This week’s concerts by the National Symphony Orchestra brought together the ideal guest artists for the violin concerto by Jean Sibelius. Finnish conductor Osmo Vänskä and Greek violinist Leonidas Kavakos came to international attention with their ground-breaking recording of this smoldering Romantic concerto, with the Lahti Symphony (including the only recording of the concerto’s original version, withdrawn by Sibelius immediately after the premiere). From the memorable opening of the first movement, Kavakos drew a rich, throaty sound from his 1692 “Falmouth” Stradivarius. Along with that robust, earthy tone, the tall, black-clad violinist played with a daring, fiery technique, as in the extended cadenza-like section of the first movement, where the musical themes were woven through a buzzing trill.

With evocative gestures, Vänskä carefully molded the NSO’s sound around the solo part, as in the distant, almost buried sound at the opening of the slow movement. At points here, the accompanying figures in the orchestra seemed slightly behind conductor and soloist — Kavakos has an idiosyncratic approach to rhythmic pace. In a moment of placid beauty, the second movement faded away, perdendosi, to its conclusion. The third movement, whose dotted-rhythm rondo theme is the most likely to be recognized by a general listener, was an impressive tour de force. The solo statement of the theme in challenging harmonics, toward the middle of the movement, sounded like cooling glass. Greeted with extended and justly merited applause from the embarrassingly small audience Friday evening — the rest of Washington was at DCist Exposed, of course — Kavakos offered a technically wondrous encore. A melody in repeated notes, like the strumming of a balalaika, soared over a feathery whir of accompanying figures.

The concert opened with a much less frequently heard Sibelius work, the enigmatic Rakastava (The Lover, op. 14). In 1911, Sibelius arranged his own earlier piece for unaccompanied male choir in a version for small string orchestra with timpani and triangle. The NSO has performed the piece only once before, in 1955. The choral version originally set lines of poetry from the Kanteletar collection by Elias Lönnrot, about a meeting and parting of lovers. Here Vänskä’s command of dynamic gradation was the most pronounced, with some of the softest playing I have heard from the NSO — at one point, Vänskä lowered his hands, to push the orchestra softer, until he was leaning almost all the way down to the podium. This was contrasted with upward swells of sound, in the first movement. The second movement was an active, but not agitated, portrait of the lover walking, with tiny flashing accents from the triangle. In the third movement, concertmaster Nurit Bar-Josef and principal cellist David Hardy played fine solo parts that seemed to represent the parting conversation of the two lovers. This is a piece that would be welcome again soon.