Band, orchestra shine in Music of Pink Floyd show at Heinz Hall

Half a century after its release, audiophiles continue to demonstrate their latest gear by playing Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon.”

The landmark LP by the British band not only pushed the boundaries of recorded clarity and depth, but its popularity is practically unparalleled, with 45 million copies sold and much of its content a staple of classic rock radio.

So at first glance, a complete performance of the album as the first set of a concert would seem to render what followed somewhat anticlimactic.

That was far from the case when Windborne Music brought its Music of Pink Floyd show to Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts, enhanced in sonically stellar fashion by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

Following intermission on Tuesday came a series of creatively arranged selections from Floyd’s post-“Dark Side” projects, including another 30-plus-million seller, “The Wall.”

The evening added up to a night of nostalgia for much of the audience, as recognized by Windborne lead singer Randy Jackson, who dedicated “Hey You” to folks over 50 who saw the actual Pink Floyd. But plenty of people who had yet to be born when the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers last played Pittsburgh, at Three Rivers Stadium in 1994, were present to sing along with the likes of “Wish You Were Here” and chart-topper “Another Brick in the Wall Part 2.”

Speaking of which, Jackson and Windborne founder-conductor-arranger Brent Havens invited five lucky fans onstage to help belt out the latter’s “We don’t need no education/We don’t need no thought control” chorus. And Havens handed his baton to a youngster who identified himself as Jonathan, giving him the opportunity to lead an orchestra, plus something to brag about at school on Wednesday.

The night’s rendition of “The Dark Side of the Moon” was fairly faithful to the original, including lead guitarist George Cintron doing a tremendous job replicating David Gilmour’s celebrated solo in “Time” and saxophonist Eddie Williams following in Dick Parry’s footsteps during “Money and “Us and Them.”

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A highlight of the album is Claire Torry’s wordless vocals on “The Great Gig in the Sky,” and Windborne’s Ann Marie Nacchio delivered a stunningly soaring version, with keyboard player Justin Avery backing her à la “Gig” co-composer Richard Wright.

Drummer Powell Randolph took the spotlight during the techno-instrumental “On the Run,” and Jackson added an effects-laden second guitar to “Any Colour You Like” prior to the set-closing coupling of “Brain Damage” and — the working title for “Dark Side,” incidentally — “Eclipse.”

The second half of the show featured other songs from “The Wall,” beginning with “Is There Anybody Out There?” and wrapping up with “Run Like Hell.” In between was “Comfortably Numb,” featuring Cintron again channeling Gilmour on the outro.

Other tunes in the setlist appear on Pink Floyd’s “A Momentary Lapse of Reason,” the 1987 album that Gilmour, Wright and drummer Nick Mason released after the departure of bassist-lyricist Roger Waters. Floyd fans will recall that the quartet reunited for a one-off performance in 2005, three years before Wright’s death.

And rock aficionados in general know that the band was co-founded by Roger “Syd” Barrett (1945-2006), who composed the majority of the 1967 debut LP, “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn,” before Gilmour replaced him the following year.

Fast-forward to 2024, and a packed Heinz Hall audience was able to see — and more importantly, given the orchestra’s presence, hear — a distinctive tribute to one of history’s most enduring musical acts.

Just ask the audiophiles who still love to listen to “The Dark Side of the Moon.”