RSNO/The Music of John Williams, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

Alison Kerr

4 stars

Tinseltown stardust was sprinkled over the Royal Concert Hall on Saturday night when the RSNO paid its third annual homage to the world’s best-loved living film composer, the mighty John Williams, currently up for his 50th Oscar nomination. So popular are these Williams-themed concerts that this year that there were two sittings on Saturday – as well as the opportunity for punters to book their next Williams fix when his music makes comeback in just a few weeks as part of an RSNO concert of movie music themed around Hollywood Heroes and Superheroes.

At the helm, on the suitably red-carpetted podium, was Los Angeles-born Richard Kaufman, the conductor who has effectively become Williams’s representative in Scotland – for it is he who has conducted these concerts over the last three years and shared his personal experiences of playing violin on Williams’s 1970s soundtracks.

The first half of Saturday’s programme seemed to be a deliberate attempt to show that there’s more to Williams than the most familiar themes from the blockbuster family films – and while it was refreshing to hear the romantic suite from Far and Away and, especially, the playful and intriguing Viktor’s Tale from The Terminal, there was an “are we there yet?” feeling amongst the younger members of the audience until the majestic and thrilling force of the Star Wars main theme was awakened, just before the interval.

Thereafter, thrill-seekers were more than well catered for – thanks to a second half comprising such epic hits as the theme from Jurassic Park, the bewitching Hedwig’s Theme from the Harry Potter films and the “soppy” bit, AKA Marion’s Theme, from Raiders of the Lost Ark. All of it played with Oscar-worthy panache by the RSNO.