A thumping proletariat mash-up at Disney Hall

Earlier, Mumbles & Gone Beyond reached a symphonic, percussive peak while the "Animal Farm" directive "no animal shall kill another animal without cause" was intercut with frames from the film "Battleship Potemkin" of executed soldiers dropping into waiting trenches. If the audience responded more vocally to snippets of Portishead and themes from "The Simpsons" and "Austin Powers" that J-Rocc & Peanut Butter Wolf sneaked into their set, well, many of the artists weren't experts on Russian art, either.

"It was challenging and academic to prepare this set," Cut Chemist said after his entertaining and edifying performance, which included a mind-blowing comparison-contrast between Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" and John Williams' score for the first "Star Wars." The DJ acknowledged that that was cheating, as Stravinsky's work was created before Stalin rose to power. "But how else was I going to do my 'Star Wars' mash-up?" he asked playfully. More seriously, he noted that it was satisfying to see high-art organizations such as the Philharmonic "recognizing DJs as artists and musicians," adding that his good friend Mumbles, a Russian music expert, helped familiarize him with the classical works. He mixed them with his current CD, "The Audience's Listening," abetted by Mumbles on piano, rapper Hymnal and harp player Ricky Rasura of the Polyphonic Spree.

Another crowd-pleaser was Christoph Bull's performance on the hall's great organ, blending Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" with techno beats and fuzzy guitar. But the rarest thrill was the 10-piece Theremin Orchestra, which made an eerie, almost choral sound that perfectly fit the mournful Russian "Song of the Volga Boatmen." If Gershwin's "Summertime" and the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations" seemed beyond the show's theme, they nevertheless radiated a strangely melancholic beauty, somehow reminding listeners that, in the end, the tyrant fell, but the art lived on.