The Japanese conductor Masaaki Suzuki, who made a modestly persuasive debut with the San Francisco Symphony on Friday night, is best known — one might even say exclusively known — for his performances of Baroque music, and particularly Bach. [...] Suzuki, the founder and music director of Bach Collegium Japan, has arresting interpretive goals that his podium technique can’t always match. The instrumental textures mustered by the reduced orchestra were often impressively agile, only to stumble on lapses of ensemble cohesion. [...] Paulson seemed to sneak up on each melodic phrase and large formal paragraph, edging his way in and suddenly taking command of the material like some musical ninja. Nothing else on the program quite rose to that level, but there were gems scattered throughout — an eloquently turned solo by cellist Peter Wyrick in the minuet of Haydn’s Symphony No.