Please don't take this the wrong way: The Cincinnati Pops Orchestra was in top form Sunday evening — the audience barely watched them at all.

        That's because the almost sellout crowd came to hear, not see, the orchestra. Instead, all eyes were on the movie screen high above the Music Hall stage that featured the works of two familiar silent screen stars — Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.

        It was through inconspicuous playing and elegant subtlety, that the Pops made the greatest impression. Along with the silent screen stars, the orchestra proved something that makes a journalist very nervous: Sometimes words just get in the way.

        Billed The Silent Clowns, Sunday's performance was actually two small silent films shown back-to-back with the Pops providing the music. It played from a score composed from the original one-page cue sheet that would circulate from theater to theater in the days when live music always accompanied films.

        The concert's concept was the brainchild of featured theater organist, Dennis James. Through his production company, Silent Film Concerts, Mr. James and principal tour conductor Carl Daehler (who has arranged and compiled several silent film scores) bring silent films to audiences via everything from solo piano to full symphony orchestra.

        Listeners came away from the performance with more than a week's worth of laughs. On a sort of “organ outreach” project, Mr. James played a pipe organ for both Mr. Chaplin's The Pilgrim and Mr. Keaton's Sherlock, Jr., giving listeners a lesson about its importance in silent films.

        Even with the absence of principal conductor Erich Kunzel, the Pops was a precise, cohesive ensemble.

        Under the direction of Mr. Daehler, the players added suspense to the car chase scenes and passion to the ones about love. Because of the Pops, Mr. Chaplin's knuckle on a door became a “knock” and Mr. Keaton's heavy eyelids became a drift into sleep — making it easy to understand why musicians, too, win Academy Awards.

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