On Wednesday night, Washington Performing Arts Society opened its fall classical music season with a spectacular concert by the La Scala Philharmonic. Notably it did so not at the Kennedy Center, which has long been the organization’s main venue, but at the newer and growing Music Center at Strathmore. In spite of the suburban location, which doubled this disgruntled city dweller’s car trip, a VIP box at house left held such distinguished guests as First Lady Laura Bush (but thankfully not her husband, whose presence would have created a security nightmare), the Ambassador of Italy to the United States, the American ambassador to Italy, the Mayor of Milan, and Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.

It is important to train one’s ears to the world’s best orchestras to have the proper perspective on what we hear regularly in Washington, in both the concert hall and the opera house. Sadly, attendance on Wednesday was less than full, with a number of empty seats toward the back and sides of the floor. The Filarmonica della Scala is the resident orchestra of Milan’s celebrated opera house, an orchestra further established 25 years ago this year as a touring ensemble led by the world’s most celebrated conductors, in the footsteps of the group that used to bear the name of Arturo Toscanini. Their esteemed conductor, Riccardo Chailly, was in our area most recently with his other ensemble, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. In our preview of this concert, the programming came across as a little conservative. Indeed, when you think about what we could have heard — Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder along with sections of Lohengrin and Die Walküre, all sung by tenor Ben Heppner, at some of the other tour venues — it makes Rossini’s William Tell overture, as nice as it is, look rather weak. Who would not rather have a little slice of Il Teatro alla Scala in his backyard?