Mazzie and Mitchell Swing Gershwin at Tanglewood

The Boston Pops struck up the band at Tanglewood one last time on Sunday, August 26, bringing to a close its 2007 season at the magnificent Lenox, Massachusetts, music complex that serves as summer home to the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Featuring Jean-Yves Thibaudet on piano and Marin Mazzie and Brian Stokes Mitchell as vocalists, the Pops filled the Koussevitzky Music Shed and grounds with the incomparable music of George Gershwin in an exclusive program that paid tribute to the composer whom conductor Keith Lockhart called "an iconic American genius."

Beginning, appropriately, with a rousing marching band rendition of Strike Up the Band, the Pops made the first half of the program all about the instrumentals. Three rarely performed Preludes arranged by noted Broadway orchestrator Don Sebesky followed, moving from a jazzy, pulsating Allegro to a sultry, balletic Andante and back to an Allegro whose slightly dissonant tone created a lively urban feel. World renowned concert pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet was next, first dazzling the appreciative audience with an intricate and jazzily stylized version of I Got Rhythm, then bringing the act to a rousing conclusion with a magnificently performed Rhapsody in Blue. Thibaudet and the Pops gave I Got Rhythm a modern, improvisational feel despite the fact that Thibaudet was playing from sheet music. Prominent clarinet and xylophone support echoed the pianist's intensity.

Rhapsody in Blue, according to Lockhart and program notes, came about when bandleader Paul Whiteman proposed that Gershwin write a special concert piece to demonstrate the potential of jazz and the syncopated rhythms of the 1920s. Once the piano concerto had been commissioned, however, Whiteman somehow neglected to tell Gershwin, who found out about it while reading a newspaper on a train from New York to Boston. Six weeks later, Gershwin's history-making musical masterpiece was completed, and the world of American popular music had been transformed.

Thibaudet's and the Pops' treatment of Rhapsody in Blue for piano and orchestra was exhilarating. Their passionate and precise playing of Gershwin's classic themes evoked powerful visual images of a multi-faceted American city bustling with life. The staccato work-a-day beat of machinery and heavy equipment intermingled with more seductive, jazzy strains of clarinets and strings to create affecting harmony and contrast all at the same time. Insistent kaleidoscopic piano rhythms throughout gave the piece a driving, industrial, metropolitan energy suggestive of the dawning of an exciting new day. The final familiar crescendo of fast-paced urban activity drew cheers and a standing ovation from the crowd.

Act II was dominated by the vocals of Mazzie and Mitchell, with "Stokes" charming everyone including Maestro Lockhart. From the moment he sang "off key" in his smooth and sexy interpretation of The Way You Wear Your Hat, the fun-loving glint in his eye told the audience that he was here to have a great time. His Embraceable You became a jubilant flirtation with several lucky women in the front row. Stokes' face beamed as he  vowed adoration in song to each and every one of them. The arrangements for these two numbers in his opening medley were the same as when he sang them at Sanders Theatre in Cambridge a few months ago. His comfort with the material was obvious, singing freely as if he were being accompanied by a single friendly piano instead of the Pops' 44-piece Esplanade Orchestra.

Mitchell's other solos were How Long Has This Been Going on from his self-titled debut solo album and Slap That Bass from the 1937 film Shall We Dance (and later interpolated into the Broadway musical Crazy for You). For the former, Stokes sat on a stool center stage and exchanged melancholy riffs with a soprano saxophone, ending the number with a potent key change and emotional upward slide. For the latter, he used his rich bass voice and acrobatic scats to become an adopted member of the special seven-piece bass section that playfully joined him in zoom zoom zooming away their troubles. Each song became a virtuoso number for Mitchell. His versatility, purity and power were effortless.

Mazzie was at a distinct disadvantage in trying to match both the material and the charisma of her four-time musical theater costar. With the exception of the novelty song by Strauss which was a tongue-in-cheek soprano send-up of operetta waltzes, Mazzie's solos were more straightforward romances. She delivered a smart and bouncy rendition of A Foggy Day, adding some surprising jazz riffs that sat comfortably in her strong mezzo soprano range. She also expressed a powerful determination in her aching torch song, The Man I Love. She seemed a bit uncertain in her duets with Mitchell, however. One wonders if her Broadway schedule playing the Lady of the Lake in Spamalot limited her rehearsal time for this concert.

The duo's first song together, Let's Call the Whole Thing Off, was cute and playful, with their introductory banter cleverly making fun of the fact that they have worked together so often. Mitchell's clenched-teeth delivery of pater-mater was particularly amusing. Their closing duet, a medley of 'S Wonderful, I Got Rhythm, Fascinatin' Rhythm, and Our Love Is Here to Stay, was less polished. On Mazzie's opening phrases of I Got Rhythm, she lost the syncopation and had to stop and regroup. Once back on track, though, she and Mitchell had adorable give and take, especially when Mazzie was cast in the role of straight woman to Mitchell's comic cut up. At one point during Fascinatin' Rhythm, Stokes broke into rap-scat, aping the LP-scratching-on-the-turntable sound that hip hop DJs create. Mazzie's deadpan look of quizzical irritation worked beautifully against her attempts to continue the number in earnest.

Capping off the afternoon was, according to Lockhart, the only number that could top what had come before – Gershwin's other well known concert masterpiece, An American in Paris. The orchestra played it brilliantly, juxtaposing and blending the distinctly frenetic American jazz sounds with the more sensual and romantic French underscoring.

Then, not to disappoint their loyal following, the Pops delivered their trademark encore, The Stars and Stripes Forever. When the flag unfurled from the rafters for the final time at Tanglewood this season, the roar could probably be heard on the top of  Mt. Greylock.

PHOTOS: Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Brian Stokes Mitchell and Marin Mazzie