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BSO, Pops, Tanglewood, and Symphony Hall Logos

Holiday Pops Digital Program

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KEITH LOCKHART conducting
with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, James Burton, conductor
and the Metropolitan Chorale, Lisa Graham, music director (Dec. 18 & 22)

Monday, Dec. 16, 7:30pm
Wednesday, Dec. 18, 3pm & 7:30pm
Thursday, Dec. 19, 3pm & 7:30pm
Friday, Dec. 20, 3pm & 7:30pm
Saturday, Dec. 21, 3pm & 7:30pm
Sunday, Dec. 22, 3pm | The William H. and Margaret A. Congleton Concert
Sunday, Dec. 22, 7:30pm

Saturday evening’s performance is in loving memory of Richard O’Brien.
Sunday evening’s performance is generously supported by the Emond family.

A Christmas Prelude: Angels from the Realms of Glory
arr./orch. Cumberland

What Sweeter Music?
Rutter

Fête de Campagne

  • Pat-a-Pan (de La Monnoye—arr. Kay)
  • Farandole (Bizet)

The Adoration of the Magi, from Three Botticelli Pictures
Respighi

Illuminations of Chanukah
Hyken

Carol of the Brown King (world premiere)
Coleman/Elliott
Text by Langston Hughes | Artwork by Ashley Bryan

  • Carol of the Brown King
  • Shepherd’s Song at Christmas
  • On a Christmas Night
  • The Christmas Story

Let There Be Peace on Earth
Jackson-Miller/Miller—arr. Perito

INTERMISSION

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❆ Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas! from Home Alone 2
Williams/Bricusse

The Twelve Days of Christmas
arr. Chase

God Rest Ye, Merry Kings
arr. Mathes

Home for the Holidays
arr. Chase

  • Home
  • (There’s No Place Like) Home for the Holidays
  • I’ll Be Home for Christmas

Sleigh Ride
Anderson

❆ A Visit from St. Nicholas (’Twas the Night before Christmas)
Reisman
Text by Clement C. Moore | Artwork by Jan Brett

All I Want for Christmas Is You
Carey/Afanasieff—arr. Chase

A Merry Little Sing-Along 
arr. Reisman

  • Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
  • Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
  • Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
  • The Christmas Song
  • Winter Wonderland
  • Jingle Bells

❆ Concerts include either Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas or A Visit from St. Nicholas

Cell phone photo and video of these performances are allowed for personal use only, including posting on social media; we may ask you to limit taking photos or videos if it interferes with the performance or other attendees’ enjoyment of it. Please note that use of flash is prohibited.

Guests are expected to drink responsibly. Intoxication will not be tolerated. Intervention with an impaired guest will be handled in a prompt and safe manner, which may include ejection from the premises.

The Boston Pops welcomes:

Dec. 16 at 7:30pm: Berkshire Hathaway Homeservices; The Berkshire Tour Company / Garden State Bus; The Berkshire Tour Company / New Beginning Tours; Parlin School

Dec. 18 at 3pm: Adventures with Karyn; Bloom Tours / Cumberland Seniors; Bonny Eagle High School Band; Claire Bourdeau; Fox Hill Village; Patricia Kearns; Newfound Regional High School; Rivermead; Tours of Distinction

Dec. 18 at 7:30pm: A+E Networks; Age Strong Commission; Mr. Michael Lane; PNC Wealth Management; Syracuse University; Mr. John Webster

Dec. 19 at 3pm: Concord Council on Aging; Cindy Cooper; Maura Reilly

Dec. 19 at 7:30pm: Mr. William C. Brace; Miss Deborah D. Culbertson; Ms. Ursula Daley; Harvard Club of Boston; Harvard Outings & Innings; Alvin Kagan; Mount Lebanon Lodge

Dec. 20 at 3pm: Ms. Christina Wallace Cooper; Ms. Barbara Dwyer; Steven Ginns; Linden Ponds; Brooke Valentine

Dec. 20 at 7:30pm: Christine Christensen; Gregory T. Clark; William Gray; Bill Monahan; Joan Murphy; Skyhawk Therapeutics; Patrick and Janet Sweeney

