Times are a-changing at the Honolulu Symphony.

The 2005-06 Masterworks season opened Friday night with changes in programs, personnel, educational outreach, and community relations — including an interactive Web site and "town hall meetings" at the Oct. 21 and 23 concerts to solicit comments and suggestions.

The most significant change, however, was the absence of a permanent conductor.

Maestro Samuel Wong, who announced his departure at the beginning of last season, will return to conduct three concerts. Joan Landry, the Symphony's associate conductor, will conduct one concert; JoAnn Falletta, the Symphony's artistic adviser and one of the candidates to replace Wong, will conduct three.

Each of the remaining concerts — eight of them between September and early January — will feature a different guest conductor/candidate, offering concertgoers quite literally front-row seats in the hiring process.

Maestro Rossen Milanov of Bulgaria began the lineup with stunning performances of Ravel's "Rapsodie Espagnole" and of Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" as bookends for Joaquin Rodrigo's beloved "Concierto de Aranjuez" featuring guitarist Christopher Parkening.

Parkening, who has recorded the Rodrigo, seemed less at ease with it Friday night, perhaps in part because of the balance difficulties presented by a large hall.

Furthermore, Spanish music is notorious for its flexible tempos, infectious rhythms, and passionate expression. Parkening and Milanov were audibly negotiating those elements on Friday, compromising or taking turns.

Not surprisingly, the most relaxed, musically free passages were either solo guitar or solo orchestra, and it was in those passages that Parkening's famous virtuosity and musicianship shone. His encore, "Cavatina" by Stanley Myers and dedicated to those affected by Hurricane Katrina, was especially beautiful, with its slow and tender melody.

Friday's most memorable moments, however, resided with Milanov and the orchestra.

Milanov elicited an exceptionally clean sound from the orchestra, which was well-balanced and controlled yet passionate. Potentially treacherous passages were delicately crystalline, each line beautifully phrased; tempos waxed and waned smoothly; and climaxes blossomed with precision.

The works' colorful orchestration combined with the musicians' intense focus yielded numerous outstanding solos. Most notable were Jason Sudduth's several solos on English horn, particularly that famously smoky-melancholy one in the second movement of the Rodrigo.

Other exceptional solos included those by tubist David Saltzman and saxophonist Todd Yukumoto in "Pictures," clarinetist Scott Anderson and bassoonist Paul Barrett in both "Pictures" and "Rapsodie," cellist Mark Votapek in the Rodrigo, trumpeter Michael Zonshine in the opening Promenade of "Pictures," and ... well, you get the idea..

Most impressive overall were Milanov's exceptionally vivid readings. Each "picture" in the Mussorgsky sprang to life.

Individual pictures built slowly into the final "Great Gate of Kiev," which, when done right, provides one of Classical music's greatest climaxes. On Friday, it was done right, and the audience cheered in appreciation. Milanov's conducting will be hard to match.