Sure, the early returns suggest that the Minnesota Orchestra's new music director, Thomas Søndergård, has quickly developed strong chemistry with the ensemble and has interesting interpretive ideas for some powerful pieces. But can he throw a party?

New Year's Eve offered his first opportunity to do so at Orchestra Hall, and the short answer is yes. A sellout crowd was treated to a program that only challenged them to a modest degree, the tone of the concert focused upon frivolity and familiarity. (Søndergård and the orchestra will return with the program at 2 p.m. Monday.)

Not that there wasn't some outstanding musicianship being offered. When you have a virtuoso pianist like Stephen Hough as the featured soloist, you know that you're going to get a first-rate performance. His take on Sergei Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini" was something much deeper than merely the flamboyant theatrical showpiece it can be in many a pianist's hands. It was a probing exploration of this set of variations, a schmaltz-free excursion more concerned with evoking emotions than wowing with pianistic prowess, though it also did that.

Yet when you start an all-Russian program with Sergei Prokofiev's "Winter Bonfire" suite — a Soviet state-sanctioned throwback to the romantic era that was composed in 1949 — and cap the holiday season with a perfectly fine rendition of selections from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker," it's natural that the Rachmaninoff should be the standout, for it was the only musical guest that had anything serious to say.

That is unless you stare a little more deeply into Prokofiev's "Winter Bonfire" and conclude that it's a cry for help from a brilliant composer who was creating Soviet-friendly fluff in order to keep himself and his family alive amid Joseph Stalin's purges. While it's a rather simplistic piece, the Minnesota Orchestra still gave it some deliciously rich string textures.

But the best reason to hit this party was the Rachmaninoff Rhapsody. Søndergård and Hough emphasized a fluid flow, eschewing the episodic feel it commonly holds in favor of a cohesive narrative. The quietest passages were ultra-soft, making the ensuing eruptions all the more dramatic.

And anytime Hough delivered an unaccompanied solo, it was captivating. His encore of a Chopin Nocturne proved the ideal year-end reflection before we got back to the party.

There's a good chance you heard a recording or two of music from Tchaikovsky's ballet, "The Nutcracker," over the holiday season — but when was the last time you heard it played in concert by a really fine symphony orchestra? As you might expect with such an audience favorite, Søndergård didn't ask for anything out of the ordinary. But it was refreshingly crisp, and the conductor gracefully guided the waltzes as if leading the orchestra like a dance partner.

At evening's end, he brought a taste of his home base of Copenhagen, Denmark, with the song at the center of that city's New Year's celebrations: Hans Christian Lumbye's "Champagne Galop," complete with corks and foam bursting from bottles back in the percussion section.

Leave it to a former percussionist like Søndergård to let that section of the orchestra dip into the bubbly before anyone else.

Rob Hubbard is a Twin Cities classical music writer. Reach him at wordhub@yahoo.com.

Minnesota Orchestra

What: Works by Sergei Prokofiev, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Peter Tchaikovsky by conductor Thomas Søndergård, pianist Stephen Hough and Angelica Cantanti Youth Choirs.

When: 2 p.m. Monday, Orchestra Hall, 1111 Nicollet Mall, Mpls.

Tickets: $85-$115. 612-371-5656, minnesotaorchestra.org