CARDIFF, Wales -- Not even Mick Jagger & Co. could derail the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

The PSO pulled into this spacious, modern city to find it was not the concert that night. The Rolling Stones were playing the Millennium Stadium, while the PSO performed at Neuadd Dewi Sant.

What, you say? That's Welsh for St. David's Hall. Even though its estimated that about 80 percent of the population of Wales do not speak the ancient tongue, it is a healthy language kept alive with pride and protected by the government. Every official sign is written in both English and Welsh.

Though the town was abuzz with the Stones concert, the PSO's event also was a big one. And even though the group was tired from its day of traveling from Dublin, it put on a compelling show.

Opened in 1982, St. David's Hall is a mass of twisted architecture, complete with asymmetrical design, a horrid lighting scaffold and a poorly designed lounging area that feels like a bunker. The auditorium reminds one of London's Barbican Center, except for one crucial point: The acoustics here are marvelous.

A creamy middle range was surrounded by pristine highs and lows. The PSO under Leonard Slatkin sounded absolutely brilliant in a concert of Strauss' "Till Eulenspiegel," Shostakovich's Symphony No. 9, Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" and Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from "West Side Story." The ensemble was superb throughout, and the timbre of the orchestra, top to bottom, was marvelous.

In the Gershwin, PSO trumpeter Charles Lirette channeled jazzmen of the past with several hot and inflected solos. But Irish pianist Barry Douglas was once again a stylistic nightmare, playing without sense of the blues and jazz. To make matters worse, he also had trouble hitting some of the notes. A perfect concert would have involved him taking it slower and feeling the groove.

But you can't always get what you want.

On tour

The Cardiff concert marked PSO keyboardist Patricia Prattis Jennings' final appearance with the orchestra. In 1956, a 14-year-old Jennings became the first African-American woman to perform with the PSO in a concert that featured her in Mozart's "Coronation" Piano Concerto. In 1966, the Pittsburgh native joined the PSO full time. She is one of the six orchestra retirees leaving at the end of this tour.

"I don't feel like I'm retiring from the symphony, but that I'm graduating," she said backstage immediately after having played in Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from "West Side Story."

PSO piccolo player Rhian Kenny is of Welsh decent. If you can't tell from her name, you can certainly tell from her children's: Lyndis, 10, Carys, 5, and Glenys, 2. She was already looking forward to the PSO's first trip to Wales and brought her children along (their father and her husband, Jack Howell, couldn't make the tour). But the trip was further sweetened by the fact that Kenny's grandmother, Iris Smith, lives near Cardiff and was able to attend the concert.

"We don't see her that often," says Kenny. "That's why the kids are on this trip."

Kenny's mother, Ceril Kenny, and sister, Andrea Ochitwa, also traveled to Cardiff. After soloing extensively in Shostakovich's Symphony No. 9, Kenny went into the audience to give her grandmother a hug.

"Wonderful, simply wonderful," exclaimed Smith.

The PSO concert at the BBC Proms tonight can be heard live at 2:30 p.m. Pittsburgh time at www.bbc.co.uk/proms, and the performance will be archived for on-demand listening through the following week.