In recent years, the Princeton Symphony Orchestra has expanded its offerings to include both a Chamber and Pops series, among others. The Pops series has been in place for more than a decade, attracting new audience members and giving the musicians a chance to explore a different genre of repertoire. This past Saturday night, the Princeton Symphony treated the audience at Richardson Auditorium to some of the “greatest hits” from the movies — just in time for Academy Awards month.

Movie scores may sound like simple melodies and easy harmonies, but film scores can be as sophisticated as the most complex symphony. Music and the movies have had an inseparable relationship since the beginning of film, and throughout the 20th century, composing for film was often part of a composer’s bread-and-butter manner of earning a living. For Saturday night’s performance, Princeton Symphony guest conductor Lucas Richman programmed a concert of film music from a number of decades, showing that as far back as the 1940s, film scores were both intricate and challenging.

The format of pops concerts breaks down the barriers between stage and audience with conductor commentary and a more informal atmosphere than strictly classical performances. Mr. Richman immediately established a rapport with the audience (who seemed to be regular attendees at PSO Pops concerts), and introduced each piece with anecdotes often from his own background. The importance of percussion in film music was established from the outset with Miklos Rozsa’s Parade of the Charioteers from the 1959 Ben-Hur. PSO timpanist Jeremy Levine was kept busy throughout the evening, and especially in the “Parade,” one does not usually hear the timpani consistently this loud.

Mr. Richman focused a good part of the concert on the music of John Williams, apparently a personal friend and colleague, and to whom he enticed the audience to sing “Happy Birthday” into a cell phone video. The music of Jaws is among the most recognized and parodied themes in film scores (along with the music of Psycho which followed the Jaws selection), and Mr. Richman kept the intensity of the music flowing well with the help of piano and celli. The symphony returned to the music of Williams later in the program, with two selections from Superman and music to close the concert from Star Wars. In the Star Wars selections, a quartet of trumpets and trio of trombones contrasted well with wind solos from horn player Douglas Lundeen, oboist Nathan Mills, English hornist Henry Ward, and flutist Mary Schmidt.

The most interesting orchestration of the evening belonged to Bernard Herrmann’s Psycho Suite, George Gershwin’s An American in Paris (as arranged by Mr. Richman) and Mr. Richman’s own arrangements of five love songs from movies. Herrmann’s three-movement Psycho: A Short Suite for String Orchestra was unique in its strings-only instrumentation, and recognizable in the jagged string bowings (which the players clearly enjoyed executing). Mr. Richman found lean melodic lines throughout the suite, building tension via the cello section like fingernails on a blackboard. The An American in Paris suite arranged by Mr. Richman was pure Gershwin, appealing to the audience’s desire to hear great tunes when they come to concerts such as this. In Romancing the Cinema, a set of five love songs from such movies as The Lion King, Love Story and Titanic, Mr. Richman’s arrangements provided opportunities for effective solo playing, including from Mr. Lundeen, Mr. Ward, and concertmistress Basia Danilow.

As evidenced by the 74 entries for consideration for 2016 Academy Award “Best Song” nomination, vocal music plays a large role in film scores. Joining the Princeton Symphony on Saturday night was singer Jessica Hendy, a veteran Broadway and cabaret performer. Ms. Hendy sang songs from Superman, The Way We Were, The Man I Love, and Frozen. Ms. Hendy possessed a light and clear voice, and her classical vocal training showed in her good command of the upper registers of songs. Her handling of the difficult lower registers was helped by miking, and she maintained consistently good communication with the audience.

Pops audiences are loyal to the genre, and Princeton Symphony has done well to develop this series into a very good sized house at Richardson. No doubt there will be a great deal of cross-over to the other PSO series, strengthening the organization as a whole.