Edmonds Center for the Arts recently hosted Cascade Symphony’s marvelous “Mahler’s First”; and indeed, the iron-willed Bohemian’s first and acknowledged masterpiece did take up the concert’s last half. However, the evening might better have been titled “Beethoven’s Pioneering Spirit.” The big B’s ground-breaking disregard for established convention at a time when Europe was curtseying and bowing to minuets was what threaded the program together. Composers and performers did things their way. The result was one of a kind, uninhibited and satisfying.

Flagrant disapproval of Napoleon consigning all supreme power to himself when installed in office started things off. The work, Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture, storms with dramatic chords and octaves held onto and playing off one another. Music Director and Maestro, Michael Miropolsky et alia did not, as much take charge of the stinging B’s complete enchantment and ultimate disenchant with the people’s hero-turned-dictator as let it take charge of them. They gave themselves to Beethoven and let him deliver direct to us. The experience was a roller-coaster ride more wild than any in an amusement park. Wow, no wonder the deaf misanthrope rules.

Second up was featured Seattle Symphony double bass player and guest artist, Jordan Anderson, working his magic with J.B. Vanhal’s Concerto in D major. Talk about dancing to your own tune, this was it.

Here’s a guy who can’t wear a tux because the coat’s tail interferes with how he sits to play an instrument no one else dares take on. The double bassoon is half-again the size of other bassoons.

Also, here’s a guy in shirt sleeves and slacks interpreting a Beethoven contemporary determined to integrate a monster instrument with a range like you can’t believe into symphony orchestras everywhere. What’s the problem? The double bassoon overpowers the other music makers. Jealousy? Maybe

Individuality took over: Anderson’s unmistakably personal love affair with a monstrosity he’s been lugging around since fifth grade; and Vanhal’s fierce insistence that other instruments socialize with his. Who can blame the virtuoso’s still somewhat self-conscious and technique-preoccupied performance? This kid’s got the requisite bravery. Soon, he will entrust himself and his bassoon to the music and let it guide him. Then, make way for a trailblazer.

As for “Mahler’s First,” nicknamed “Titan,” here is a stew that cooked till ready in the composer’s mind then served itself up for Mahler to dish out. He copied it down, offered it out and got turned down till he established himself as a conductor, at which time he got bashed for performing himself, himself. The music wasn’t pretty, the criticism went .

However, guide lined by a Bohemian’s peasant’s lifetime, “Titan’s” utter disregard for niceties and insistence on including life’s not-so-delicate side have since added vigor and vitality to the honesty in music we today appreciate and argue about; rap, for example, I’m surprised how many like Mahler.

No fitter conclusion than Mahler’s First” for an evening of iconoclastic music could possibly be. CSO exploded. My God, the climax to the Second Part’s “Human Comedy: From Inferno to Paradise,” shook ECA to its foundations. You’d have thought thunder and lightning announcing Judgment Day, that or we were having our own Hurricane Katrina. It was dynamite.

Pre-concert lecturer and King FM radio announcer, Sean MacLean was insightful, concise and informative. Miropolsky’s ready for standup comedy: you should have heard him make the most of Jordan Anderson’s shyness; the good-natured ness settled Anderson down, I’m sure.

Terrific offering by ECA.