One of those oft-repeated sayings that has no doubt been "myth-busted" is that we only use 10 percent or so of our brains. But there's a certain amount of legitimacy when you apply that thinking to classical music. In my experience, even good performances rarely reach full potential.

It's a measure of just how difficult it is to make notes on a page truly express the excitement and joy that were present in the pen of the composer. Even the stellar Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and its generally high level of conductors will not muster everything a work has within it.

But it does happen, especially when a maestro is conducting a work for which he has great feeling. That was the case yesterday when Manfred Honeck took to the podium at Heinz Hall. I still can hardly believe the passion displayed in the matinee concert.

Yes, the matinee. Half the time my body itself is working at 10 percent at these concerts, fending off post-lunch nods (OK, that's an exaggeration). But not this time. The concert, with Honeck's "old German" seating (violins split across the stage), opened with the subject of life and death in visceral terms: Richard Strauss' "Tod und Verklarung (Death and Transfiguration)."

The Austrian Honeck might as well be Georg Hegel on the podium, so much does he bring out the dialectical struggle of a work. In the tone poem, Honeck brilliantly accentuated the persistence of the disease that will kill the protagonist. Many performances will downplay the horns and brass when the hero reminiscences about his past, but for Honeck the throes of death dominated with a "roughed-up" texture. Abrasive phrases in the winds were pushed forward and then pulled back; whatever section of the orchestra was accompanying main themes threatened to devour them.

It was unsettling and, frankly, as it passed I questioned it, especially as things opened with a serene flute solo by Damian Bursill-Hall and sweet playing by concertmaster Andres Cardenes in his main-stage return from surgery. Surely Honeck's direction offered too much drama even for a conductor who has made dramatizing music his raison d'etre.

But when the hero dies and his soul passes on, represented by Strauss' supernal theme laid down so carefully by the brass, I was emotionally spent. The struggle prior created tension in me that unwittingly sought out the release that Strauss and Honeck provided in the final bars.

Following that was tough timing for a Mozart piano concerto, even if it was the tragic trappings of No. 24, and even if our beloved Yefim Bronfman was on the bench. It was well-played -- in particular Bronfman carved the second movement out of one block of pure musical beauty -- but not the sort of edge-of-one's-seat performance I have heard from him or from many performances of the concerto.

But that drama returned as Honeck threw down the gauntlet for the beginning of his Beethoven symphony cycle with the Seventh. Actually, it was more like the Seventh, such was the vigor and energy that Honeck called for in every measure, from potent orchestra hits of the introduction to the rousing gallop to the end. Honeck likes to treat themes with more energy when they are in transition from their first statement, as a way of enhancing the tension and no composer obliges more than Beethoven. The first movement found Honeck miming a pulling motion to get even more from the thrusting PSO. The main theme, first articulated sensitively by flutist Rhian Kenny, finished with husky horns and the hard-mallet wielding timpanist -- make that kettledrum player -- Timothy Adams.

Spectacularly launched, the famous theme-and-variation movement followed. Never rushing the grace notes, Honeck built the variations layer by layer until an epic sound arrived with the first violins taking the theme. The Scherzo was a bit fast and occasionally the violin sections were not completely together, but a wonderful and soft crafting by the clarinets in the Trio gave us one last bit of breathing room before Honeck turned his baton into a whip and rode the group unrelentingly to the glorious end.

Note: Two pieces from this program -- Beethoven's Seventh Symphony and Strauss' "Death and Transfiguration" -- will be performed during the PSO's upcoming Asian tour.