The 22-year-old Cleveland native delivered a dynamite performance of Saint-Saens' Cello Concerto No. 1 with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Friday night. But she was just one of the highlights of the program led by Paavo Jarvi in Music Hall. The other was an equally fresh and spirited reading of Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 4, Italian.

Weilerstein is the daughter of two professional musicians, and it seems that music runs through her veins. A real firebrand, she tore into the opening cadenza of Saint-Saens' cello showpiece with a fierceness and passion that never let up.

Yes, she's a technical phenom - leaning back and swaying with her instrument as she navigated great flights of arpeggios, octave double-stops and other daredevil feats flawlessly. But she's also exceedingly musical; every note and phrase communicated a genuineness of expression, the kind that held the audience mesmerized from the first note to the last.

Her sound on her 18th-century William Forster cello was not large, nor was it the most golden - although, when she wanted, it could be meltingly beautiful. What made her playing so arresting was its chameleon-like character. She was glowingly old-style romantic in the charming "Allegretto," before digging gruffly into her cello's deepest notes and soaring to the finish line with spectacular fervor.

Though the orchestra never covered the soloist, it never quite matched her intensity. The audience wouldn't let her go until she'd played an encore: Bourree from J.S. Bach's Suite No. 3.

Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony is also youthful and fresh, inspired by a trip to Italy when the composer was 22. From the opening notes, the orchestra's performance had a joie de vivre that was infectious. The strings were glowing and had a fine ensemble; the wind phrasing was consistently inspired.

Jarvi's pacing was warm, and he drew both richness and fairy-like lightness from his players. There were many wonderful moments, such as the soaring lyricism of the "Andante," with its counter-melody superbly articulated in the basses; or Jarvi's passionate phrasing in the third movement, a minuet.

The presto finale was quicksilver, with fantastic pianissimos and dynamic outbursts that appeared as seamlessly as gusts of wind.

The concert opened with Kodaly's Dances of Galanta, a fun pastiche of Hungarian dances that turned the symphony into a band of gypsy virtuosos, especially principal clarinetist Richard Hawley.The musicians continue to "play and talk" during negotiations to renew their contract, which expired Sept. 5.

The concert repeats at 8 p.m. today. Tickets: 381-3300.

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E-mail jgelfand@enquirer.com