Thibaudet, Philadelphia Orchestra/Dutoit

NCH, Dublin

Sibelius – Finlandia. Ravel – Piano Concerto in G.Rachmaninov – Symphonic Dances. Ravel – La valse.

The Philadelphia Orchestra’s National Concert Hall debut last week was an occasion that seemed to be designed to demonstrate what wonderful sounds an orchestra can make.

That's not intended to be a criticism of any of the other great orchestras that have visited the hall. But, under their chief conductor, Charles Dutoit, the Philadelphians' music-making had a consistent aura of unusual sensuality. In part, of course, it was to do with the choice of music. Yes, the glower of the brass at the opening of Sibelius's stirring Finlandiaseemed slightly tempered, but neither the excitement nor the balm which followed were compromised by the effect.

The evening’s planned soloist, violinist Janine Jansen, had to withdraw due to illness. Her place was taken by Jean-Yves Thibaudet, whose playing had an effervescent sparkle in the outer movements of Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G, and who brought an exceptional poise and balance to the poignant slow movement.

Rachmaninov's final orchestral work, the Symphonic Dancesof 1940, is an orgy of colour, its sometimes riotous energy undercut in the finale dance through one of the composer's favourite devices, a quotation from the Dies Irae.

The Philadelphia Orchestra's account, always pliable and full of full-on gorgeousness, was followed by Ravel's La valse, a ne plus ultraof waltzing indulgence, which Dutoit and his players unfurled with a sense of intoxicating excess, as if they were releasing a perfume so heady and so potent it could obliterate any other sensory experience.

The audience's rapturous response was rewarded with two encores, Sibelius's languid Valse triste, and Glinka's Russlan and LudmillaOverture, a display of overt virtuosity, which, for the first time in the evening, gave the sense of the musicians actually showing off.