Classical music takes its shoes off and puts its feet up this month with the sounds of Prague Autumn, now in its 16th year. That characterization may seem odd for a festival focusing on Russian heavyweight Dmitri Shostakovich, whose 100th birthday (Sept. 25) is being observed with a program that includes his arrangement of Mussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death. But the balance of this year's festival leans toward lighter fare, with some unusual pairings and an interesting emphasis on film scores.

Prague Autumn Director Pavel Špiroch says he wasn't looking to load up the programs with movie soundtracks. "We wanted to introduce some lesser-known pieces by Shostakovich," he says, "and also invite Carl Davis, who is a phenomenal arranger of Charlie Chaplin's original music and a very experienced conductor."

If you don't know Davis by name, you almost certainly do by the music he's written for films ranging from The French Lieutenant's Woman to Abel Gance's 1927 silent classic, Napoleon. Davis also worked with Paul McCartney on his 1991 Liverpool Oratorio. For his Prague appearance, Davis will be conducting the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra at the Congress Center (Sept. 23), providing musical accompaniment to Chaplin's City Lights, whose original score Davis reconstructed.

As for Shostakovich, the challenge in this anniversary year is to offer audiences something fresh — no small matter when Shostakovich's son Maxim is making regular appearances down the street at Obecní dům, conducting his father's symphonies. Špiroch's inventive answer was to dip into the not-inconsiderable music that Shostakovich wrote for films, usually as a way to stay alive when his Soviet oppressors shut down his serious composition work. But as anyone who heard his score at the Prague Proms screening of Battleship Potemkin earlier this summer can attest, Shostakovich was no slacker in his film scores, which are every bit as powerful as his better-known works.

Mozart presents similar difficulties in this anniversary year. Špiroch solved those with context one night, pairing the maestro with 20th-century composer Astor Piazzola (Sept. 17), and with a theme the following night: Mozart the Freemason, focusing on music that reflects or incorporates ideas from the fraternal organization that Mozart embraced.

Another theme night focuses on operettas (Sept. 15), and there's a fair amount of ballet music scattered throughout the festival. There are nights devoted entirely to Shostakovich (Sept. 19), Tchaikovsky (Sept. 20) and Beethoven (Sept. 24), and the usual Czech bookends: an all-Czech program the opening night (Sept. 12) played by a foreign orchestra, in this case the BBC Philharmonic, with Czech violin wizard Jaroslav Svěcený soloing on a Martinů concerto; and Dvořák's Cello Concerto in B Minor on closing night (Oct. 1), with cellist Mario Brunello doing the honors.

One of things audiences don't see is the incredible network of contacts that Prague Autumn has established through its radio broadcasts, which according to Špiroch are typically heard throughout the year in more than 25 countries around the world. But the results are plain to see in the number of radio symphonies on this year's roster. "It's enabled us to bring the BBC Philharmonic, the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra from Moscow, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and the MDR Symphony Orchestra from Leipzig, which is the oldest radio ensemble in Germany," Špiroch says. Cover subject Hĺkan Hardenberger, a Swedish trumpet player, solos on a Haydn concerto with the Danish orchestra Sept. 25.

Every year Prague Autumn offers a musical wild card in the form of a folk ensemble that treads the line between serious and popular music. Typically this is one of the most popular concerts in the series, and this year is no exception. "We invited World of Balalaika, a top-level Russian folklore orchestra, which sold out its concert," Špiroch says. "We had to add another concert in the afternoon, which also sold out."

In the end, that's been the key strength of Prague Autumn — the ability to identify music that audiences like, and attract good performers both locally and from abroad to play it. It may not be to every taste, but it certainly caters to a wider variety of tastes than most festivals. And the packed houses at most of the concerts speak for themselves.