Symphony serves up Holiday Pops
For Spokane Symphony musicians, the appeal of the Holiday Pops concert is obvious: It’s their annual chance to play oboes while wearing reindeer antlers, or string basses strung with Christmas lights.
Meanwhile, let’s sum up the audience appeal:
• Music Director Eckart Preu will conduct the symphony in a lush selection of sacred music (“O Holy Night”) and pop favorites (“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”).
• Santa himself will make an appearance to conduct at least one number.
• The Spokane Symphony Chorale, under the direction of Lori Wiest, will sing “A Feast of Carols” and “Here Comes Santa Claus,” among others.
• The Spokane Area Children’s Chorus, directed by Kristina Ploeger, will lend its voices to “Silent Night” and “Irish Lullaby.”
• Everyone can join the biggest chorale of all: the audience sing-along at the end.
This year’s concert has a few surprises. For one thing, you’ll hear that timeless holiday classic, “Good King Kong Looked Out.”
What?
This only makes sense once you realize who composed this particular song: the classical music prankster, P.D.Q. Bach. The Chorale will tackle this gorilla of a tune.
The symphony will perform Danny Elfman’s orchestral suite for the movie “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” In a more traditional mode, the concert will also include Randol Alan Bass’s version of “The Night Before Christmas.”
The Holiday Pops concerts return to the INB Performing Arts Center this year following a brief sojourn last year to the Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox.
Once again, there will be two performances, one on Saturday at 8 p.m. and the other on Sunday at 2 p.m.
The Sunday matinee concert should have particular appeal to families. The symphony is offering a family four-pack of tickets for $49; if your family is bigger, you can add more people for $15 each.
The symphony is calling this package its “Christmas gift to the community.”