What is your listening pleasure?  Friday evening's concert before a full house at Miller Auditorium by the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra offered a very wide range of music to help celebrate its 75th anniversary.  Nor did anyone leave the concert musically 'hungry,' despite a lengthy program in which key personnel of the KSO were cited and applauded.

Adolphus Hailstork's glitzy fanfare "Celebration" opened the upbeat festivities, as effectively led by KSO Artistic Director and Conductor Yoshimi Takeda.  It called upon chimes, cymbals, xylophone and castanets to add to the urgent propulsive score that at moments faintly echoed Bernstein's writing.

Conductor Thomas Kasdorf then led the KSO and his superb Kalamazoo Singers Gala Chorus in a fetching rendition of Ralph Vaughan WIlliams' adaptation of the hymn "O Clap Your Hands."  Because of the tight space, the chorus stood on risers quite far upstage, thereby effecting a slight muffled quality to the chorus.  Still, with the large number of singers and a first-rate performance to retain one's attention, the piece impressed in almost every respect.

A radical shift in direction then was taken when the orchestra was joined by the Western Jazz Quartet for the third movement of Patrick WIlliam's "An American Concerto."  The quartet is made up of faculty members from Western Michigan University included saxophonist Trent Kynaston, bassist Thomas Knific, pianist Stephen Zegree and drummer Tim Froneck.  Assistant Conductor Barry Ross conducted this audience pleaser that featured excellently performed riffs by each of the quartet members.

Takeda's immediate predecessor as leader of the KSO was Pierre Hetu, who after 23 years returned Friday as guest conductor.  He led the KSO in a lush rendition of Franz Liszt's famed "Les Preludes."  Hetu's low-key conducting manner varies considerably from Takeda's.  On this occasion it led to a softly edged sound that permitted the unique melodies and harmonies to be heard to their fullest.  The orchestra only rarely has emitted more gorgeous sound.  Throughout the first two-thirds of the piece, however, the tempo was overly slow and deliberate, causing the arching musical lines nearly to sag.

Takeda then returned to lead the combined forces of the KSO and Kalamazoo Junior Symphony Orchestra in a remarkably strong performance of the "March to the Scaffold" from Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique.

Robert Ritsma, director of the KJSO, next led his group alone in Brahm's delightful "Hungarian Dances, Nos. 5 & 6."  Again, listeners had to be impressed by the professionalism and solidness of the young performers.

Local actor Von Washington then introduced Yolanda King, oldest daughter of the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.  Ms. King, in clarion voice and vocal ardor, narrated selected short speehes of Abraham Lincoln against the stirring backdrop of Aaron Copland's "Lincoln Portrait."  Both the music, conducted by Takeda, and the words, splendidly spoken by Ms. King, combined for a lump-in-the-throat experience.

Closing the program was a knock-out performance by the KSO and the Kalamazoo Singers Gala Chorus of Richard Wagner's Choral March from the opera "Tannhauser."  Trumpet fanfares opened the work, played from opposite balconies.  The march music magnetized the large audience until the score soared to create a thrilling climax.  That alone would have been a fitting end to the evening.  But following the concert, champagne and birthday cake were served in the lobby, to be followed by entertainment, food, and dancing on the stage.