The "Planets" didn't just align last night at Heinz Hall: They formed a sonic coalition in a spectacular showing by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra under conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier.

If ever there was a concert to put to rest the misguided notion that classical music is background music, Gustav Holst's collection of tone poems, one each for the planets, is it. The martial opening movement, "Mars, the Bringer of War," is usually energetic, but under Tortelier, it smacked the audience with tremendous surges, and then sustained the energy with driving rhythms. With brass potency and percussive precision, the PSO rendered "Mars" music you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley.

How loud was it? You may be surprised to know that some classical musicians sometimes wear earplugs to cut down on the sound levels on stage. You can do this and still hear -- and the conductor is there to give the visual beat. But I have never seen so many PSO members putting fingers on their ears or popping in plugs.

With due respect to those musicians who were in the thick of it, I loved it. It's not every day you can feel the music as well as hear it, and the combination is one of the reasons you go to hear a live concert. Actually, this is not one of my favorite works to listen to at home, but live is another matter, especially when a conductor gets that it should be allowed to venture into the uncomfortable.

But the volume was not turned to 11 and left there. On the contrary, Mr. Tortelier masterfully guided the work throughout its many manifestations. "Venus, the Bringer of Peace" arrived with a softness built on flutes and strings, including yet another brilliant solo by Andres Cardenes, who is winding down his long career as the PSO's concertmaster. Officially everything he plays from here on out will arrive with a twinge of melancholy for me.

Diaphanous ribbons of sound undulated delicately throughout "Mercury, the Winged Messenger," while Mr. Tortelier strutted (almost like Charlie Chaplin) on the podium to coax the orchestra further in "Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity." This was the high point of the performance, with the epic themes and harmonies -- so influential in film music -- moved from section to section. The horns, all seven of them, were stout and the trumpets clean. The hoary trombone trio in "Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age" showed the deep talent in that section (principal trombonist Peter Sullivan was playing the rarely heard tenor tuba), and "Neptune the Mystic" ended with the women of the Mendelssohn Choir delivering wordless notes off stage with a touch of mystery.

It would be hard to imagine Holst's high level of orchestration without the earlier pioneering efforts of Hector Berlioz, whose "Harold in Italy," featuring principal violist Randolph Kelly, opened the concert. This skill in combining different instruments or assigning a certain melody to a particular instrument, is best heard live, too. Paired with horn, woodwinds and harp (played with a flair we are coming to know well by Heidi Gorton), Mr. Kelly's viola took on many guises.

Mr. Kelly played the work with a good deal of interiority. Speaking of volume, he is one who usually rings out, but at times the balance was off and he was swallowed by the orchestra. But a close listen was a rewarding one as the violist was crafting an interpretation that was reflective rather than bursting with bravado, bringing out nuance, color and texture rather than dazzle. The piece supports this, it was Berlioz's paean to his grand tour of Italy as much as it is about Lord Byron's "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage." But you don't always get such introspection from a performer. It allowed those combinations to come through, including a moment in the finale when some musicians from the back desks join him: cellist Michael Lipman and violinists Jennifer Orchard and Christopher Wu.

Program repeats at 8 tonight and 2:30 p.m. tomorrow.

Critics Andrew Druckenbrod and Scott Mervis talk about music on "The Beat," available exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.