By Janelle Gelfand
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Robert Spano has a way of finding the drama and passion in every note, and of inspiring orchestras to thrilling heights. Saturday's concert with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra was no different, when the brilliantly gifted Ohio-born conductor led a well-matched program of Sibelius, Elgar and Rachmaninoff.

Mr. Spano, who is music director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, has distinguished himself as a staunch advocate of 20th-century music. Even though Rachmaninoff's lush Symphonic Dances, which concluded program, look more to the romantics than to contemporary times (it was written in 1940), Mr. Spano captured its sonic and emotional richness, while bringing out details of rhythm, meter and harmony that point to the future.

For sheer imagination, one would be hard-pressed to find a more enticing performance of this orchestral gem. But the CSO musicians went a step further, playing with spontaneity, musicality and precision of ensemble that brought the audience to its feet for a second time on Saturday.

Mr. Spano was masterful at interpreting Rachmaninoff's long-breathed phrases, and the strings responded with exceptional color. The first movement's interlude for winds and alto saxophone (James Bunte) was an example of sunniness tinged with Russian melancholy. The second movement's halting waltz, with its lyrical violin solo by first assistant concertmaster Sylvia Samis, was scintillating, and Mr. Spano's pacing was natural, well-judged and always interesting. His players performed the finale's tricky syncopations with utter clarity.

Mr. Spano, an excitingly visual conductor, inspired a range of dynamics, as he threw his whole body into each musical expression. Despite impressive buildups, the brass was well-mannered and never overplayed, the winds sparkled and the strings played like silk.

Equally impressive was the CSO debut of British cellist Steven Isserlis, in Elgar's Concerto in E Minor. Mr. Isserlis is an artist of considerable interpretive powers and flawless technique. He delivered a persuasive, deeply involving performance, often throwing back his Art Garfunkel-like mop of hair, swaying in his chair, and even, in the brilliant finale, lifting his feet as he tore away at the music's virtuosities.

He played with enormous beauty and tenderness; indeed, this was the most intimate and introspective reading of Elgar I have ever heard. His Feuermann Stradivarius was strung with gut strings, which failed to project well in Music Hall's vast spaces, even though Mr. Spano reduced the orchestra and kept a perfect balance.

The cellist seemed to float through, performing the first movement with tenderness, and executing the scherzo with featherweight articulation. His tone was pure and sweet in the Adagio, where his depth of expression seemed to come from somewhere deep in his soul.

The audience's ovations resulted in a jazzy pizzicato encore from his CD, Cello World: "Chonguri," by Georgian composer Sulkhan Tsintsadze.

Mr. Spano opened with a rare performance of Sibelius' Oceanides, an atmospheric, Debussy-like tone poem written in 1914 for a Connecticut festival. The conductor went for transparent textures, wonderfully balancing its scintillating waves of sound with deeper colors in trombones and timpani.

E-mail jgelfand@enquirer.com