Discussion/review of Boston Pops telecast and concert from today's Boston Globe:
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/li...fourth_of_july_what_is_the_price_for_success/
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Boston Pops Fourth of July: What is the price for success?
By Richard Dyer, Globe Staff | July 18, 2004
The Boston Pops Fourth of July fireworks spectacular has passed one major test with flying colors.
Two years ago the event moved from the A&E cable network and local Channel 5 to CBS -- or at least the last half-hour of the concert and the fireworks did. The contract was for two years, with an option for an additional three if the ratings were high enough. That's the test the 2004 telecast passed: It earned a 4.6/11 household rating (meaning it reached 6.9 million US viewers), and it was No. 1 in its time period and No. 2 in prime time that night. It must have been a source of satisfaction in Symphony Hall to learn that the program beat the rival NBC fireworks show by 10 percent.
But satisfaction in Symphony Hall must also be matched by concern -- at what price has this success been bought?
The show attracts what is by far the largest audience of any endeavor by the Pops and its parent organization, the Boston Symphony Orchestra; its value to the institution in terms of visibility and recognition is beyond calculation.
The problem is that the show doesn't really represent what the institution does and what it stands for; it's been years since the concert has been played by members of the Boston Symphony, who are otherwise occupied at Tanglewood. And the national telecast doesn't even adequately represent the event on the Esplanade, since it presents only the last quarter of the concert. At the same time, the presence of television has distorted the Esplanade experience out of all recognition; everything is timed to the requirements of the network and of commercials, destroying the rhythm and momentum of the live concert experience.
The show is a runaway success, literally -- one that has long since left behind its original goal. Thirty years ago Arthur Fiedler and businessman/philanthropist David G. Mugar cooked up the Fourth of July extravaganza to draw renewed attention to the Pops' annual series of free classical concerts on the Esplanade. This year, without announcement, Symphony Hall dropped the classical concert -- there was only one left last year -- interrupting a tradition of 70 years.
Still, for nearly three decades the most famous part of the Fourth of July program has been a performance of Tchaikovsky's "1812" Overture with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, cannon fire, and an explosion of fireworks; local television host Lisa Hughes called it "the Pops' signature song."
Until a couple of years ago the overture came at the end, as the climax of the program. Now the overture begins before the network -- apparently terrified at the idea of 11 consecutive minutes of Tchaikovsky -- joins in; the last minute or so of the performance becomes part of CBS's opening credits, and there's a half-hour of concert still to go.
This year, in the telecast part of the performance, the Pops Esplanade Orchestra had only one solo moment (playing "Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy") and the rest of the time served as backup band to David Lee Roth, Jennifer Holliday, the patriotic singalong, and the first 3 1/2 minutes of fireworks.
It is no secret that Roth was not the first choice for a star soloist. Plans to present a first collaboration of two leading Boston bands, the Pops and Aerosmith, failed because of logistical problems. The decision to go with Roth, as Pops conductor Keith Lockhart tactfully put it outside the Hatch Shell on the Fourth, "came from others," but he hastened to add "it worked out fine." And, surprisingly, it did, though the Pops had little to do with it; Pops percussionist and arranger Pat Hollenbeck had run up arrangements of Roth's tunes for the Pops, but you couldn't hear them behind Roth's amplified backup band.
It turns out Roth spent seven childhood years in the Boston area, and he attended Arthur Fiedler's Esplanade concerts, so he knew what to expect and respected it. He's a showman and put on a good show. And even if he hadn't, he was only on for two songs (one in the local part of the show, one in the national part), for a total of less than 10 minutes.
As far as the future is concerned, the most promising development may have come at the very end of the concert, when Lockhart and the Pops, working to a click-track, synchronized "The Stars and Stripes Forever" to the first three minutes of the fireworks. This is something Lockhart has wanted to try since he came to the Pops a decade ago, and what everyone in Symphony Hall would like to see and hear is the entire fireworks show synchronized to live music. The rest of this year's fireworks show was synched to recordings by Chad Kroeger, Bonnie Raitt, Phil Collins, Louis Armstrong, and the Canadian Celine Dion singing "God Bless America."
This year's all-American concert program represented an improvement over several recent predecessors. There was festivity in a tribute to the 100th birthdays of Count Basie, Fats Waller, and Glenn Miller, and an excerpt from Richard Rodgers's "Victory at Sea" presented music that has been proposed as an American alternative to the Tchaikovsky overture. In the midst of all the fun, there was a quiet and noble tribute to the human cost of victory and defeat, John Williams's "Hymn to the Fallen," from the soundtrack to "Saving Private Ryan."
And with the appearance of POPSearch winner Tracy Silva, the Pops reconnected with its roots and its local audience. POPSearch caught the imagination of all New England because it was homespun and honest, and at the furthest possible remove from its model, "American Idol." Talent, not glitz or money, was the issue (Silva sang on the Esplanade in a borrowed dress). Judges did the initial winnowing and made the final decision, but in the intermediate stages Lockhart, the orchestra, and the public all had a voice.
The three POPSearch finalists were all terrific in different ways, and about the only bad vibe came on finals night, when there was a prize of an additional Pops appearance awarded to the first runner-up (tenor Wayne Hobbs) but not the second runner-up (the inspiring grandmother Kathy Porter). This needs to be fixed before the contest is repeated next year, as it probably will be.
And the lesson of POPSearch needs to be learned by the producers of the Fourth of July extravaganza: Genuine response is generated by a genuine event.
© Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
It may have passed somebody's test but not the test of the loyal Pop's fans. I've never heard more complaints than I have this year.
