He's been building his reputation ever since. Articulate on and off the podium, Westerfield conducted two of the three works presented without a score before him, something few conductors attempt, even though it affords them better eye contact with the musicians. Oddly, he used a score for Boccherini's Concerto, comparatively much easier to conduct than either Barber's Symphony No. 1 or Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 3.
Good conductors can convey what they want without words just with gestures.
And great orchestras, like this one, respond immediately. Only the lushly Romantic Rachmaninoff seemed to need a little more romance and a little less control, but perhaps in these days of standards set by recording, it is safer to err on the side of precision. Partly because of the clarity Westerfield maintained, excellent solos were numerous, including one in Rachmaninoff's third movement from a musician the audience rarely gets to notice, bass clarinetist James Moffitt. The concert's featured solo belonged to principal cellist Gregory Dubay in Boccherini's B Major Cello Concerto, composed ca. Classic and Romantic performance styles, whether flip sides of a coin or opposites, have little in common, so the combination yields a certain schizophrenia.