Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky at the SF Symphony

After a month of seemingly endless Christmas concerts and acting as a soundtrack orchestra for movie showings of Jurassic Park and Home Alone, the San Francisco Symphony returned to its regular programming last weekend for an appreciative audience. It was a joy.

On Saturday evening, Davies Hall was almost completely full, possibly because local music critic Joshua Kosman had given the concert a rave review after its Thursday afternoon premiere.

I even noticed a gaggle of guys in a second tier box socializing, and thought it a brilliant idea. The acoustics and sightlines are surprisingly good up there, and the seats only cost $35.

The concert began with Moondog, a commissioned world premiere by composer Elizabeth Ogonek, above, that was a short, pleasant and evanescent evocation of the silvery orb creating mirror images from ice crystals (Ogonek was born in Minnesota).

This was followed by one of my favorite works by Sergei Prokoviev, his 1935 Violin Concerto No. 2. This piece contains all of Prokofiev's best qualities packed into 25 minutes: fabulous rhythmic propulsion, sincere lyricism, and a sarcastic, demonic wit all juggled together. The Canadian virtuoso James Ehnes gave a note-perfect performance along with two encores by Paganini and J.S. Bach for a rapturous audience.

The 37-year-old guest conductor, Elim Chan, did a fine job throughout, completing the program with a loud, hard-driving rendition of Tchaikovsky's 1872 Symphony No. 2. After the sophisticated Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky's symphony sounded sort of square and schlocky, but Chan and the orchestra gave such a heartfelt, committed performance that it did not matter. The final movement seemed to end with a catchy march tune at least a half dozen times before the finale, enough to create an earworm for the rest of the long weekend.