Peters at Pops will be tough to top
Our pops season is off to a sizzling start. If someone at Kleinhans Music Hall was ready Saturday with a camera, Buffalo has a great holiday card to send this December to other cities.
The card could have a picture of Bernadette Peters lying full-length on the grand piano, singing up into the microphone, surrounded by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, everyone bathed in purple light.
What an unforgettable image! An unforgettable performance, too. The song Peters sang with her hourglass-shaped body atop the Steinway was “Fever,” and she used the beats to best advantage — raising her hands, crossing her legs. The best was when she flipped onto her stomach so she was face to face with her pianist. The pristine Kleinhans acoustics broadcast the “whump” she made as she turned over.
Peters might be 60, but she looks about 30. She still has that wonderful ’80s hair — God love her for hanging on to it. Her voice has held up perfectly. She is best with moving ballads that involve high notes and great leaps — like “When You Wish Upon A Star” (which she coupled with another Disney classic, “A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes”), and “Shenandoah,” which was stunning.
Robert Franz and the BPO gave her a fine introduction in the concert’s first half, a tribute to Bernadette. We had the finale from the Fourth Symphony of Peter Tchaikovsky, Mancini’s Theme from “Peter Gunn,” and a fanfare by John Williams from “Hook,” about Peter Pan.
A special attraction was BPO cellist Robert Hausmann’s moving performance of the wistful slow movement from Victor Herbert’s Cello Concerto No. 2, Opus 30. Just the opening theme alone was glorious. And at the end, which Hausmann finessed in a way that took your breath away, someone behind me in the balcony said out loud, “Beautiful.” It took Bernadette Peters to follow that act, and she threw herself into it, sashaying forth to the tune of “Let Me Entertain You.”
Her show had unwavering intensity.
The BPO backed her up splendidly. Principal trumpet player Alex Jokipii won kudos for his lovely solo in “When You Wish Upon a Star.” Peters’ pianist and conductor, Marvin Laird, did an admirable job even during the tricky Sondheim numbers.
Speaking of Sondheim, we heard a bit too much of him. Peters does her best to sell him, and you have to love her sincerity. But nonstop Sondheim gets monotonous, and too many of the numbers Peters sang — i. e., “Not a Day Goes By” — were of the loud, hear-me-roar variety, in some cases as deafening as a rock concert. Too many of those showstoppers, and you’ve stopped the show.
Give me “When I Marry Mr. Snow,” with its sheer loveliness, “Some Enchanted Evening” or Peters’ own singularly sultry “There Is Nothing Like a Dame” any day.
Happily, she did.
She’ll be a tough act to follow.
Concert Review
Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra with Bernadette Peters
Saturday night in Kleinhans Music Hall.
