Customer Reviews

Runnin' Wild The: Boston Pops Orchestra

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I'll tell you a little story about this CD from Keith Lockhart. I'm a baby-boomer brought up on swing and am constantly looking for quality big band recordings. I bought this album several years ago when it was first released and I loved it. Whenever I played it at home, my 18 y/o daughter gave me the business about my "old fogey" music. One day, however, I happened to come home unexpectedly and there she was in the family room with "String of Pearls" at nearly full volume. I bought her the album when she went to college and she says that she's since converted nearly half the dorm to swing. This is probably the best recording of big band sounds ever. Also look at "Pops Stoppers" which is half big band tunes and "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)". Both are excellent as well.

When John Williams stepped down as conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra after 14 successful seasons, the talented young Keith Lockhart was chosen as his replacement. Looking more like a college freshman than music director of one of America's most famous orchestras, Lockhart has proved to be just as adept and popular as Williams and the late Arthur Fiedler.

1996's Runnin' Wild is a collection of songs made famous by Big Band era orchestra leader Glenn Miller, whose civilian and later Army Air Force bands provided audiences with music to dance to (and love to) before and during World War II. Before his mysterious death in December 1944, Miller's band and featured vocalists gave the world such beloved swing standards as "In The Mood," "Chattanooga Choo-Choo," "A String of Pearls," and his signature theme, "Moonlight Serenade."

Listen to this album, close your eyes, and the Boston Pops Orchestra transports you back to the 1940s, with young men in uniform dancing with either their wives, sweethearts, or USO girls to the fast-paced "Runnin' Wild"...gently swaying the sweet "A String of Pearls" (featured in the film The Glenn Miller Story)...or sharing that last sweet bit of lovemaking to the slow beat of "Moonlight Serenade."

Of the 16 selections, "Moonlight Serenade" is the one I am most familiar with, having heard it as incidental music or "source" material in so many World War II movies or documentaries. It's slow, gentle, romantic yet sensual, and it's the only "Glenn Miller" song actually written by the bandleader. Originally titled "Now I Lay Me Down to Weep," it was a big hit in 1939 and was the theme song for both Miller's and Tex Beneke's bands. The Pops' performance of it captures its air of nostalgia perfectly, and the clarinet solo by Thomas Martin is simply fabulous.

Modern standards singer John Pizzarelli and The King's Singers show their stuff on several tracks, most vividly so in "Chattanooga Choo-Choo," which was another chart-topping hit for Miller in 1941, the year the U.S. entered World War II. Pizzarelli has a way of channeling the great vocalists of the era, with his easy-to-listen voice and flawless delivery. The King's Singers are wonderful backup in other songs, including "Serenade in Blue" and "(I've Got a Gal in) Kalamazoo."

As a soloist, Pizzarelli shines in the more romantic (and slower) "The Nearness of You," a song that might have been on a serviceman's mind when reading a letter from his wife or girlfriend.

Another sentimental favorite where Pizzarelli performs well is 1940's "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square," a song introduced in Britain and popularized not only by Glenn Miller but also Guy Lombardo and Sammy Kay.

Several genres also get the Glenn Miller treatment, such as opera (Verdi's "The Anvil Chorus," from Il Trovatore), vaudeville ("My Blue Heaven") blues ("The St. Louis Blues March") and even Russian traditional songs ("Volga Boatmen").

So if you want to get "In the Mood" and have a good time listening to a fun Boston Pops Orchestra album, Runnin' Wild is definitely worth getting.

Keith Lockhart is the newest conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra and here is his very first CD with the BPO, Runnin' Wild. If you like music by Glenn Miller and classical music, you'll love this mix of great Big Band tunes like In The Mood, The Anvil Chorus, St. Lousie Blues March and the title song Runnin' Wild played by a wonderful classical "pop" orchestra. Its a great CD, and I think that you would like to hear it. It won't be hard to remember thsi CD cover, just look for Keith Lockhart, in BPO shorts, a white t-shirt and tails running in mid air (hence the title Rinn'n Wild).

I like the Boston Pops. I love Glenn Miller. But I do not like them together. The music has no edge. It's way too sterile and sanitized.

In the mid-'90's our Dayton Philharmonic was doing a conductor search. About once a month a different candidate would conduct the orchestra as an audition. Among those conducting was Lockhart, who was an assistant or something in Cincinnati. After hearing him conduct Pictures at an Exhibition with great abandon I figured he was too good for Dayton. Soon after I heard of his selection to lead the Boston Pops. He has worked out well with the Pops. This was an early project and I call it a roaring success with great musicianship, nice pacing between instrumentals and vocals, great sound. I'm pleased to see that it is still in print after all these years.

I bought this for "Serenade in Blue" and I have never heard a worse version. The vocals are weak and insipid, both lead and support, the music is bland, there is no drama or tension. The whole CD is easy listening background music with swoopy strings, muted brass, minimal percussion, tinkling piano, all the volume and tone levelled off.

The audio quality seems good.

This is great music, of course, but a dreadful interpretation.

I've had a copy of this CD for a long time. It is a great one. I have a friend that also loves this kind of music, and I bought this CD to give to her. She loves it!

My father used to listen Glenn Miller. For me, hearing this is to go back to my childhood, with the plus of Pizzarelli, that I like a lot. Great songs, great disc!

RUNNING WILD is collection of Glenn Miller favorites and is Keith Lockhart's debut recording with the Boston Pops Orchestra. The musical quality is good. While it does not demonstrate the style that Lockhart would later develop with the orchestra, it certainly offers glimpses of what is to come. Perhaps the recording's strongest tracks are the musical numbers with guests: John Pizzarelli and the King Singers, especially the album's rendition of "Chattanooga Choo-Choo". One of Lockhart's greatest strengths is selecting guests to accompany the orchestra and this album is a foretaste of what is later to come, particularly on the Celtic and Mexican collections released later in Lockhart's tenure. While the album is good, and Lockhart seems to enjoy conducting these Big Band pieces, his rendition of "In the Mood" is missing something, which is surprising since this work is such a staple at Pops concerts, but even a not quiet the best rendition of any piece by the Boston Pops is still far better than much of what is available.

Hey, there's a new face with the BPO, and it's Keith Lockhart. Runnin' Wild is his first CD with the Boston Pops Orchestra and it's a hit!!!! A great CD with the music of Glenn Miller (and other big band sensations). This CD has such swing favorites as In The Mood, St. Louis Blues March, Anvil Chorus, and the title song, Runnin' Wild. Each piece is great and you really should buy it and listen to it.