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Todd Rundgren with the Akron Symphony Orchestra, Akron Civic Theatre, Akron, Ohio, Sept. 5, 2015

For his fourth-ever North American symphonic concert, Todd Rundgren plumbed his vast songbook and conjured up a diverse set that was more rock ‘n’ roll than classical. Sharing the stage with colleagues past and present, Rundgren dusted off songs from his days as a prog-rocker, a balladeer and a composer of musicals.

And though the performance was by necessity scored, the music retained a loose feel that added to the fun.

Joining the Akron Symphony Orchestra - which played beautifully all night - for the second time since 2013, Rundgren also brought friends and family along for the ride. These included Jesse Gress, who’s been with Rundgren since 1990, on guitar, Greg Hawkes (The Cars) on keys, Kasim Sulton (Utopia) on bass, Kevin Ellman (Todd Rundgren’s Utopia) on drums and wife Michele Rundgren and Mary Lou Arnold Gress on backing vocals. Together, the close to 50 musicians and singers turned in a playful, 100-minute set at Akron’s gorgeous Civic Theatre Saturday night.

Even with these beloved sidemen (and women) on stage, it was the anonymous ASO sax player who generated the most electricity, blowing remarkable solos in “God Said” and “Love Science.” The crowd rewarded the musician with raucous mid-song applause and cheers and seemed to catch the symphony musicians joyfully off guard.

And despite a couple of stumbles - pacing issues on “If I Have to be Alone” and some forgotten words on “Change Myself” - that the wizard blamed on lack of rehearsal time, the performance elicited numerous, well-deserved standing ovations from the crowd, which filled about two-thirds of the seats.

Dressed head-to-toe in black, Maestro Rundgren stopped “Love Science” a few bars in, apparently seeking more oomph in the intro. And the coda of “Hello It’s Me” found the singer first calling out “one more time!” and later “any time now!” as the musicians kept the song going and going and going …

Rundgren shared a good-natured laugh with conductor Jacob Sustaita after that one.

These lighthearted moments created an informal atmosphere not often found when one takes in an evening with the orchestra.

At 67, Rundgren retains the voice of a man much younger and he used it with gusto. He faltered only briefly when aiming for super-high notes and his natural instrument produced several spine-tingling moments: the “la-la-la” bridge in “Can We Still Be Friends;” and the powerful delivery of “The Last Ride” are prime examples.

The father, son and Holy Ghost/they all turned away love/when they needed it most/it’s the last ride/their little game is over

With the orchestral backing, favorites like “A Dream Goes on Forever” and “It Wouldn’t Have Made Any Difference” were simply sublime. The extremely rare “Hideaway” had fans looking at one another - and the stage - in astonishment. And the final encore - “Love is the Answer” - had the Utopians on their feet, singing and clapping along as Sulton tried in vain to get the relatively staid ASO to join in.

But rock ultimately ruled the night. And uptempo numbers like the long-MIA Utopia cut “Rock Love” and the rap(!)-rock of “Worldwide Epiphany” may have been necessary due to the extremely loud and bassy Shelia E. concert which was taking place next door and bleeding into the hall.

Rundgren and crew play the Civic again this evening - E. is not in town - so it’ll be interesting to see if they take a mellower, more symphonic tack the second time around.

Grade card: Todd Rundgren with the Akron Symphony Orchestra, 8/5/15 - A-

Talking with Todd

If you’ve seen a Todd Rundgren concert recently, thank Jesse Gress.

According to Rundgren, his longtime guitarist performed the Heimlich maneuver on his boss after Rundgren, who doesn’t eat before shows, began choking on a post-performance piece of pork. The meat was dislodged just as the backstage guests began filing into the dressing room.

“They all said, ‘Hi. Nice show. Goodbye.’”

This vignette comes at the tail end of a Backstage with Citi interview in which Rundgren discusses his decades-long career as a producer and musician. Rundgren, speaking as rehearsals for his Global tour were revving up, said the former freed him to follow his muse - not the latest trend - in the latter.

“I just figured, why do what everyone else is doing?” he said. “You focus on doing things that nobody is doing. And that became my mantra.”