For sheer sonic splendor, few programs could surpass the one Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic are offering at David Geffen Hall this week. It shows three modern masters — Ottorino Respighi, Magnus Lindberg and Igor Stravinsky — using their orchestral wizardry well, if, in Respighi’s case, not always wisely.

Respighi’s “Vetrate di Chiesa” (“Church Windows”) has been said to reflect the composer’s eventual discovery of, and love for, Gregorian chant. “Said to,” because merely from the music, you would never guess that the work stemmed from Gregorian chant tunes, it is so far removed in grandeur from such modest origins.

Subtitled “Four Impressions for Orchestra,” “Church Windows” began as a piano work, “Three Preludes on Gregorian Melodies,” completed in 1921. The movements were orchestrated and given fanciful titles (“The Flight Into Egypt,” “St. Michael the Archangel” and “The Matins of St. Clara”) in 1925-26, and a fourth was added, with a title (“St. Gregory the Great”) hinting at the chant sources.

Unlike Respighi’s Roman trilogy (“Pines,” “Fountains,” “Festivals”), which arguably stops short of bombast, “Church Windows” indulges freely in the movement devoted to the embattled archangel, ending with a long-resounding gong stroke. The orchestra rose vigorously to the occasion on Thursday evening, and Thomas Hooten gave the offstage trumpet solo a fine turn.