Lockhart looks to the stars for Pops’ spring run
Boston Pops Orchestra conductor Keith Lockhart joined Boston Herald Radio’s “Herald Drive” program yesterday to provide a sneak peek at the Pops’ spring season.
Q: What can we expect for the upcoming season?
A: I am really happy with what we have pulled together this year. We have an all the way through the season tribute to my illustrious predecessor at the Boston Pops, John Williams, and we have a couple of great debuts. Queen Latifah is one of my personal favorites, just an amazing talent ... later in the season we have the Pops debut of Leslie Odom Jr., one of the stars of “Hamilton” — so for all of you who were unable to get tickets to “Hamilton,” you are able to see the man himself.
Q: Considering the amount of folks you get to interact with and work with, it must be an amazing place to work.
A: We do this better than anybody else does. We bring people who have concert careers but have never worked with orchestras ... We’re doing the world premiere of “Jaws,” the film live with orchestra ... We’re also doing the same thing with the classic family film, “E.T.” ... We have some great musical theater. We have ... pretty much something for everybody’s taste.
Q: What about the B52s night?
A: The world’s ultimate party band. We actually performed with them this last summer at Tanglewood and it was a huge hit. This is the chance to bring them to Symphony Hall for their Symphony Hall debut and we’re going to have a real ’80s party out of it.
Q: When putting together your show for “The Beatles & Beyond,” how do you know where to go?
A: They recorded about 215 songs for a very short span of time, within a decade basically. There is so much good material. So many songs that are interesting harmonically, that have interesting use of instrumentation, it’s kind of tailor-made. But you’re right, to tell the story of them in an hour or so is a really tough task. But we manage to cover them from the beginning to the end.
Q: Doesn’t the Boston Pops have a history with the Beatles?
A: (Arthur) Fiedler did an entire album with the Beatles in the late ’60s. We don’t use those charts anymore, they sound a little bit dated. But the idea was there, that a classical orchestra would play the Beatles. It was rather revolutionary at that time.