Nothing outrageous, mind you, not that the sober-seeming audience should have objected to a little musical hanky-panky. Many Wall Street chance-takers are Philharmonic patrons, and the banking chit-chat indicated that they were in attendance. But Gilbert, 42, a native New Yorker and son of two New York Philharmonic fiddlers (his mother still sits in the first violin section), did some things differently, even boldly. He began with a new work written for the occasion (the first time at such an event since Leonard Bernstein commissioned Aaron Copland for the opening of Lincoln Center nearly a half-century ago). Renee Fleming was a sure-thing stellar soloist, but the soprano sang an early song cycle by Olivier Messiaen. In 1988, New York Philharmonic audiences noisily stormed out when then-music director Zubin Mehta programmed the French composer's 'Turangalila' Symphony during a regular subscription series. The orchestra has worked hard to get the word out that this is no longer an ensemble headed by a senior music director, as it had been for 18 years under Kurt Masur and Lorin Maazel. The concert was telecast live over PBS. The morning dress rehearsal was opened to the public for free. Despite the threat of rain, one couple from Staten Island showed up at 4:30 a.m. I rode by Lincoln Center in a cab from the airport at 7, and it looked like a couple of hundred people were patiently waiting for the rehearsal, which would not begin for another three hours. For all that, the atmosphere Wednesday felt only moderately celebratory. Gilbert is a likable, capable conductor. He makes sense of the music he conducts. He appears down-to-earth. He can whip up a certain amount of excitement, but he lacks charisma, which his champions read as seriousness. Magnus Lindberg's lively 10-minute 'EXPO,' the new work, was, nonetheless, a crowd pleaser from a Finnish composer whom Gilbert has appointed composer-in-residence. A musical soul mate of Esa-Pekka Salonen, Lindberg is known to Los Angeles Philharmonic audiences as a musical wild man, a kinetic composer who is both a harmonically sophisticated and flamboyant noisemaker. 'EXPO' consists of a series of contrasting flashy flourishes and relaxed lyricism. Bursting with orchestral color, the score also plays around with French Impressionist cliches and has something close to a Hollywood ending, which, I think, was meant humorously. The performance was not witty. Gilbert paid attention to rhythmic intricacy, instrumental balance and overall orchestral virtuosity. Ten minutes passed pleasurably, but I wonder if many listeners would take this music home with them. The Lindberg-New York Philharmonic relationship may yet blossom, and perhaps this was just a bottle of excellent fizzy Champagne sent by a difficult composer to break down initial resistance. Next, Messiaen's 'Poemes pour Mi' fit Fleming well. Written in 1936 for the French composer's first wife, Clair Delbos (nicknamed Mi), the nine songs to texts by the composer are a devout Catholic's first attempt at commingling his spiritual love with the earthly brand (Messiaen got sexier in music as he got older and moved on to a second younger wife). Gilbert seemed more interested in Messiaen's glittery use of the orchestra than Fleming's famed tone, often forcing the American soprano into an uncomfortable sound should she choose to be heard. That wasn't ineffective, but may not have had Gilbert's desired effect: It was Fleming's intensity that kept me riveted. By those standards, Berlioz's 'Symphonie Fantastique' was carefree. Gilbert conducted without a score and with far greater expressive freedom than he showed in the evening's first half. He blunted Maazel's razor-sharp precision for the sake of more warmth. Mostly, the 'Symphonie Fantastique' moved along without unusual incident. Still, the score didn't sound as magnificently strange as it did under Pierre Boulez, nor was it the head trip it was under Leonard Bernstein, two former Philharmonic music directors who, like Gilbert, were in their 40s when they took over the orchestra. Arturo Toscanini and Mehta were exactly Gilbert's age when their names entered the Philharmonic roster. The new music has a lot to live up to. But the new conductor also has time on his side. 