Russian orchestra makes a booming debut

The blizzard-like conditions on Friday did not prevent the National Philharmonic of Russia from showing up for its Symphony Hall performance, nor did the weather seem to daunt the many Russian speakers in the audience, presumably no strangers to March snowstorms.

The orchestra, whose Boston debut was presented by Bank of America Celebrity Series, was founded as recently as 2003 under more stormy skies than the group's official biography suggests. The violinist-conductor Vladimir Spivakov formerly led the privately funded Russian National Orchestra. The relationship went public ly sour, and Spivakov resigned in 2002, but by January of the next year, a new state-funded orchestra had been created for him. He took some of his former musicians with him and originally gave the group a curiously similar name (it was the Russian National Philharmonic Orchestra until the RNO complained).

Friday's program was built around two much-loved Russian warhorses: Tchaikovsky's "Pathetique" Symphony and Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2. As a curtain-raiser, the group brought the fizzy "Festive Overture," a lightweight work by Shostakovich hastily composed for a concert honoring the anniversary of the Russian Revolution. One couldn't help noticing that the orchestra bills itself as "a cultural ambassador for post-reconstruction Russia," but did not present a single note of music written in the last 50 years.

The group's playing overall was pleasantly booming and extroverted, with aggressive brass and extremely spirited if roughly groomed strings. The Shostakovich bubbled and popped in all the right places, and the Tchaikovsky brimmed, if not with pathos, then with visceral orchestral excitement, though it was marred by some wayward passages in the winds and brass. Spivakov's resume earns him more authority as a violinist than as a conductor, and this program offered little evidence on which to revise that opinion, but it hit the major bases and was very enthusiastically received.

Van Cliburn competition winner Olga Kern was the piano soloist in the Rachmaninoff, showcasing her brilliant technique and delivering an impressively fluid performance. To this listener at least, her swooning, melodramatic physical gestures proved a distraction in the Rachmaninoff C-sharp Minor Prelude she played as the first of two encores. The second was Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee."

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