Review: JOHN WILLIAMS & STEVEN SPIELBERG: MOVIE MAGIC with The BSO, Steven Reineke Conductor at The Music Center At Strathmore

There are certain phrases in life that get me highly excited. When I watch a movie the phrase “Music by John Williams” puts me in a very good place for the duration of that particular film. The phrase “Directed by Steven Spielberg” has the same effect. These two men have a collaboration that’s unheard of in Hollywood. For over 50 years and 30 films the team of Williams and Spielberg have collaborated on some of the biggest films to ever grace the movie screen.

This past weekend Maestro Steven Reineke and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) presented a program that featured music from fifteen of the thirty films these two men have collaborated on, and I can say without question, this was a concert for the ages.

Any good piece of music evokes some kind of emotion. “The Shark Theme” from Jaws is probably one of the scariest pieces of music ever written for a film. With just two notes played by the lower register instruments in the orchestra as the underline theme, you are reminded to think twice before swimming. Did I mention this is how the concert opened?

Williams and Spielberg’s first film collaboration was the 1974 The Sugarland Express. This is one of those Williams scored that you hardly ever hear played. There are two reasons for this as Maestro Reineke explained. First off, the music isn’t rentable and second, you need a killer harmonica player. Because Reineke is just THAT good at his job, he solved both of these issues for this concert. He found an excellent local harmonica player named Jon Voth for the solo part and contacted John Williams directly to obtain the music. What the BSO played from were Williams’ personal charts. How cool is that?

One of the best things about a concert conducted by Maestro Steven Reineke is that he always tries to feature soloists from within the orchestra. This happened several times during this concert.

Concertmaster Kevin Smith was featured on “Theme from Schindler’s List” playing the violin solo that Itzak Perlman played in the film. The violin part is as haunting as the story the film tells itself and Smith’s musicianship was just superb.

Christine Murphy had a lovely flute solo feature on “Dartmoor,1912” from Warhorse. This is the first piece you hear in the film and illustrates beautifully the setting of a small English town.

You might remember a film starring Tom Hanks some years ago called The Terminal. It’s about a man who has to live in an American airport because he is denied entry and can’t go home because of a war in his country. Williams’ “Viktor’s Tale” is the film’s main theme and highlights the accordion and clarinet as its featured instruments. Soloists Frank Busso on accordion and YaoGuang Zhai on Clarinet played the featured parts to audible perfection and pointed out how excellent the acoustics are at the Music Center at Strathmore. The clarinet was not amplified, and the accordion had only minimal audio help.

Cellist Jamie An played a beautiful cello solo on “With Malice Toward None” from Lincoln. The principls of Abraham Lincoln are something we need to remember now more than ever and this peice makes that point.

One of the things that always stands out in a film score by John Williams is a march. The BSO played two on this program. The first being “The March” from the WWII comedy classic 1941 and “The Raiders March” from Raiders of The Lost Ark as the concert’s encore. The BSO led by Maestro Reineke sounded the best I’ve ever heard them. I’m not sure if it was because of the quality combination of the players or Reineke’s exuberance but the ensemble sounded tight and played everything with precision and musical greatness.

I’m always grateful that Maestro Reineke not only plays music the audience will recognize but he also introduces them to pieces that might not be as familiar. A case in point was “The Duel’ from the only animated film Williams and Spielberg ever worked on called The Adventures of Tintin.” I always say that the arts are meant to educate as well as entertain. Thank you Maestro Reineke for having the same philosophy.

John Williams & Steven Spielberg: Movie Magic definitely lived up to its name. The BSO under the always wonderful direction of Maestro Steven Reineke provided an excellent way to beat the summer heat to be sure. Great music, an excellent ensemble of musicians, and one of the best conductors working today. What more could you possibly need?

Running Time: Two Hours and five minutes including one intermission.

John Williams & Steven Spielberg: Movie Magic was a two night only engagement at The Music Center of Strathmore on July 31, 2026 and Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall on August 1st, 2026.

Photo Credit: Top- Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Photo courtesy of the orginization.

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