Mozart? Only if he did ‘Titanic’

Forget about Mozart and Brahms. This Spokane Symphony SuperPops concert belongs to Anakin Skywalker, Michael Corleone and Bond – James Bond.

The theme of the program is “Hooray for Hollywood,” and it consists entirely of Oscar-winning soundtrack music.

Well, maybe not exactly “Oscar-winning.” Music director Eckart Preu, a major movie buff, admits that some of the music he chose simply should have won.

For instance, Bernard Herrmann’s now-famous slashing-and-shrieking score for “Psycho” (1960) didn’t even earn a nomination.

This is an unusual SuperPops program in that it does not feature a guest artist. However, it does have two showcase numbers for a pair of in-house stars: cellist John Marshall and concertmaster Kelly Farris.

Marshall will take the spotlight in “The Eternal Vow,” a selection from Tan Dun’s Oscar-winning score to “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.”

Farris will be the featured soloist in selections from John Corigliano’s “The Red Violin,” which won an Oscar in 2000. Farris is retiring at the end of this season, so opportunities to hear him perform are not to be squandered.

Classic movies are well-represented in Preu’s program. He has included excerpts from Max Steiner’s score for “Casablanca” (1942), Charlie Chaplin’s own music for “Limelight” (1952) and Herrmann’s chillingly urgent themes from “Psycho” (1960).

The program includes plenty of contemporary movie soundtracks as well, including Hans Zimmer’s music from “Gladiator” (2000), James Horner’s music from “Titanic” (1997) and John Williams’ music from both “Catch Me If You Can” (2002) and “Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith” (2005).

And for movies that fall somewhere in between, there’s Maurice Jarre’s “Lara’s Theme” and other selections from “Dr. Zhivago” (1965), Nino Rota and Carmine Coppola’s “The Godfather Part II” (1974) and a medley of James Bond film themes.