Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg with the Philadelphia Orchestra

The orchestra and its visiting leader infused the program of well-known pieces with freshness, invention, and fire. While The Planets was sometimes deafening (I had to move from my seat next to the organ pipes to a more decibel-friendly location), it never lacked intelligence, subtlety, and clear vision. The more delicate planets — Venus, Mercury, parts of Uranus — shone with inner radiance. The little lights in the Kimmel Center ceiling seemed to twinkle responsively.

There is something unearthly about the last section, Neptune, the Mystic, regardless of its technical groundedness and originality (five beats to the measure, orchestra in C major with two offstage female choruses chiming in in E major). Noseda conjured this strange music into a hypnotic web of sound. I wish the orchestra had abandoned itself to the little comment written at the bottom of the score by Holst in reference to the last sustained note: “This bar to be repeated until the sound is lost in the distance.” For my taste, it could have lingered another 15 seconds, fading softly, dissolving gradually into silence, taking us into another world.

Beam us up, Nadja

In the first half of the concert, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg seemed to reinvent the familiar music of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. The outer space theme was evident here as well: dressed in hipster black casual, Noseda and Salerno-Sonnenberg could well be messengers on a mission from Star Trek II. I can’t imagine how many times she has played this concerto, but she and the orchestra brought us a bright, radiant rendition, with remarkable understanding of Mendelssohn’s depth. The world is ready to revisit Mendelssohn, not simply as the charmer of fairy tunes, but as a serious composer with a profound vision. Salerno-Sonnenberg’s cadenzas were like sparklers, bright with fire, and her interpretation throughout lifted the hearts of an audience up to the challenge of a relentlessly passionate program.

The concert opened with Respighi’s setting of Renaissance lute tunes familiar to many, in an extraordinary reading. Noseda took this work seriously and spun an incredible musical feast. The reduced size of the string section, set against a solid representation of brass and woodwinds, resulted in a lively, colorful balance that was engaging and enlivening. Very fresh stuff, and, all in all, a near-perfect way to spend an early spring afternoon.