The Richmond Symphony Orchestra and the RSO Chorus once again showed their versatility as they combined to provide the music for “Video Games Live” at the Landmark Theater on Saturday night. Playing to a rowdy yet courteous crowd of video-game enthusiasts, the orchestra and chorus seemed to be having fun onstage as three giant projection screens showed bits of video games from the early favorites such as “Pong” and “Frogger” to some rather sophisticated new games that utilize computer-generated images and over-the-top lighting effects to the max.

Several of Richmond’s elite musical forces joined Friday night at Second Baptist Church and did justice to one of the greatest pieces ever written. The Richmond Symphony, the Richmond Symphony Chorus and the Greater Richmond Children’s Choir, following the direction of Mark Russell Smith, presented Johann Sebastian Bach’s “The Passion According to St. Matthew.“ And a grand show it was.

There’s nothing like a warhorse to bring out the best in everyone. On Friday night at Second Baptist Church, the Richmond Symphony, led by this season’s sixth conductor candidate, Dorian Wilson, rolled out Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade” to finish a Masterworks program that started off rather tentatively. Let’s get the tentative out of the way first.

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.

Dmitri Shostakovich wrote 15 symphonies, as well as many other works. His “Symphony No. 1,“ presented Saturday night by the Richmond Symphony under the direction of conductor candidate Arthur Post at First Baptist Church, almost took the roof off. Had the group played all 15 of them in a row, the church might have been reduced to rubble. Shostakovich sometimes can have that effect. But this is not a bad thing. These symphonies are never approached lightly by the musicians, nor should they be.

Symphony welcomes fifth conductor candidate       Arthur Post has a special place in the orchestral conducting world. Actually, he has two special places.  The fifth of nine candidates for the position of music director of the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, Post is in his seventh season as music director of the San Juan Symphony. (No, not that one. That’s the Puerto Rico Symphony.)

Dorian Wilson takes the podium tomorrow night for the first of three Richmond Symphony Masterworks concerts featuring the music of Charles Ives, Benjamin Britten and Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

There were no soaring melodies or grand phrases a listener would walk away humming Friday night after the “Haydn and Mozart” session of the Haydn Festival Series by the Richmond Symphony Orchestra at Bon Air Baptist Church. But for someone who likes to hear the music of brothers Michael and Franz Josef Haydn, along with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Jupiter” symphony (No. 41 in C major), it was a well-spent evening.

Things were dark at The National last night. Very dark. Of course, when you base an entire program on Richmond’s favorite poet, writer and teller of terror tales—Edgar Allan Poe—that is to be expected. But to be honest, the talents who came together to continue the bicentennial celebration of Poe’s birth actually made it fun, for the most part.

Roughly translated, “Sinfonia del Fuego”—the title for the Richmond Symphony Pops program at the Landmark Theater on Saturday night—means “symphony on fire.“ And amigos, it was blazing. Fueled by world-renowned bandoneon player Raul Jaurena, concertmaster Karen Johnson, with dancers from the Latin Ballet of Virginia and under the direction of conductor candidate Marc Taddei, if you were there and didn’t feel a rush of varied emotions, check your pulse.

Marc Taddei has made his way to the capital of the Commonwealth as the fourth candidate of nine to audition for the position of music director of the Richmond Symphony Orchestra when Mark Russell Smith leaves the post next season. Taddei (pronounced tuh-day) is a native of Elizabeth, N.J., who knew at an early age that he wanted to be a musician, even though his parents were not connected with music.

Mikhail Agrest: Was here in September
  Daniel Meyer: Was here in October
  Steven Smith: Was here in November
  Marc Taddei: Jan. 16, 17 and 19
  Dorian Wilson: Feb. 6 and 8, March 6, 7 and 9
  Arthur Post: Feb. 20, 21, 23 and 28
  Alastair Willis: Dates not set
  Christian Knapp: Dates not set

Winter promises to heat up Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Landmark Theater with the Richmond Symphony Orchestra’s third pops concert of the season, “Sinfonia del Fuego.“

The Richmond Symphony Orchestra League has published “Apron Strings II,“ a cookbook featuring more than 200 recipes. Net proceeds will benefit the Richmond Symphony. Local cookbook author, instructor and TV culinary personality Jan Carlton edited the book. “Apron Strings I” was published in 1984. The Richmond Symphony Orchestra League, which formed in 1958 as the Women’s Committee of the Richmond Symphony, sponsors fundraisers to benefit the symphony and also supports young musicians throughout Virginia.

George Frederic Handel’s “Messiah” received one of its better Richmond readings under the direction of Richmond Symphony conductor Mark Russell Smith at Second Baptist Church on Friday night.