If the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's concert at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach, Fla., Monday was a possible prelude to a residency there, similar to the Cleveland Orchestra's at the Carnival Center in Miami, the PSO certainly impressed the critics. Yan Pascal Tortelier conducted the program of Berlioz, Rimsky-Korsakov and Saint-Saens.

"If this is courtship, the suitor is beguiling," wrote Jack Zink of the Sun-Sentinel. "There was plenty of orchestral strength and dash to unleash in the opening 'Roman Carnival' Overture by Berlioz, and in the second half for Rimsky-Korsakov's 'Scheherazade.'"

Joseph Youngblood wrote in the Palm Beach Daily News that, "this is a very disciplined orchestra, responsive to Tortelier's slightest motion ... the audience response was so intense that the orchestra presented two encores."

Smoliar squared

While Harold Smoliar played an important role with a salient English horn solo in the Berlioz overture, it was his daughter who made the most important performance for the Smoliar family Monday. Violinist Rachel Smoliar subbed in her first concert with the PSO . She has accompanied her father on orchestral tours before but never played in the group.

"She was beaming ear to ear," said Jim Barthen, PSO spokesman.

-- Andrew Druckenbrod, Post-Gazette classical music critic