Classical music belongs at The Festival at Sandpoint. At least Sunday's big, enthusiastic audience at Memorial Field seemed to think so as it whooped, hollered and bravoed its approval.

The Spokane Symphony and conductor Gary Sheldon gave the audience what it wanted to hear -- namely, fresh-sounding performances of familiar classics by Dvorak, Grieg and Gershwin.

Taking their cue from from the weather on a beautiful, crisp summer evening, Sheldon and the orchestra players opened with a hearty performance of Dvorak's "Carnival" Overture. The gentle lyric section in the middle of the piece provided the orchestra's first-chair woodwinds a chance to shine, and shine they did.

Sandpoint's "find" for this concert, though, was 24-year-old pianist Roberto Plano. Winner of the 2001 Cleveland Competition, Plano showed that he could make the piano roar, sing and even dance.

Many musicians consider Grieg's Piano Concerto and Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" war horses that have been ridden into battle far too often. Before Sunday, I was among that group. But Plano and Sheldon showed why these works became so famous in the first place; they are full of beautiful melodies and interesting harmonic twists, and both teem with quick-changing moods.

Though Plano has the kind of technique that can set fire to Grieg's thunderous octave passages or Gershwin's rapid-fire repeated notes, he could also draw the ear into the quieter, songful sections. His rock-solid sense of rhythm gave a conversational flow to his playing, fast or slow. This is a guy to watch (and to listen for).

Sunday's performance of Gershwin's "Rhapsody" was Plano's first, so it was not so surprising that some of its jazzier elements still sounded more like the conservatory than the nightclub. But Plano's "proper" Gershwin did show just how well the composer knew the pianistic tricks of Liszt, Rachmaninoff and even Prokofiev. (Gershwin's cigar smoke and bootleg scotch will doubtless come later.)

Gershwin was first and foremost a song composer, and Sunday's concert showcased two Spokane singers, soprano Jonelyn Langenstein and baritone Kent Kimball, in three songs from "Porgy and Bess."

Langenstein, a Whitworth College student, sang "Summertime" with clarity and tenderness. And she joined Kimball in "Bess, You Is My Woman Now" in a way that skirted passion but never quite gave in to it. The two ended the set with a vibrant performance of "Oh Lord, I'm On My Way."

Sheldon ended the works on the printed program with Gershwin's tangy travelogue, "An American in Paris." Then he and the orchestra accompanied Sandpoint's traditional season-ending fireworks display with some orchestral pyrotechnics from Gershwin and Sousa -- a treat for the eye and the ear.

The place of classical music at Sandpoint has sometimes seemed in doubt in a festival increasingly dominated by rock, pop and country. That doubt seemed dispelled by Sunday's large and clearly elated Memorial Field audience.

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