The playing was tight but not always as clean or vibrant as one might have expected (travel fatigue?). In Glinka’s Ruslan and Ludmila Overture, the brass found it easy to drown the woodwinds, sometimes the strings too, a problem that continued to arise occasionally throughout the evening. But inelegant playing could strike from any section at any given time, and any harshness was exacerbated by the intimacy of the setting and the lack of warming acoustic blend.

Guest conductor Patrick Summers, music director of Houston Grand Opera, was detailed and authoritative at the helm, even after he accidentally flung his baton into the hall during the Tchaikovsky. Though there was not a strong stamp of interpretation from the podium, tempos for Dvorak’s Eighth Symphony were intelligently seasoned, and Summers found the right bucolic flavor for its carefree Adagio. Still, ends of movements were often clipped and abrupt, and in the slow bit before the symphony’s final bars, the tension of line nearly collapsed. The opening of the Tchaikovsky was marked by surprising lack of finesse and the finale was loud and fast. Two numbers from Tchaikovsky’s music for The Snow Maiden — “Melodrama” and “Dance of the Tumblers” — made tidy encores, the first a doleful song for strings, the second a virtuosic romp.

To reach Paul Horsley, performing arts editor, send email to phorsley@sbcglobal.net.