Symphony’s ‘Hollywood Nights’ concert

Music-director candidate Arthur Post and the Richmond Symphony made a 180-degree turn from last week's Masterworks concerts and took the audience to the movies Saturday night at Richmond's Landmark Theater with "Hollywood Nights."

It was exactly what the title would lead you to believe: some of the most popular music from some of the most gifted composers of the genre for some of the most popular movies ever made.

Johnny Mercer and Richard Whiting's "Hooray for Hollywood!" appropriately kicked off the evening, setting a tone that made listeners lean back and say, "Bring it on."

Post then took listeners back to the 1941 Best Picture Academy Award-winner, "Citizen Kane," with its overture by Bernard Herrmann. Although this movie has been rated by the American Film Institute as No. 1 of the 100 best American films ever made, it won only one Oscar.

Henry Mancini then took center stage. In a tribute to the composer who was nominated for 72 Grammys, there was a little bit of everything from "Days of Wine and Roses" to the famous "Pink Panther" theme. Lots of tapping toes could be heard in the audience as the orchestra bopped through Inspector Clouseau's theme music.

Principal clarinet Ralph Skiano sounded great on George Gershwin's "Promenade" from the classic Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers film "Shall We Dance." Standing in place in the woodwind section, Skiano poured out a melodic solo that would have made Benny Goodman proud.

Soprano Anne Runolfsson, a veteran New York performer, recently finished a two-year run on Broadway as Carlotta Giudacelli in "Phantom of the Opera." Runolfsson has an excellent voice, but there were times she should have really blown off the roof and didn't.

Runolfsson had a number of chances to wow the crowd in "Over the Rainbow" and "Ding-Dong! The Witch is Dead" by Harold Arlen from "The Wizard of Oz," but the energy was missing. She did partially redeem herself with Henry Mancini's "Moon River" from "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and also picked things up with another Mancini gem, "Le Jazz Hot" from "Victor/Victoria."

But her encore of "New York, New York" from Martin Scorsese's film of the same name was a bit over the top.

Post finished the first half of the program with "Tara's Theme" from "Gone With the Wind," and things were headed in the right direction.

And what movie music program would be complete without a few selections from John Williams, who, arguably, has never written a bad film score?

Williams' "Flying Theme from E.T." and the "Raiders March" from "Raiders of the Lost Ark" hit everyone with a memory jog, but the best piece of the evening came with concertmaster Karen Johnson wielding her violin to the grim yet beautiful theme from "Schindler's List."

There was a hush over the crowd as Johnson re-created Itzhak Perlman's original playing of this mournful tune from Williams' score to Stephen Spielberg's unforgettable movie.

Post could have put a little more giddy-up in Elmer Bernstein's theme from "The Magnificent Seven," but he added a subtle positive in posting the music from the barn-raising scene in the lesser-known but very good movie "Witness," with score by Maurice Jarre.

Contact Walt Amacker at (804) 649-6247 or .