On paper, Thursday looked a bit middle-weight, with seldom-heard Dvorak symphonic poems plus early Enescu and unfinished Bartok. It turned out to be one of Milanov's best Philadelphia Orchestra concerts.

Some consider these late-Dvorak works - The Wood Dove (sometimes titled The Wild Dove) and The Golden Spinning Wheel - to be the summit of the composer's symphonic output. The ultra-descriptive works aren't the easiest to sell: With storytelling their top priority - rather than letting some spirited tune run wild off its leash - they require road-map listening.

Though Simon Rattle has reverted to using supertitles for such stories in sound, Milanov talked the audience through the musical events. His refrain - "You can't miss it!" - wasn't entirely true. Because Milanov also approaches these works as economically composed entities, his performance left me following the thematic transformations rather than figuring out, in Dvorak's fairy-tale plot, which of the virtuous stepsisters is being dismembered in the forest.

The Philadelphia Orchestra is ideal for Dvorak, and these pieces especially. All sections are in fine shape, and the composer exercises each of them in his typically full-bodied colors. Listeners with any curiosity about this repertoire shouldn't miss these fully realized performances. Those without such curiosities will have a good time anyway.

Another surprise was Enescu's Romanian Rhapsody - not the A-major one that's borderline pops-concert fare, but the second, D-major rhapsody that begins with a patriotic-sounding hymn, then launches into mysterious, fearless harmonic adventures that look decades ahead to his great Oedipus opera. I've heard Milanov conduct Beethoven's Fifth with great conviction, but this performance went beyond that. It had to - any piece that has a cute fiddle tune near the end needs purposeful context if it's not to come off as tourist music.

The Bartok Viola Concerto played strangely in this company. It was pretty much complete in his mind when he put it aside in 1945 to write his Piano Concerto No. 3 - and then died of leukemia. Assembling the Viola Concerto from his notes was a nightmare, and though Bartok's towering personality is palpable, there's a nagging sense that the piece isn't all there.

Milanov gave more care to the orchestral portion than I've ever heard, with each section taking on its own defining color. Choong-Jin Chang arose from the ranks of the Philadelphia Orchestra for the solo spotlight, and though he was up to the piece's steep technical demands - and delivered real inspiration in the final movement - the rest was a bit workmanlike.