Sir Simon Rattle conducts Philadelphia Orchestra

The symphony seemed stuffed with content — lots of simultaneous elements and many episodes within its episodes. Its songfulness, not just in its tunes but in the way ideas are repeated like verses, had different phrasing in each iteration. Often, Rattle began such a sequence with a sudden retreat into quietude, giving even short passages room to build. This technique could easily have become mannered without the sense of sweep provided by the orchestra, assuring that such details would not steal focus from the larger picture.

Rattle’s treatment of the Schumann Symphony No. 3 (“Rhenish”) felt like a work in progress, but so do many Schumann symphonic performances. Though the best of the composer’s four, this one is like a collection of five tone poems, each with its own sound world, that can cohere as a single symphony. But any single overarching concept can come at the expense of the individual movements. Rattle’s fleet, light-textured, almost classical-era approach — like Arturo Toscanini — ensured that nothing would be lugubrious and repetitive. This approach was good for the levity of the second, third, and fifth movements. Elsewhere, the first movement, a panorama of the Rhine River, lacked a bit of exalted grandeur, and the fourth movement’s evocation of the Cologne Cathedral (the composer’s single most innovative moment) had less gravity.

The best performance was the Six Pieces for Orchestra by Anton Webern, one of the few serialists whose work can be analyzed by ear but loses the most if you do. This strictly ordered music can seethe under its surface. Nagging rhythms that sound merely impertinent in some performances became hostile under Rattle — but not through application of force. This performance was about color, wrought with intensely defined precision. Thus, each of these short pieces became a collage of musical objects — with implied social relevance. Each piece was a study in isolated entities, in an uncomfortable coexistence that could end at any time. And in the volcanic fourth piece: Was that perhaps the sound of Western civilization coming to an end?

Additional performances: 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at the Kimmel Center. Information: www.philorch.org or 215-893-1999.

Contact David Patrick Stearns at dstearns@phillynews.com