Spartacus meets Rocky at the Pops

As potential customers consider their weekend entertainment choices, it's hard to imagine a less functional marketing tactic than the title of the Cincinnati Pops' current attraction: "Go to the Movies."
That's indeed what they call it, though their confidence isn't misbegotten. Performing a repertoire of hyper-kinetically popular motion picture themes beneath a screen showing trailers from the corresponding movies, Erich Kunzel and his orchestra deftly navigated a hairpin course of exaggerated moods Friday evening at Music Hall.

The concept sounds like a can't-miss crowd pleaser. It was. Even so, the alignment of such recognizable sounds with such equally recognizable cinematic images required discipline and agility.

The Pops wisely chose to go for overall effect rather than attentive synchronicity in their multi-media excursion, for the most part successively. At times it was reminiscent of those Academy Awards montages honoring the previous year's worth of gorgeous dead.

This sort of thing works just fine for "Baby Elephant Walk" from Hatari, less so when shimmering strings accompany images of sweaty Spartacus in the combat pit, or when "Lara's Theme" mopes beneath rampaging Cossacks.
Elsewhere, the eye wanted it both ways. One such moment occurred when two utterly charming vocalists, Kristine Reese and Billy Tighe, performed a disarming version of Charlie Chaplin's melancholy "Smile.

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But when Charlie himself is on the screen, how can anyone not watch him?
The real success of the concert lay in the Pops' respect for the material.
Nowhere in the tight, attentive performance was there a hint that these standards were being played as camp or kitsch.

In several cases the Pops' interpretation refreshed the familiar themes.
A standout moment was Julie Spangler's exquisite piano version of the theme from "Exodus."
The big ones were all there, as glutinous and irresistible as popcorn butter, as sweet and sticky as a Raisinette, including themes from "Gone with the Wind," "Lawrence of Arabia," "The Summer of '42," "The Godfather," "Rocky," "Titanic" and others.

And, really, how can you ever go wrong with "The Magnificent Seven"?
But familiarity has other children.
So listen up, Mr.

Programmer, for the day you revisit this format (you will): "Lara's Theme" reached an elevator too far at about the time "The Summer Knows" died and went to Branson. And let me tell you, my huckleberry friend, "Moon River" still freezes the thrifty veins of anyone old enough to remember Andy and Claudine.
The show repeats at 8 tonight, with a matinee at 3 Sunday.