CD REVIEW
– JOHN
WILLIAMS
AND THE BOSTON POPS ORCHESTRA
Complete Philips Recordings
Decca 485 1590 [21
CDs]
 '
This box set is
released to celebrate the 90th
birthday of the conductor. It
consists of the 22 albums
recorded by him for Philips
during the first ten years of his
tenure as the orchestra's
principal conductor from 1980 to
1993.
The Boston Pops,
founded in 1885, is more or less
the Boston Symphony Orchestra
usually without some of the front
desk players. It focusses on
light classical and popular music
and has been described as
"the perfect orchestra for
people who don't know they like
orchestras!"
The first disc is
devoted to marches and so
maintains a speciality of
Williams's predecessor, the
renowned long serving Arthur
Fiedler. The last album, a
combination of 'By Request'
(all-Williams compositions) and 'Pops
Britannia', ends with the
BPO and Bay State Pipes and Drums
playing Scotland the Brave
– one of the set's many
standout tracks.
In between these
two there are albums of film
scores (many of them written by
the main man himself) and stage
musicals – good to hear Slaughter
on Tenth Avenue again; 'We
Wish You a Merry Christmas'
including a medley of carols by
my namesake Alfred Burt; a
selection of overtures '‘Pops
Around the World', among
them The Cowboys
(Williams again); Dudley Moore
narrating Peter and the Wolf;
Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker;
big band numbers, the album named
after Williams own 'Swing,
Swing, Swing'; patriotic
anthems ('America, the Dream
Goes On'); romantic
classical pieces ('Pops in
Love'); Holst The
Planets with synthesiser
(!); 'Pops à la Russe'
like Sabre Dance;
easy-listening like a long
unheard favourite of mine, Unchained
Melody, on 'Digital
Jukebox'; and tributes to
Bernstein and Gershwin, with
Mischa Dichter the soloist on the
latter's Piano Concerto.
The magnificent
operatic soprano voice of Jessye
Norman (1945-2019) is featured on
two other albums: the first from
the Great American Songbook
involving the whole orchestra and
the second, Lucky To Be Me,
accompanied solely by John
Williams as pianist. What a
consummately gifted music man.
Richard Hayman's
many arrangements are joined
among others by those of Leroy
Anderson, Robert Russell Bennett,
Dick Hyman, Billy May, Angela
Morley, Glenn Osser, Conrad
Salinger and John Williams.
Decca are to be
commended for curating this
significant set, which I found at
their online Store for £49.99
– that's an incredible
£2.38 per album.
John, thank you
for the music and many happy
returns!
© Peter
Burt 2022
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