Just as many public fireworks displays end with skyrockets being shot into the night in rapid-fire order, so did French composer Hector Berlioz's "Symphonie Fantastique" fill the Zeiterion Performing Arts Center Saturday night with a burst of glorious sound marking the finale of the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra's 2005-2006 concert season.

And what a closing concert it was, with a little Beethoven, a lot of Berlioz, and in between a magnificent violin concerto.

Bringing Erich Korngold's Violin Concerto in D Major to brilliant life was 23-year-old Japanese violinist Jun Iwasaki, who has accomplished more in his young life so far than most of us do in a lifetime. Playing the violin since he was 6, he was chosen for intensive training for the year 2005-2006 to be a concertmaster for a major symphony orchestra. He's already had some experience in that line: After moving to Dallas, Texas, in 1995, he served as concertmaster of the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra until 2000.

His Saturday night performance with the NBSO was nothing less than spectacular. Mr. Iwasaki played the three movements of Korngold's concerto with obvious passion and during the second movement seemed determined to show the tonal variety that can come from a violin when it is treated with the extreme delicacy with which he handled his beautiful instrument. It's a sure bet we haven't heard the last of Jun Iwasaki, and hope he returns to play for us again.    

Throughout his performance Saturday night, and, indeed, throughout the entire concert, guest conductor Dr. David MacKenzie kept the talented musicians who are the NBSO under his tight control, even in those bombastic moments during the Berlioz "Symphonie Fantastique" when every section of the orchestra seemed to let loose with its full sound. An impressive aspect of this strenuous five-movement workout was the featuring of the harp (played by Sarah Manning) which dosen't stand out very often as sort of a brief solo of its own. It was nice to hear as were the extended flute passages in Beethoven's "Creatures of Prometheus" and in the Berlioz "Symphonie" later on.

In the audience Saturday night was a group of students from Community Musicworks of Providence, R.I. NBSO concertmaster Jesse Holstein is heavily involved in this program training young music students in their artistry, as NBSO president Thomas W. Hallam II explained, to bring them along and let them see what they can become in the world of classical music.

As I viewed from the last row in the Zeiterion the entire NBSO arranged so picture-perfectly on the stage, I thought what a shame it is that this orchestra doesn't tour to let music lovers outside of the SouthCoast see and hear what we have.