Boston Pops - Holiday Pops (1998)

Pretty much you would expect from the title: mostly familiar Christmas tunes given the orchestral pops treatment with vocals from the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. Performances are impeccable, but there are a few questionable programming choices.

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: Did not chart
• Billboard Classical Crossover: #3

Tracks:

Favorites are tracks 2, 7, 9, & 12. Skip tracks 4, 10, & 13.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None. My father was a huge Boston Pops fan dating back to the Arthur Fiedler days and I inherited this CD from him.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Joy To The World (1992)
By Request (1987)

Boston Pops - Joy To The World (1992)

At first glance, this seems to be a typical pops orchestra/chorus Christmas release, but I found it different than most for 3 reasons:

1. The inclusion of a medley of seldom-heard carols written by Alfred Burt (1920 - 1954), which I've loved since I first heard them in the early 1980's (track 7),
2. a medley consisting of traditional holiday music from other lands (track 10), and
3. John Williams works in three of his own compositions written for the popular 1990 movie, Home Alone (tracks 5, 6, & 9).

There's also a little cheese included in the form of Robin Williams delivery of 'Twas The Night Before Christmas while the program ends with some standard Christmas Concert repertoire: a sing-along medley for maximum audience participation.

Tracks:

Highlights are tracks 1, 7, 8, 10, 12, & 13. I seem to be partial to the medleys today.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: My father was a huge fan of The Boston Pops as long as I can remember - ever since the days that the group was led by Arthur Fiedler. I inherited this and many other Boston Pops CDs upon his passing and, serendipitously, the lead track here, a popular medley arranged by Leroy Anderson, was usually the first bit of Christmas music I heard each year as a child when my father would turn on his "Christmas Mix" reel-to-reel recording when it was time to decorate the tree.

I was teaching middle school band when this CD was released and am amused to see the Home Alone tracks because of my students' affinity for that movie. At some point in October, I started handing out Christmas music to the students for possible inclusion in the band's concert in December. If the music was heard in the Home Alone movie (Carol Of The Bells, Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree, White Christmas, etc.), students would scream "That's the song from Home Alone!" as if they had just discovered penicillin. I'm fairly certain most had seen the movie dozens of times on VHS. All these years later, I still don't think I've seen the thing.

Previously revisited for the blog:
By Request (1987)

John Williams - By Request (1987)

John Williams was one of the most prolific film score composers of the 20th century. For this release, he conducts the Boston Pops in 15 of his works, mostly film scores. Williams often gets criticized for plagiarizing himself, but even if he does so intentionally, I can't say that I blame him. If the main purpose of film scores is to support the image and dialogue without drawing attention to the music, how can Williams write such memorable melodies? All the familiar favorites are here along with a few hidden gems, specifically, The Cowboys Overture and marches from the movies Midway and 1941. I love hearing a composer conduct his own work - it's as close as you can get to a definitive interpretation.

Tracks: What a fantastic collection! Over 70 minutes of music.

1. Olympic Fanfare and Theme
2. The Cowboys Overture
3. Excerpts from Close Encounters of the Third Kind
4. March from Midway
5. Flying Theme from E.T.
6. Luke and Leia Theme from Return of the Jedi
7. March from Superman
8. Liberty Fanfare
9. March from Raiders of the Lost Ark
10. Yoda's Theme from The Empire Strikes Back
11. March from "1941"
12. Theme from Jaws
13. Imperial March from The Empire Strikes Back
14. Mission Theme (Theme for NBC News)
15. Main Theme from Star Wars

And all this by 1987! He would then go on to write for the Harry Potter movies, Jurassic Park, JFK, and Catch Me If You Can; the latter two scores being some of my favorite work by Williams.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: This was one of the first releases I ever heard on a CD. I didn't own a CD player until January 1987 and the discs were very expensive at the time (compared to a cassette or LP). So CDs were still a rarity in my world, but I had heard this release at the home of John, a fraternity brother. Even though I knew how good it was, I inexplicably put off buying the CD until 2009.