By Kristen Peterson

Thu, Sep 27, 2007 (7:21 a.m.)

Who: Las Vegas Philharmonic with David Itkin, conductor

What: Masterworks I

When: 8 p.m. Saturday

Where: UNLV's Ham Hall

Tickets: $29-$73, 895-2787

David Itkin glances at his watch, looks at the stage, rubs his hands together. He arrived in Las Vegas the night before after conducting the season opener for the Abilene Philharmonic in Texas.

If he's tired, it doesn't show. He's eager, excited. It's his first official rehearsal with the Las Vegas Philharmonic since being selected music director in March.

Onstage , string musicians tune their instruments. Among themselves, they discuss timing in the Brahms piece, summer break and conductor notations.

"I want to hear how the first five minutes are," Itkin says from the fifth row in Artemus W. Ham Concert Hall as he watches the musicians get ready Monday. "After the first five minutes I'll know where we're headed this week. I'll have a good idea where we're sitting."

It's time. They begin by running through the last movement of Brahms' Second Symphony. The full-bodied, gorgeous melodies replace any mathematical conversation about notes, rests and crescendos.

The players are prepared. It's obvious. Later Itkin says he realized in the first minute and a half that the orchestra would sail through rehearsal.

Still, the evening ahead is tedious and focused as they concentrate on tricky spots, trills, errant tempo and the color of sound.

But once they get going, they're really going , and you suddenly feel ridiculously poetic, dancing over hilltops, cascading through valleys.

Itkin throws himself into it. He lunges toward the orchestra. His arms gouge the air.

The entire program Saturday promises to be as glorious. In addition to Brahms, there will be Berlioz's "Roman Carnival" and Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, which features guest artist Kiril Laskarove. The Bulgarian native is co-concertmaster of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, where Itkin has conducted for 14 years.

Itkin, who's also music director of the Abilene Philharmonic, says it will be a while before he truly understands the strengths and weaknesses of his new orchestra: "There are some that I remember from a year ago, but I'm going to be two to three concerts in, at least, before I feel I have a fair and general assessment."

The orchestra won him over, however, when he guest conducted in November. It managed to pull off Berlioz's "Overture to Beatrice and Benedict," Barber's Cello Concerto and Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony, none easy to scrape together, especially when the conductor and orchestra are meeting for the first time.

"They played fabulously at that concert," Itkin says.

The difficult music may have given Itkin a reputation as a sophisticate opting for challenging pieces, but for Saturday's season opener, he wanted "a more centrist program."

Moreover, he adds, "To start my life here I wanted us to be with old friends - Berlioz, Mendelsohn and Brahms."