A Shostakovich chestnut? The Fifth Symphony returns.

Pianist Garrick Ohlsson performs with the Boston Symphony Orchestra last night under the direction of Daniele Gatti. (michael j. lutch)

All composers have their greatest hits, even - once enough time has passed - those who toiled in the dangerous and ideologically charged atmosphere of Stalin's Russia. Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony is by far the composer's most popular orchestral work, performed so often, as with all classical greatest hits, that it risks becoming domesticated. Last night it was played by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the baton of guest conductor Daniele Gatti.

Behind the work's ubiquity lies the now legendary story of its birth. The composer had been perilously condemned for writing "muddle instead of music," and forced to shelve his Fourth Symphony before its premiere. The Fifth was set to demonstrate beyond a doubt that he had grasped the error of his avant-garde ways. But the fabled Leningrad premiere seemed to touch deeper chords. There were reports of audience members weeping in the aisle during the slow movement, and of an ovation that lasted more than half an hour. Some even heard a fierce irony or stubborn defiance between the notes of its triumphant finale. It was the birth of what the scholar Richard Taruskin has labeled Shostakovich's "doubleness," the ability for his music to embody different - often contradictory - messages, depending on the ears of the beholder.

Regardless of what exactly this music is trying to say, the best Shostakovich performances still convey a certain heightened urgency of expression. Such was the case a few weeks ago, when Mark Elder led the BSO in a spellbinding performance of the Fourth Symphony.

Despite the often brilliant playing of the orchestra last night, the same could not be said of Gatti's interpretation of the Fifth. The first movement had a strangely episodic and dissociated feel: woodwind solos were often devoid of mystery, the brass playing was short on menace, and the unison passage at the movement's climax was less precise than it should have been. And even though the orchestra produced a marvelous pianissimo sound, the movement's close still failed to dispatch the customary shiver down the spine. It was not until the work's finale that this performance really hit its stride, and even then, Gatti's tempo manipulations were a tough sell. That said, I was clearly in the minority here, as the audience was quickly on its feet cheering.

On the first half of the program, Garrick Ohlsson gave a fluid and eloquent account of Schumann's Piano Concerto, full of playing that was beautifully clear, by turns lithe and muscular, and rhythmically incisive. The pianist has appeared to be on an all-Beethoven diet in recent years, so it was a pleasure to hear him branching out, albeit modestly.

Following the Shostakovich, the BSO took time to acknowledge three players that will retire at the end of the Tanglewood season: Peter Chapman, trumpet; Daniel Katzen, horn; and Ronald Barron, trombone. (Norman Bolter, trombone; and Jerome Patterson, cello, retired earlier in the season.) It was not clear why this particular week was chosen to honor the three players, in the presence of a guest conductor, but there it was. All three retirees were given multiple bows from the podium. They devoted a combined 91 years of service to the orchestra. A large audience in Symphony Hall made its appreciation known.

Jeremy Eichler can be reached at jeichler@globe.com.