Boston Pops conductor gets into the swings of things
The Age
Tuesday September 8, 2009
MUSIC Swing, Swing, Swing! Hamer Hall September 4, 5 and 6 Clive O'Connell Reviewer IN THIS year's final Pops concert, Keith Lockhart, current conductor of the Boston Pops, took the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra on a sometimes surprising journey. It began with George Antheil's A Jazz Symphony from the mid-1920s, full of tricks and current shifts, and ended with MSO composer in residence Brenton Broadstock's freshly minted Made in Heaven, a contemporary tribute to Miles Davis.A director well aware of his audience, Lockhart gave excellent, fluent introductions to each work, informative and amiable without wearing out his welcome. In John Williams' Swing, Swing, Swing!, David Thomas' clarinet surged out of the swirling orchestration with sympathetic rhythmic subtlety, achieving even more sharp-edged prominence in Bernstein's underrated Prelude, Fugue and Riffs, supported by an aggressive, enthusiastic wind ensemble.Lockhart brought a welcome bounce to Gershwin's An American in Paris, which came across with a fresh crispness for once, and gave an unexpected persuasive edge to Ellington's sprawling Harlem: the best performance I've heard of the work. But the night centred on Broadstock's concerto, written for James Morrison, who oscillated between five instruments with unflappable mastery and gave this score a memorable premiere.Broadstock's orchestration is packed with deft points, but its focus lies in a wealth of laid-back, long, lyrical lines and some fire-spitting pyrotechnics for his splendid soloist.
© 2009 The Age