By Robert Israel
Christmas celebrations are everywhere in Boston this month. There’s new life to downtown streets as shoppers flit in and out of stores. There are colorful lights on the Common, events for children, holiday parties at local eateries. And there are shows scheduled back-to-back at the Emerson Colonial (Dolly Parton), Irving Berlin’s White Christmas at the Boch Wang Theatre, and at other smaller venues in and out of town.
Amidst all this fanfare, throughout this month, there’s the venerable Holiday Pops at Symphony Hall featuring maestro Keith Lockhart, the Boston Symphony orchestra, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and, of course, Santa Claus.
There are many reasons to attend, and here are three of them:
- Symphony Hall is gussied up in bright reds, greens, and golds, with wreaths and holly everywhere, a feast for the senses. Inside, the light show continues with a palette of colors projected on the walls high above the stage and a sound system that enhances, but does not distract, from the famed acoustics of the hall itself.
- A dramatic reading of The Polar Express, Chris von Allsberg’s classic tale of Xmas wonderment, read aloud from the stage, during the performance I attended, by veteran Boston actor Will LeBow who gives a flawless delivery of the text by endowing the words with the excitement of a child’s discovery of his wintry world.
- The musical selections themselves which include a sing-along of Christmas favorites.
In years past, I have applauded the surprises that Lockhart brings to Holiday Pops. These have included photography projected on a large screen – of the winter landscape of Concord, Mass. and the Asabet, Sudbury and Concord rivers by BSO’s talented principle horn player Richard “Gus” Sebring, for example, and a film of the northern lights dancing in the winter sky above Yellowknife, Alberta, way up north in Canada.
If I were to have a Xmas wish, it would be to encourage Lockhart to program more of these visual surprises, especially among the players of the orchestra itself, who he has long championed.
(There is a visual surprise that closes the concert, and I will not give it away so as not to be a spoiler, but here’s a hint: in a city that has long been torn by racial discord, the end-of-concert images are unifying and healing).
Attending the Holiday Pops is an annual tradition for many, including this reporter, who finds his seat on the floor, orders a cup of holiday grog, and basks in the warm tones of the musicians and their instruments. It is an event I look forward to every year, and I strongly encourage you to make it part of your Xmas list, too. For tickets and information, go to: https://www.bso.org