Dec. 21 at 3pm: Belmont Lions; Ms. Margaret Blanche; Mr. Jack Diamond; Mary Eagan; Mr. Dean Fantini; Mr. Robert J. Fleming, Sr.; David L. Ford; Robert Forsberg; Kelly Furey; Ms. Kristen Gaynor; Mr. Michael S. Graninger; Leonard and Karin Ainsworth Klaskin; Ms. Stephanie Koh; Donald and Doris Koopman; David and Barbara Leahy; Ellen Mann; Michael and Elizabeth Miskin; Mrs. Lorraine Russo; Mrs. Lisa Schneider; Ms. Jacquelyn  Splaine

Dec. 21 at 7:30pm: Mr. Paul Alagero; Mrs. Susan Beardsley; Ms. Marialice A. Chipman; Mrs. James E. Devine; Mr. Daniel J. Fennell; Ms. Carol McCauliffe; Jean Molloy; Mr. Robert Norton; Mr. Patrick O’Brien; Kathleen O’Neill

Dec. 22 at 3pm: Stephen Alexander; Ms. Carol Armstrong; George and Margo Behrakis; Ms. Michelle Ciccolo; Helen Corbett; Allyson Damario; Thomas and Jean-Marie DiPietro; Edward and Beverly Hammond; Jean Johnson; Ms. Janice L. Krohn; Leisman Insurance Agency, Inc.; Ms. Kim Maleh; Rebecca Murphy; Mary Ross; William and Paula Webster

Dec. 22 at 7:30pm: Erin Berry; Mr. Peter Finnegan; Mr. Paul Greenough; Johnathan and Carrie Hammond; Mrs. Julia Hauck; William and Marion McCullough; The ‘Quin House; Skyhawk Therapeutics; Ken Smith

Artists

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A Merry Little Sing-Along lyrics

RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER
Words and music by Johnny Marks

Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer, 
Had a very shiny nose.
And if you ever saw it,
You would even say it glows.

All of the other reindeer
Used to laugh and call him names.
They never let poor Rudolph
Join in any reindeer games.

Then one foggy Christmas Eve,
Santa came to say:
“Rudolph, with your nose so bright,
Won’t you guide my sleigh tonight?”

Then how the reindeer loved him,
As they shouted out with glee:
“Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer,
You’ll go down in history!”

HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS
Words and music by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane

Have yourself a merry little Christmas, let your heart be light;
From now on, our troubles will be out of sight.
Have yourself a merry little Christmas, make the Yuletide gay;
From now on, our troubles will be miles away.

Here we are as in olden days,
Happy golden days of yore.
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Gather near to us once more.

Through the years we all will be together, if the Fates allow;
Hang a shining star upon the highest bough,
And have yourself a merry little Christmas now.

LET IT SNOW! LET IT SNOW! LET IT SNOW!
Words by Sammy Cahn / Music by Jule Styne

Oh! the weather outside is frightful,
But the fire is so delightful,
And since we’ve no place to go,
Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow! 
It doesn’t show signs of stopping,
And I brought some corn for popping;
The lights are turned ’way down low.
Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow! 

When we finally kiss goodnight,
How I’ll hate going out in the storm!
But if you’ll really hold me tight,
All the way home I’ll be warm.

The fire is slowly dying,
And my dear, we’re still good-bye-ing.
But as long as you love me so,
Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow! 

THE CHRISTMAS SONG
Words and music by Mel Tormé and Robert Wells

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire,
Jack Frost nipping at your nose,
Yuletide carols being sung by a choir,
And folks dressed up like Eskimos.

Ev’rybody knows a turkey and some mistletoe
Help to make the season bright.
Tiny tots with their eyes all a-glow
Will find it hard to sleep tonight.

They know that Santa’s on his way,
He’s loaded lots of toys and goodies on his sleigh.
And ev’ry mother’s child is gonna spy
To see if reindeer really know how to fly.

And so I’m offering this simple phrase
To kids from one to ninety-two,
Al-tho’ it’s been said many times, many ways:
Merry Christmas to you.

