KC Symphony with conductor Michael Krajewski celebrates the music of John Williams

With the recent release of the seventh installment of “Star Wars,” programming a symphonic tribute to the man who composed the films’ stirring music was an unambiguously successful idea. For the pops series, the Kansas City Symphony, with guest conductor Michael Krajewski, presented three sold-out performances featuring the music of John Williams.

Friday’s performance included selections spanning Williams’ career. His work, with its indelible melodies and a gift for storytelling, is embedded in the culture of the 20th and 21st centuries, making him perhaps the best-known living composer of orchestral music and certainly one of the most award-winning.

Krajewski, who leads the Philly Pops and the pops programs for the Houston, Atlanta and Jacksonville, Fla., orchestras, conducted with efficiency and chatted and joked affably about the works from the podium.

This concert gave the audience the chance to appreciate the works as stand-alone pieces (despite the inclusion of distracting, unnecessary laser lights during a few). The variety of Williams’ output is impressive, with tunes and colorations inspired by master composers of the previous centuries.

With each theme, no matter the treatment, timbre or orchestration, there was emotional clarity of a neo-romantic vein. “The Cowboys” captured Western thrills with Aaron Coplandesque sonorities. The tension of “Jaws” emerged from a murky rumble with unexpected accents. The flying theme from “E.T.” seemed to lift into the air with a rush of flutes and suspended cymbal. There was brightness and energy to the “Superman” march, a big splashy chord at the peak of the phrase.

Though there were issues in the ensemble with vibrancy in repetitive patterns, clarity in fast passages and unfocused chords, there were also fine performances from individuals, such as Dan Velicer on celesta during “Harry Potter” and associate concertmaster Justine Lamb-Budge on the extensive solo part for “Schindler’s List.”

The second half, which included themes from “Jurassic Park” and “The NBC Nightly News,” featured music from “Star Wars” (opening with the “20th Century Fox Fanfare”) and showcased Williams’ extensive structural use of motifs.

A cadre of characters from the films paraded along the front of the stage, some wielding lightsabers. Notably, Darth Vader forced Krajewski from the podium, taking over conducting duties during “The Imperial March.”

With a standing ovation, Krajewski came back onstage for an encore on the “Indiana Jones” theme, its brassy fanfare of derring-do sending up a ripple of cheers.

Many concertgoers were overheard humming their favorite Williams theme as they left Helzberg Hall.

This story was originally published January 22, 2016 at 6:13 PM with the headline "KC Symphony with conductor Michael Krajewski celebrates the music of John Williams."