Orchestra

There’s a lot to be said for youthful exuberance, particularly when it’s combined with the kind of stylish and refined playing offered by the Australian Chamber Orchestra Sunday afternoon at Zellerbach Hall.

NEW YORK — The YouTube Symphony Orchestra gave its first — and as far as anyone knows, only — concert last night and a good time was had by all. Isaac Stern Auditorium of Carnegie Hall glowed festively, or at least differently, with atmospheric lighting.

This is the time of year when San Francisco Symphony Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas, for better or worse, yields the podium to a series of guest conductors. Later this month, and in the first part of May, Oliver Knussen, Yan Pascal Tortelier, and Bernard Labadie will take up the baton; this past weekend it was Stéphane Denève’s turn.

For its 2008-2009 season finale on Saturday, the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, under Benjamin Simon’s effective direction, presented an eclectic program with a theme of “Bach to Bach” — meaning, of course, that the concert would both begin and end with a Bach composition, though the finale was a very different kind of Bach.