There are times when a performance seems so right that you feel the players have somehow restored order to a random universe — or, at least, to one fortunate little corner of it.

Thursday night's Seattle Symphony performance of the Dvorák Cello Concerto with soloist Truls Mørk was just such an occasion. With guest conductor Marin Alsop on the podium, Mørk gave the audience an experience few could forget.

What makes his performance so special? Mørk starts with a technique so impeccable that the thorniest passages of ascending octaves or descending sixths are tossed off with apparent ease. It is his musicianship, his superbly musical instinct for the perfect shape of a phrase or line, that beguiles the ear. Mørk plays with intensity tempered by elegance and by an amazing sense of timing, tapering off a phrase to a nicety.

The tone is meltingly lovely: strong and noble in the declamatory passages, tender and exquisitely subtle in the quieter sections. Mørk deploys that tone in the service of a concerto that he has mastered at a level most cellists cannot attain.

The success of the concerto also rested in the capable hands of Alsop, who brought the orchestra to a high level of ensemble and clarity, while paying the most careful attention to the soloist (never rushing him or drowning him out). The symphony sounded beautiful, in a performance launched by John Cerminaro's luscious horn solo.

The audience may not have been packed with classical habitues (there was applause after the concerto's first movement), but they knew a master when they heard one. The standing ovation was fully deserved.

Alsop, a very clear, direct conductor who engages the musicians with no fuss or mannerisms, inspired the symphony to outstanding performances all evening. The opening Bright Sheng "Tibetan Swing," based on Tibetan folk motifs, was full of tricky syncopated rhythms, ably negotiated with plenty of cueing. The program's finale, an early Tchaikovsky symphony (No. 2, "Little Russian"), was crisp and precise, beautifully controlled but still suitably impassioned. Cerminaro and bassoonist Seth Krimsky provided stellar solos, and all the musicians seemed to be playing their best for this very communicative conductor.

In short: music lovers, especially cello fans, shouldn't miss this program.

Melinda Bargreen: mbargreen@seattletimes.com