It's always a little amazing how the Rhode Island Philharmonic can sit down after not playing together all summer, save for a pops concert or two, and knock one out of the park. But that's pretty much what happened Saturday night when the orchestra kicked off its season at Veterans Memorial Auditorium.

The sunny Second Symphony of Brahms ended with a diriving, orgiastic finale, and the playing in the opening School for Scandal Overture of Barber was sharp-edged and right in focus. Then there was a wonderful performace of the Thirid Beethoven Concerto with the remarkable Russian-born, German-based pianist Lilya Zilberstein at the keyboard.

Zilberstein, who has played here several times now, is getting to be a welcomed guest, she played with such control and conviction. She is perhaps best known for her Russian repertoire, for her Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev, so it was kind of interesting to see what she would do with the Beethoven, a work that dates from 1800 and is a product of the Classical age, but with one foot testing the waters of the Romantic period.

As expected there were Romantic leanings in the gorgeous slow movement. How could you play it any other way? But otherwise this was a taut, focused reading with crisp passagework and lovely melodic lines.

Among the magical moments was that breathtaking return of the orchestra after the thundering cadenza. Rachleff let the players sneak in ever so judiciously after a series of trills. Then Zilberstein joined in with rippling arpeggios.

Rachleff opened the night with the Barber, a brilliant work even though it's the composer's first score for orchestra, written when he was 21. The control here was remarkable, even in ticklish passages. And there was a wonderful sense of poignancy to that soaring secondary theme.

Rachleff took time out to talk a little about the program and to remember Nedo Pandolfi, the legendary music teacher at Ponaganset High who died this week. He dedicated the Brahms to him.

And that was the high point of the night. Rachleff took his time with the opening, but picked up the pace as the movement proper kicked in. It was a warm expansive reading, but one with plenty of tension and forward movement.

And no where was that more evident that in the joyous, exuberant finale. This was some of finest playing I've heard from the orchestra in a while.