic. They came, and we brought some performers from the West End to perform with the Czech Phil for a Broadway concert. She sounds great, she looks like she really has weathered the storm. Knocking on wood as I say that because it's a long time before you get an all clear diagnosis for something like that; but she's on Broadway 8 shows a week now doing 'The King and I.' When I worked with her, all the spark is there.

EDGE: What was it like playing Broadway music in Eastern Europe?

Lockhart: It was very interesting. Picking the program was very interesting. The things we think of as core classics -- Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Loewe -- that their audiences have no knowledge of because it was Iron Curtain time and that stuff wasn't allowed to be decimated over there. There was an interesting exception -- they insisted we do stuff from 'Hello, Dolly!' I thought that was nice, but it wasn't the kind of thing I would have necessarily put on the program. But it turned out Khrushchev loved 'Hello, Dolly!' and allowed a company to tour Eastern Europe, so it was something that they knew and love. But today there is plenty of contemporary Broadway music that are common currency across the world - Andrew Lloyd Webber, 'Les Miz,' 'Mamma Mia.' (Marin Mazzie and Jason Danieley appear with the Pops on June 15 and 16.)

Honoring Brian Wilson

EDGE: You are also paying tribute to two pop music greats - Carole King with Liz Calloway and Brian Wilson with Mr. Wilson in attendance playing his classic album 'Pet Sounds' on its 50th anniversary. Both concerts have already sold very well...

Lockhart: Well, it helps to pay tribute to Brian Wilson with Brian Wilson. The Carole King tribute should be great. Liz Calloway is amazing and the show is just wonderful. But everyone thinks the Brian Wilson concert is an extraordinary event. It sold out instantly. (Liz Calloway sings The Carole King Songbook on June 9 and 10. Brian Wilson Performs 'Pet Sounds' on June 16 and 17.)

EDGE: In the past few years, you have conducted productions with the the Boston Lyric Opera. Anything on the horizon with them?

Lockhart: No. I talked recently with BLO, but we haven't been able to come up with a project. I love working there because I get to sleep in my own bed at night. I have turned a couple of opera engagements down at some pretty nice places because they involve being away for two or three months. I don't feel I can do it right now. It isn't fair to my family, and I don't think I want to do right now. So close-by opera is the only option at least until the kids don't want me around, which will happen around teenagedom.

For more information on the Boston Pops spring season, visit the Boston Pops website.