After an eight-year absence, legendary pops conductor and composer Peter Nero revisits Baltimore with a few musical surprises at the end of his baton. He has sent his award-winning arrangements ahead for the orchestra, and when he arrives from Philadelphia, melodious sparks will fly.
“Our Principal Pops conductor, Jack Everly, is a huge fan of Peter Nero?s music and has wanted to include Mr. Nero in our season. Mr. Nero?s schedule has been so full that it took us two years to engage him,” said Dori Amor, director of community programming for the BSO.
The Baltimore Symphony, Nero says, remembering his last trip, “is a great orchestra [and] we made music together.”
In Peter Nero: Hail the Conquering Nero, the founder of the Philly Pops and world-renowned virtuoso pianist will once again “make music” when he conducts the BSO SuperPops, both from the piano and podium. The program will highlight the works for which Nero is most known, including his Grammy-winning arrangement of “Mountain Greenery,” “Obla-di Obla-da,” and “As Long as He Needs Me.” Nero also hinted at playing works from Duke Ellington, highlighting his ongoing love affair with jazz.
“In pops performances I always want the latitude to pick and choose my pieces,” he said. “Performing the arrangements I wrote gives me that freedom.”
And Nero has been exercising his freedom of choice throughout an impressive career that has taken him to the world?s most prestigious concert halls. Audiences have applauded his work in venues that include the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, Royal Albert Hall in London and Carnegie Hall, where he remembers waiting in line as a kid to see his idol, Vladimir Horowitz, perform. (Years later, he would perform with him.)
Nero, who considers the founding of the Philly Pops his greatest achievement, recorded his first album in 1961 and won a Grammy that year for Best New Artist. Since then, he has received a second Grammy and was nominated an additional 10 times. Recording more than 70 albums in his career, his “Summer of ?42” sold both a million singles and albums. Recent recordings on CD, in addition to “Summer of ?42,” include “Peter Nero and Friends,” which features collaborations with Mel Torme, Maureen McGovern and Doc Severinson. Nero can also be heard on the recent Rod Stewart CD, “As Time Goes By … The Great American Songbook, Volume II.”
Nero has a simple explanation for his continuing success. “Music has many languages. It is up to us to communicate the meaning of that music.”
IF YOU GO
Peter Nero: Hail the Conquering Hero
BSO SuperPops, Peter Nero, conductor
» Venue: Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, 1212 Cathedral St., Baltimore
» Times: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday
» More info: 410-783-8000, www.baltimoresymphony.org
