The San Diego Symphony sparkled like spumante Saturday at the Jacobs Music Center’s Copley Symphony Hall. Italian conducting sensation Jader Bignamini led the orchestra in a scintillating program of music by his countrymen Respighi, Rossini and Martucci, along with some razzle-dazzle from Rimsky-Korsakov.

Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Capriccio Espagnol” and Respighi’s “La Boutique Fantasque” and “Pines of Rome” gave many of the orchestra’s principal players opportunities to shine. In keeping with the rhythmic concerns of the “It’s About Time” festival, the Symphony’s percussion section played an invaluable role in those three works and punctuated Rossini’s “William Tell Overture” with musical depictions of thunder and crashing artillery.