If you were a concert pianist, would you bother learning Tchaikovsky's Second Piano Concerto?

Probably not. The piece is routinely ignored by concert programmers who think audiences only want to hear Tchaikovsky's First Concerto, with its famous exploding-octaves opening and sugar-candy slow movement.

The Second Concerto is a more sprawling proposition, with little of the cogency of the First. Yet in Friday's Minnesota Orchestra concert the Second Concerto bucked and reared in a manner suggesting that audiences should be hearing the piece more often.

That was due mainly to Boston-based soloist Kyle Orth, a grand prize winner at the Friends of the Minnesota Orchestra Young Artist Competition two years ago.

Orth made a sparkling impression in his Orchestra Hall debut. In the opening movement, his playing was infectiously bouncy and the piano tone gleamed.

Concertmaster Erin Keefe and principal cello Anthony Ross had major solos in the middle movement, both impressing with their soulful, ardent contributions.

Unbuttoned enthusiasm defined Orth's approach to the finale. He is not a large man, but power lurks within his fingers. The cascading coda was thrillingly visceral, and capped Orth's advocacy for a concerto that is certainly underplayed, and probably underrated.

The evening had started with a swaggering account of Tchaikovsky's Capriccio Italien, cunningly shaped by conductor Osmo Vänskä to keep the biggest splash for the end.

Vänskä's strategic patience — his ability to hold energy in reserve for when it's truly needed — played a big part in the performance of Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony that followed the intermission.

The flaring fanfares of the Fourth's opening movement are a red rag to bullish interpreters. Too often they attract brash, overheated responses.

Vänskä's view was considerably more nuanced. The fanfares excited, yes, but what came between them seemed more consequential than usual. The jittery melodic theme was more insidious.

Vänskä's micro-tweaks to tempo in the doleful Andantino eked emotional subtleties from a movement which can sometimes seem a merely pleasant interlude. The bassoon solo had a seductive melancholy, and there was deliciously sensual phrasing from the cellos.

The finale sizzled and fulminated, as it should. Again, though, Vänskä kept the best to last. The final, frantic peroration had the teetering desperation of the onlooker happy at other people's happiness, yet ultimately excluded from joining their company.

Four more concerts are scheduled this week in the Minnesota Orchestra's New Year "Tchaikovsky Marathon." Based on Friday's showing, any one of them would be eminently worth attending.

Terry Blain is a freelance classical music critic for the Star Tribune. Reach him at artsblain@gmail.com.