WINTER WONDERLAND
Words by Dick Smith / Music by Felix Bernard

Sleigh-bells ring, are you list’nin’?
In the lane, snow is glist’nin’.
A beautiful sight, we’re happy tonight,
Walkin’ in a winter wonderland!

Gone away is the blue-bird,
Here to stay is a new bird.
He sings a love song, as we go along,
Walkin’ in a winter wonderland!

In the meadow we can build a snowman,
Then pretend that he is Parson Brown:
He’ll say, “Are you married?” We’ll say, “No, man!
But you can do the job when you’re in town”—

Later on, we’ll conspire,
As we dream by the fire,
To face unafraid, the plans that we made,
Walkin’ in a winter wonderland!

JINGLE BELLS
Words and music by J. S. Pierpont

Dashing thro’ the snow, in a one-horse open sleigh,
O’er the fields we go, laughing all the way;
Bells on bobtail ring, making spirits bright;
What fun it is to ride and sing
A sleighing song to-night.—Oh!

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way!
Oh what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh-eigh!
Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way!
Oh what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh.

Oh what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh!

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Program Notes

Adoration of the Magi

The Italian composer Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936) wrote Three Botticelli Pictures in 1927 at the request of the influential American pianist and commissioner Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. The piece’s three movements each take inspiration from a painting by the Italian painter Sandro Botticelli (c.1445-1510): Spring, The Adoration of the Magi, and The Birth of Venus. The music of The Adoration of the Magi is tender and intimate, evoking the quiet wonder of the crowd gathered around the tiny Christ child in Botticelli’s painting. The effect is achieved in part by Respighi’s choice of instruments and the small size of the ensemble (especially compared to the large forces in his best-known works, the tone poems Fountains of Rome, Pines of Rome, and Roman Festivals). Respighi embeds a quote from the hymn "Veni, veni, Emmanuel."

James T. Connolly

Multi-instrumentalist/songwriter James T. Connolly is the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Program Publications Specialist and Pops Program Editor and is General Manager of Boston’s Collage New Music.

Video: Susan Dangel, Producer; Dick Bartlett, Editor

Special thanks to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
and
Art Institute of Chicago
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
National Gallery of Art, Washington
The National Gallery, London
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Sandro Botticelli's Adoration of the Magi, 1475

Carol of the Brown King

Carol of the Brown King is a collection of six poems by Langston Hughes which all depict the Nativity scene and the story of Christmas. The poems have been published as a book featuring the art of Ashley Bryan, and that book is the inspiration for the composition featured at Holiday Pops this year. David Coleman's setting of four poems from the book celebrates musical styles from the African Diaspora including Afro-Caribbean, jazz, and Gospel. The author's use of the term "Brown King" and the words "dark like me" highlight the ethnic diversity of people from the region of the original story and how a person of color can find themselves represented in one of the most famous scenes in history.

David Coleman, composer

In these concerts, Carol of the Brown King is accompanied by evocative images by award-winning artist, children’s book author/illustrator, and teacher Ashley Bryan (1923-2022). Born in Harlem and raised in the Bronx, Bryan taught at Dartmouth College before retiring to Little Cranberry Island in Maine, where he lived for three decades before spending his final years in Texas. He steadfastly pursued artistic passion despite facing numerous obstacles in his early career. Learn more about Mr. Bryan at ashleybryancenter.org.

Images from Carol of the Brown King by Langston Hughes and illustrated by Ashley Bryan presented through special arrangement with Atheneum/Simon & Schuster. 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020. Copyright 1998 Ashley Bryan. All rights reserved.

“Carol of the Brown King,” “Shepherd’s Song at Christmas,” "On a Christmas Night,” and “The Christmas Story” by Langston Hughes from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes © 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes. Used with permission of International Literary Properties LLC.

Video: Susan Dangel, Producer; Dick Bartlett, Editor

The Boston Pops and Symphony Hall major corporate sponsorships reflect the increasing importance of alliance between business and the arts. The Boston Pops is honored to be associated with the following companies and gratefully acknowledges their partnership. For information regarding BSO, Boston Pops, and/or Tanglewood sponsorship opportunities, contact Joan Jolley, Director of Corporate Partnerships, at (617) 638-9279 or jjolley@bso.org.

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Donors

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