The New York Pops, Conducted by Steven Reineke
‘Let’s Misbehave: The Songs Of Cole Porter’
February 7
Carnegie Hall

Under the direction of conductor Steven Reineke, the New York Pops Orchestra on Friday is presenting an entire concert of music by Cole Porter. This is welcome news for many reasons, the first of which is that the Pops, especially under Mr. Reineke’s baton, is an organization devoted to the current state of popular music, especially with regard to contemporary musical theater. 

Two of my favorite programs in recent memory were at the Pops: a set of 21st century Broadway show tunes and an evening with the outstanding baritone Max Von Essen. Most of the Pops’ composer-driven shows celebrate living writers, like Barry Manilow, John Williams, and for the gala this year, Dianne Warren.  

Inserting Cole Porter (1891-1964) into the mix underscores the ongoing relevance of the great Indiana-born composer and his music. He was already well into his career fully 100 years ago, and even the big rock ’n’ roll era re-evaluation of his music, the 1990 album “Red Hot + Blue” — which featured U2, Annie Lennox, and Tom Waits, among many others, performing Porter classics — is, by now, quite a while ago.  

As Mr. Reineke put it in an interview with the Sun, “Our goal is to be gatekeepers of the past as well. We very much cherish our musical language and history of where we come from, and I’ve never wanted to ever forget that. So we did a whole Gershwin program last season, and this year we’re doing a whole Cole Porter program.”

An even greater reason for the Pops to celebrate Porter is the music itself. When we hear Porter performed today, it’s usually in small-ish cabaret rooms with appropriate vocalists, like the pre-eminent Michael Feinstein, and generally only with piano or trios. Yet Porter’s music is unendingly rich and full, and it deserves the full force of the full 80-plus local AFM dues-paying members of the Pops. “It was a type of songwriting that was a really terrific craft, where they came up with great songs, great harmonies, great melodies, great rhythms, great lyrics,” Mr. Reineke says. “Every element of the song works.”

Indeed, one gets the impression from the various biographies written of Porter over the years that the music was the vast majority of the job for him. He cultivated the image of the rich playboy, flitting about from one party to another, but the reality was that he was gifted not only with a unique talent but also a remarkable work ethic, and toiled long hours every day in his own personal salt mine, shackled to his piano. 

Perhaps it’s ironic that Porter is better known for his witty lyrics — he said that the words were the fun part for him, and compared writing lyrics to doing crossword puzzles — rather than his solidly constructed, harmonically astute melodies.  

“These are just ingrained in popular culture and the great American songbook,” Mr. Reineke adds. “It’s not easy to write a standard and when you look at his output, it’s amazing to think that he’s written this many songs that have stood the test of time.” 

The next major reason to have high hopes for this concert is the presence of the three guest stars, two outstanding instrumentalist-vocalists, trumpeter Bria Skonberg and pianist Tony DeSare, and a fine young song-and-tap-dance man, John Manzari. Their talents line up nicely against each other without conflicting — i.e., there aren’t two sopranos — so there are plenty of opportunities for two or even three of the guests to join forces in duos and trios.

Porter is a unique character for other reasons as well. His was a career like no other, not least because he wrote in a much more modern, forward-looking stye than nearly any of the songwriters of his generation. As Mr. Reineke avers, he was just getting started and landing his first major breakthrough successes at the very age George Gershwin was when he died.  

Porter managed to stay relevant for the rest of his long career: An early advocate of the integrated “book” show, he reinvented himself in the post-Rodgers & Hammerstein era with “Kiss Me, Kate.” He successfully crossed over into movie musicals and his last major production, “Aladdin,” was originally written for television. He kept writing his miraculously solid melodies with their amazing lyrics — by turns hilariously witty, often even naughty, and always emotionally charged — up to the very end.

“I’m really, really excited about this program, because it’s a terrific concert,” Mr. Reineke says. “It really does a great job paying tribute to the genius of Cole Porter.”