Showboating is as old as, well, showboats. You can find hotshots everywhere in the world of sports, politics and show-biz.

Occasionally, one will appear before a symphony orchestra. Wherever they turn up, you love their flamboyance or you don't.

Leonard Bernstein was famous for his podium prancing, mugging and wild gesturing - engrossing to some, annoying to others.

Costa Rican conductor Giancarlo Guerrero is continuing that tradition, judging from his concert with the Colorado Symphony on Friday in Boettcher Hall.

A big man with big ideas, Guerrero was all over the place during high- energy works by Rossini and Tchaikovsky.

He leaped, he danced, he crouched, he swiveled his hips, he carved the air with his fingers, he slashed away with his baton. And that exit from the podium! His flying leap would have made LeBron envious.

Everyone in the Boettcher crowd seemed to love this show of exuberance and passion. Well, almost everyone. We're not asking for a time-keeping statue up there, but if the conductor distracts from the glorious music at hand, something's wrong.

Opening with a decent run-through of Rossini's foot-tapping Barber of Seville Overture (featuring some podium antics that elicited audible chuckles from listeners), Guerrero closed with Tchai kovsky's expansive, manic Symphony No. 4.

If ever there was a piece created for showboating, this is it. Conducting from memory, Guerrero was a sight to behold, gesturing mightily while coaxing some superb playing from the CSO.

Did it lead to a celestial performance? Not always. The sluggish opening brass fanfare failed to make one's flesh crawl, and it took a while for Guerrero to find his groove. By the end, though, this was a performance that soared and sighed and wept.

One might quibble with a few of his drawn-out transitions, but the conductor managed to hold the piece together through its endless twists and turns. Fine solos in the Andantino from Peter Cooper (oboe) and Chad Cognata (bassoon).

Midway through the Giancarlo Guerrero Show came the charming and elegant Fourth Violin Concerto of Mozart, played exquisitely by the always-dependable Cho-Liang Lin. His tone remained glowing, his intonation faultless. The cadenzas (penned for him by conductor Raymond Leppard) fit in wonderfully. Working with score, Guerrero behaved himself, guiding the CSO in a sympathetic accompaniment.