Ravinia 2021 - Issue 2

RAVINIA/PATRICK GIPSON (ALL PHOTOS) RAVINIA/PATRICK GIPSON (A L PHOTOS) IT ’S POPS NIGHT , which means fun is on the menu! Even the word itself conjures up blissful thoughts of relaxed musical evenings with friends and lots of irrepressible toe-tapping. But what exactly, one might ask, will we be listening to? That’s a complicated question. Pops concerts became a feature in American musical life in the 1880s, primarily with the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Music Hall Promenade Concerts. Audiences could enjoy a little nibble, a sip of something, and let their hair down a bit as they listened to programs of catchy, accessible tunes, usually with a Viennese flair. Think waltzes by the Strauss named Johann. Add a mazurka if you like. Pops was typified through the presence of conductor Arthur Fiedler, whose tenure at the Boston Pops Orchestra spanned al- most half a century from 1930 to 1979. Fielder’s programming may seem rather quaint to modern listeners: An evening of light classical favor- ites would generally conclude with a “novelty” number—a medley from a popular film perhaps, or a few holiday favorites. The Fiedler formula paled with time. Audiences change, and orches- tras can be forgiven for a collective eye roll at the thought of playing “The Flight of the Bumblebee” one more time, let alone “The Synco- pated Clock” [by Leroy Anderson, who penned another irrepressible tune, “Sleigh Ride”]. And more than one conductor has observed that in By Mark Thomas Ketterson Steven Reineke lights a broad way for favorites in orchestral music Gotta Have My Pops programs of familiar classical lolly- pops, orchestras basically play them- selves. Change was in the air. Com- poser John Williams took over the Boston Pops in 1980 and film music exploded in popularity. In Cincinnati, the great “Prince of Pops” Erich Kun- zel boldly pushed the boundaries of pops programming with his ground- breaking collaborations with Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington. The undisputed king of the genre today is the ebullient, Ohio-born con- ductor and composer Steven Reineke, who will lead his program Broadway Today at Ravinia on July 27. A delight- ful fellow with an enthusiasm that is positively infectious, Reineke is the Music Director of the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall and is principal pops conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, as well as the Houston and Toronto Symphonies. A protégé of Kunzel himself, he formerly served as As- sociate Conductor of the Cincinnati Pops as well as the orchestra’s primary arranger. Reineke credits his destiny to his father, who would sing him to sleep as a child with the popular tunes of the day. “I was drawn to music for the masses,” Reineke explains, “music that people could sing along to. It wasn’t highfalutin stuff, which I think had some influence when I became a classical musician.” Reineke formal- ly studied trumpet, but his unusual musical acumen really displayed itself when he would come home from movies and play through their scores from memory on the piano. “I just fig- ured them out,” he laughs, “I thought everybody did that.” After college he came to Kunzel’s attention and the rest, as they say, is history. So, what is pops? And what is its purpose? “It’s getting trickier to give it a strict definition,” Reineke observes. “I’m not the biggest fan of the term pops . It’s pretty old school. The lines are getting more blurred as well, as some creative music directors on the so-called classical side are venturing more into collaborations with popular artists that are sometimes outside the classical realm, and vice versa. Pops obviously came originally as a diminutive of popular , so popular music. I guess that’s still right in a way to delineate it from classical literature. But on the pops side, the sky is the limit. We have the ability to perform any kind of music that we can make work within an orchestral setting, but it’s often collaborative, based on work- ing with artists in different genres. We can keep the great American songbook alive, we do Nelson Riddle, big band, the Broadway canon, jazz, bluegrass, film music, light classics. We’ve branched into hip-hop and rap. Rock and roll music; we can easily put an orchestra with Billy Joel, or Elton John, or Sting, or any of these people and it works. “It’s important to preserve that wonderful side of music that’s been around for a good 400 years, [while recognizing that it’s mostly the writ- ings of] a bunch of old white guys. But I think that orchestras are service organizations as well. We are not just museums or keepers of artifacts, we are a service to our community, and are enlightening them and serving all parts of that community, not just the stereotypical classical music lover. This means reaching out to many different demographics, all the types of people that live within our com- munities. I want the orchestra to be welcoming to them. And the best way to do that is through programming that entices them to come hear the orchestra perform. So that’s where the pops side of things can really expand the reach of an orchestra. In my last 10 years I’ve re-imagined how I think about it, and I think, What is the next part of the community that we are leaving out? That does not mean that I don’t do ‘The Best of Rodgers and Hammerstein.’ I will never aban- don things like that or light classical concerts; there is so much repertoire out there that’s very famous and doesn’t get done all the time. It’s about expanding the types of offerings we can do. “When I do a collaboration with some group, I make sure it’s a true collaboration,” Reineke insists, “I am done with the days of the orchestra being a backup band that doesn’t even have to be there, I just don’t like that at all. My collaborations are truly a partnership.” As a composer himself, he also deplores a regrettable tenden- cy towards mediocre arrangements that has plagued some pops outings in RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIA MAGAZINE 19