When a full-fledged orchestra like the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra plays everyday holiday selections like "White Christmas" and "I'll Be Home for Christmas," it seems initially like a waste of talent. That is, until the realization dawns that Music Director Philip Rice has imbued these numbers with his own interpretation with a magnificent result, giving them the classical sound they had Saturday evening at the Zeiterion Performing Arts Center.

If the lyrics for familiar numbers like these hadn't danced around in our minds as they were played, we could have sworn we were listening to Mozart rather than Berlin. But the NBSO had several numbers on the program during which it proved its reputation as a first-class musical organization, such as the selections from the overture to Handel's "Messiah" that opened Saturday night's concert.

That brings us to another intriguing feature of the program. The guest vocalist for the evening, tenor Jeffrey Springer, came right on at the very beginning instead of being scheduled for later in the program. He sang the two selections from the "Messiah" overture with a richness that told us we were in for a real treat as the concert progressed. Here we had a man as our guest who has thrilled hundreds of concert-goers throughout the United States and Europe with his operatic voice, earning him standing ovations at every appearance.

Saturday evening he sang four numbers in addition to the "Messiah" selections, the final one being the superb ending to the concert, the Bach/Gounod "Ave Maria." As a prelude to Mr. Springer's magnificent rendering of this beautiful piece, the audience Saturday night was treated to a very passionately played violin solo of the number by NBSO Concertmaster Jesse Holstein. The applause following that combined "Ave Maria" presentation erupted as an explosion.

An earlier highlight of the evening came when eight elementary school students from Greater New Bedford strode onto the Zeiterion stage with their percussion instruments to augment the NBSO's playing of two movements from the Leopold Mozart/Haydn "Toy Symphony" for which they were brought back for two bows.

The youngsters are: Blake Alexander and Maria Veale, from Friends Academy in Dartmouth; Hallie Cardoza, Mitchell Cardoza, Stokes Wenzler and Townsend Wenzler of the Cushman School in Dartmouth; Margaret Benton of St. Francis Xavier School in Acushnet and Ricky Kalisz of St. Mary's School, New Bedford.

They were assisted by NBSO members Jeremy Ronkin, Derek Lewis and James Baker.
The concert program included "Gesu Bambino," "O Holy Night" and "Silent Night," sung very delicately by Mr. Springer, and Rimsky Korsakov's "Dance of the Buffoons" and Respighi's "Adoration of the Magi" played vigorously in the case of the Rimsky-Korsakov number and ever so tenderly for the latter.

The NBSO's next concert will be on Feb. 17.

This story appeared on Page B4 of The Standard-Times on December 20, 2005