TAMPA - Often, listening to the Florida Orchestra perform a pops concert is like eating a hot dog cooked by a blue-ribbon chef. It may be the best hot dog you've ever had, but ultimately it's just empty calories.

That's part of what makes this weekend's pops concert such a joyous surprise. Fiddle player Eileen Ivers, who came to prominence in Riverdance, roused and charmed the opening night audience at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center with a celebration of Irish music titled Eileen Ivers: Irish Fiddle on Fire.

Because of the music itself and the fiery playing of Ivers and her amazing four-piece band Immigrant Soul, it was perhaps one of the best pops concerts in recent years, and certainly one of the most soulful.

From the most tender Irish ballads (a stunning recent song inspired on the "troubles" in Northern Ireland was a highlight) to the most exuberant reels, Ivers and her band performed with conviction and emotion. The orchestra, conducted by Richard Kaufman, played with a kind of subtlety that's more common to symphonic concerts.

Even though they were relegated to a supporting role for most of the evening, the musicians of the orchestra were clearly enjoying themselves, smiling and nodding to each other after many of the pieces. It's not always thus in pops concerts; the musicians are sometimes visibly disconnected.

But it would be hard not to be enchanted with Ivers, who has an energetic, almost impish stage personality, and with the Irish music that is so deeply ingrained into the American psyche.

Immigrant Soul (drummer Tommy McDonnell, pipe and flute player Isaac Alderson, guitarist James Riley and bassist Gregory Jones) played wonderfully throughout. McDonnell --whose drum kit was right up front, next to Ivers - was kind of a co-star, singing two songs (the only non-instrumental numbers in the show) and leading a surprisingly effective audience sing-along.

The night's only weak points were the first segments of the first and second halves, when the orchestra played so-so arrangements of Irish-flavored tunes. The evening's opening selections (a medley of such ersatz-Irish songs as My Wild Irish Rose and McNamara's Band, followed by John Williams' music for Far and Away) were a waste of the orchestra's talent.

But Ivers came on stage and all was immediately forgiven and forgotten as the audience became happily lost in an emerald landscape of hauntingly beautiful and singularly invigorating music.

REVIEW

Eileen Ivers: Irish Fiddle on Fire, 8 tonight at Mahaffey Theater, 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Ruth Eckerd Hall. $50.50, $42.50, $35.50, $22.50, $15.50 plus service charge. Call Mahaffey Theater at (727) 898-2100 or Ruth Eckerd Hall at (727) 791-7400.