Heras-Casado leads provocative Symphony feast

Pablo Heras-Casado has been serving up fascinating musical banquets with the San Francisco Symphony since the young Spanish conductor made his debut with the orchestra in Davies Symphony Hall six years ago.

Works by Rameau and Haydn completed this bill, and the sumptuous performances by a slightly reduced orchestra were eloquent enough to quell temporarily the period vs modern instrument debate that still rages in some quarters.

The Biber is a programmatic suite about a battle, and its sad aftermath; yet within its 12 minutes, we encounter polytonality, tone clusters, the insertion of paper in string instruments and the striking of fiddles by bows.

Biber, a master violinist, infused the piece with battle sounds, popular songs, simulated drumming and a mournful elegy for the losers.

Argentine-born pianist Ingrid Fliter brought fluency and a steely technique to this gem of the composer’s Esterházy years.

The evening’s one misfire was the opener, Heras-Casado’s own arrangement of a four-part orchestral suite from Rameau’s 1748 “Acte de Ballet,” “Pygmalion.”