Violinist Chee-Yun, returning as guest soloist with the Honolulu Symphony after a 10-year absence, makes being a concert musician seem easy.

Who wouldn't want to be young, beautiful and talented, to fly all over the world playing great music, wearing beautiful gowns and reveling as the center of attention, reaping thunderous applause from enthusiastic audiences?

But every moment on stage is backed by hours and hours, years of hours of hard work, much of it an all-consuming internal struggle — physical, mental, spiritual, emotional — facing and overcoming one's own limitations.

"I was very hard on my students," Chee-Yun explained, "because I know what it takes. To be a concert performer, to be a musician, period, takes a lot of work. When I came from Korea (at 13 years of age, after performing for five years), I thought I was pretty good. But when I got to Juilliard (School of Music in New York), whoa! Everyone else was so good!"

Offering hope to music students everywhere (and ammunition to their parents), she enthused, "After years of practicing, after studying at Juilliard, I fell in love with music in a very deep way; it fills me up completely. Now I enjoy practicing — finally! Now I know what it brings, what it can make happen. I love practicing a phrase different ways."

On Friday, the music flowed smoothly, as if all those glittering cascades of notes, delicate harmonics and arched melodies required no particular effort.

Chee-Yun played with intense concentration, apparently deeply absorbed in the music and with little regard for performance display.

Using none of the gyrating acrobatics so popular among star performers today, Chee-Yun stood almost perfectly still, every ounce of energy focused on the music.

She performed Saint-Saens' Violin Concerto No. 3, an excellent vehicle for her, which showcased her impossibly fast runs and pristine, singing tone, combined with expressive warmth. Hers was a crystalline fire, multihued and entrancing.

Conductor JoAnn Falletta, artistic advisor to the Honolulu Symphony, selected dance-based symphonic works as bookends to the Saint-Saens: Bártok's "Dance Suite" from 1920 and Rachmaninoff's "Symphonic Dances" from 1940.

Both were highly unusual.

Inspired by folk dances, the Bártok revealed less "folk" than "Bártok and his classical music world." He sketched with typical Bártok drive, using raw Stravinskian brush strokes and impressionistic whole tone scales and swirling tone-clouds à la Debussy.

The Rachmaninoff, a fantasy with little connection to the classical music scene of the 1940s, referred to dances but did not itself present any. The second movement, for example, used waltz meter and rhythms but was more like a dream sequence of wandering through a world of waltzes, each scene creating a different atmosphere.

Unusual passages abounded, which the orchestra apparently relished. Delivering notable passages: Paul Barrett and Marsha Schweitzer (bassoons) in opening the Bártok; Erica Peel (piccolo) and Susan McGinn (flute) in Bártok's first movement; James Moffitt (bass clarinet) and Jason Sudduth (English horn) — a striking combination — at the beginning of the second movement; and a great viola solo by Mark Butin in the fifth.

The Rachmaninoff featured a terrific wind choir, including saxophone by Todd Yukumoto, a beautiful violin solo by "Iggy" Jang and exciting percussion touches throughout.

Conductor Falletta proved an effective communicator, inspiring the orchestra, guiding them through challenging sections with confidence and eliciting a deservedly warm reception from the audience.