Performing Arts

What's with Dallas Symphony Orchestra audiences? Whatever's on the second half of the program, the crowd noticeably thins at intermission.

Those who left Thursday missed a gripping, lovingly detailed performance of Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony. Guest conductor JoAnn Falletta, music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic, brought a wonderfully organic feeling for both structure and phrase, and a readiness to let the music expand and contract as appropriate.

The exciting music was electrifying, brasses blazing through, the finale finely balanced between manic and desperate. But even here climactic moments were strategically timed and proportioned.

Dr. Falletta – her doctorate in conducting is from the Juilliard School – brought a delicious feeling of spontaneity to the first movement's strangely shuddering main theme. The slow movement's ornamented reprise was contrasted with daring rubato. To these ears, the scherzo was a bit too fast, but the DSO strings plucked fastidiously.

The orchestra played fabulously throughout, with particularly eloquent cameos from Erin Hannigan (oboe), Gregory Raden (clarinet), Jean Larson Garver (flute), Wilfred Roberts (bassoon) and Gregory Hustis (horn).

The DSO hadn't touched the Miklós Rózsa Violin Concerto since premiering and recording it 52 years earlier – with Jascha Heifetz, no less. Remembered mainly for scores to films including Ben-Hur, King of Kings and El Cid, the Hungarian-born Rózsa was also a well-trained classical composer. If not as great as comparable violin concertos by Barber and Korngold, his essay mixes dazzling virtuosity, earthy excitement and soaring tunefulness.

Violinist Robert McDuffie supplied brilliance and power aplenty, and glowing lyricism. But one could wish for a bit less grunt and grain in the flashy parts, and more of Heifetz's supercooled gleam. And while the orchestra gave a generally good account of itself, it didn't quite keep up with Mr. McDuffie's most excitable moments.

Copland's Billy the Kid Suite was presented with big triple-screen projections of James Westwater's photographs of the American West. Purple mountains' majesty was there, as were amber waves of grain, cattle roundups and a homey meal. The musical performance had a properly balletic grace, apart from fortissimos too near the threshold of pain.

PLAN YOUR LIFE Repeats at 8 p.m. today and Saturday, and 2:30 p.m. Sunday at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, 2301 Flora. $17 to $108. 214-692-0203, www.dallassymphony.com.

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