In the mid-1990s, the Times of London flogged a very cool disk-per-week club that was everything eclectic can mean. One of those CDs was entitled Great Film Themes and included music from the likes of Also Sprach Zarathustra, Back to the Future, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Brief Encounters, Chariots of Fire, Goldfinger, Raging Bull, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Jurassic Park, Casablanca, Gone with the Wind, Doctor Zhivago, and Henry V.
Erick Kunzel directed the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra.
Which sets a man to thinking. In many larger American cities—it does seem to be an American thing—’second orchestras’ with ‘Pops’ in their name labor in the shadow of a great and solemn orchestra whose name lacks that damning word. Often they are very, very good, indeed they often have many of the ‘real’ orchestra’s members on their roster.
Such is the Cincinnati Pops.
Let us pause to honor these poor, unsung musical dudes, for without them film music would only be heard in movie theaters. That would be a sad thing.
Canter Bridge 
With the fourth mnovmeet of Mozart’s Jupiter still running in my mind, I have to thank you, Sam Sarah, for an engaging look at his last symphony. I loved the music theory portion in which Sarah distilled the music down to five individual melodies. I’ve have never stopped to understand the complexity of it. I listened during the second half with increased interest and a renewed familiarity with the music. Enjoyed the audience participation portion too more of it, please.Really enjoyed Michael Gast’s show and tell with the horn of late 18th century. Never before have I seen a beer funnel played on stage by a guy who just recently returned from northern California.