At ASO, guitarist Milos is dazzling heir to Segovia

In show business, it’s good to go by one name. You know… Madonna, Beck, Midori. And now we have Montenego native Milos, whose career as a classical guitarist has exploded in recent years. Yes, he’s good-looking and a snappy dresser. But under all the surface is a talent that overwhelms even the most skeptical listener.

Milos likes to tackle the most succulent works in guitar repertoire, but he does so with a restraint, almost a modesty, that reveals their inner beauty as if for the first time. Here he performed Joaquin Rodrigo’s “Fantasia para un gentilhombre.” Rodrigo, Spain’s most celebrated 20th Century composer, dedicated the concerto to guitarist Andrés Segovia and to Gaspar Sanz, legendary baroque guitarist and the source of the work’s musical themes. Hearing this performance, it’s possible to think of Milos as their worthy heir.

Milos plays with stunning clarity. In rapid passages he is as fleet as anyone alive. His bass sound is resonant and pure. His technique is rock-solid through the rich variety of passages in the “Fantasia.”

An inherent problem with a guitar concerto has to do with balance. The guitar, even in the hands of someone as fluent as Milos, simply doesn’t crank out the kind of volume to compete with an orchestra. This was resolved with amplification, always a scary science project in Symphony Hall. Milos did get covered by the stampede a few times. It’s just so difficult to precisely capture his sound at its most delicate, feathery moments. But Bairos, another rising young star though he still uses his last name, was a worthy partner, nicely complementing Milos’s mood swings.

Bare-handed and quite aerobic, Bairos is entertaining to watch. He jumps up and down and contorts his face. The importance of such things is debatable, but the orchestra sounded swell. Before the concerto, he led the orchestra in three dances from Manuel de Falla’s ballet score, “The Three Cornered Hat.” Bairos took some passages at warp speed, and the orchestra displayed a reassuring precision. It’s good to hear them back in top form.

The political implications for Europe’s future are unclear, but after intermission on this “Spanish Night,” we got a Russian piece orchestrated by a French guy. Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition,” here performed in Ravel’s orchestration, is a surefire crowd-pleaser, though perhaps not the weightiest work in the repertoire. It started out as an unpretentious piano piece, and Ravel turned it into a wildly atmospheric show, with lots of brass and percussion. Bairos reveled in all of this, at the same time treating it with the sort of reverence usually reserved for Richard Wagner. Oh well, it was all good fun.

Speaking of fun, the Flamenco dancer and band in the foyer and the Sangria specials at the bars contributed to a nice informality, though the guy next to me got carried away and brought in a sack of snacks for munching. Maybe he mistook the place for Turner Field.