Guest artists with the Honolulu Symphony normally perform just before intermission, then spend intermission greeting fans and giving out autographs. Just before Friday's concert, however, the Symphony announced a switch, so that the soloist opened the second half and greeted fans at the end of the concert.

The switch lent a different pacing, evening out the halves, intermingling the composers' styles in a new way, and shifting weight to create two foci, one in each half.

The focus of the second half was violinist Lara St. John performing Mozart's Concerto No. 5, nicknamed "Turkish" for its imitation of Middle Eastern music in the third movement.

On Friday, St. John leaned toward Mozart's more romantic side, concentrating on what she called its "pure" expression and seeming to live within the music, eyes closed as she played. "There's all sorts of mental states with Mozart. To me, it always kind of plays itself. It's perfect writing; it's great fun," she said.

St. John performed Mozart's remarkable second movement especially beautifully, her pianissimos transparent, and excelled in the vivacious third, receiving a warm reception.

The focus in the first half of the concert belonged to Stravinsky's "Firebird" suite (1919 version), a work that featured guest conductor Christoph Campestrini and the orchestra's musicians, individually and as a whole.

Campestrini was born in Vienna, but trained in the U.S., at Juilliard, Columbia and Yale: "I always knew, since I was a little boy, 5 years old, that I wanted to be a conductor." To that end, he studied broadly, including piano, composition, languages, philosophy and psychology.

Campestrini proved to be a charismatic, intense conductor. He demonstrated a clear understanding of the works and how he wanted them to sound, drawing a new sound, a new style really, from the Honolulu Symphony. Under his leadership, the orchestra sounded excellent — exacting, cohesive, committed.

A hallmark of Campestrini's sound was his dynamic control: "Pianissimo is very, very soft and fortissimo is very, very, very loud, and in between are 20, 30, 40 different levels."

Campestrini seems to have used all 40 levels Friday, from almost inaudible beginnings to crashing climaxes.

His vivid interpretation of the "Firebird" suite elicited numerous outstanding solos — note Susan McGinn's opening melody, Paul Barrett's bassoon solo, Scott Anderson's final notes rising into ether — as well as multiple enthusiastic curtain calls from the audience.

Campestrini proved equally skilled with the concert's bookends, Weber's "Invitation to the Dance" opening the concert and Ravel's ever-popular "Bolero" closing.

With "Invitation to the Dance," Campestrini captured the waltz's gemuetlichkeit, a peculiarly Viennese geniality. The first violins, led by concertmaster Iggy Jang, spun delicate lace, and Erica Peel added piccolo confection.

"Coming from Vienna, I believe that the waltz is not just a dance, but a way of life — the way you swing through life, with beats 2 and 3 always a bit lighter; there's always a sense of ambiguity; it's lightness with a bit of melancholy. I find that very appealing."

"Invitation to the Dance" begins and ends with a conversation between a gentleman (solo cello) and a lady (solo clarinet), but the climactic ending of the waltz in between so thrilled Friday's audience that they burst into applause before the final conversation.

"Bolero," featuring a variety of solos over Eric Shin's exacting and relentless snare drum, built slowly, carefully through one long crescendo into a raucous climax. Campestrini's pacing on Friday was near perfect, tracing the ballet music's gradual shift from sensual, to sexual, to violent, evoking a standing ovation.