To put these works into perspective, Holst's Mars influenced the soundtrack to the movie Gladiator so much that the Holst society sued composer Hans Zimmer for copyright infringement. Kinda silly, in my mind, when most music can find its roots in some past work. Take the famous Ode de Joy theme, for instance: Beethoven borrowed that melody nearly verbatim from a popular drinking song.
Strauss' music, on the other hand, was actually used verbatim for the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. Might have seen it in a few used car financing commercials as well. All in all, should turn out to be an awesome concert.
On a final note, although it's exciting to see the high turnout rates that these outdoors pops concerts usually get, unfortunately they don't usually translate to greater ticket sales for classical concerts. This hardly means that they are a strategic failure, though, since the orchestra not only gets plenty of pops revenue but also strengthens its role in its community, which ultimately leads to greater political and financial support during trying economic times ("in THIS economy..."). Just goes to show that orchestras can better navigate the waters by setting missions and goals outside the traditional classical spectrum.
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