Philharmonic Ends Bowl Run

Large audiences usually accompany the events in the final week of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s summer stay at the Hollywood Bowl, so the festive crowd in the amphitheater Thursday night for the orchestra’s last Bowl event of 1997 proved typical and ready to applaud the traditional program put together by Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Salonen’s finicky probing may not have released all the heat and light one might expect in Brahms’ “Haydn” Variations and Double Concerto and in Beethoven’s First Symphony, but this audience clearly liked what it heard.

The Brahms pieces seemed to reflect a conductor of two minds. Salonen, in his careful way, created a sweeping whole out of the noble utterances in the Double Concerto--in which violinist Bing Wang and cellist Ben Hong, both members of the Philharmonic, were the solid and accomplished soloists--but he seemed bent on deconstructing the Variations.

That deconstruction achieved clarity but at the expense of context. The bones of the work appeared to have been removed. This became Brahms without an overview and Brahms without subtext, as if the music had been removed but the notes left behind.

On the other hand, Salonen balanced the more structured Double Concerto purposefully and with elan. The sound system was working efficiently and even flattered the authoritative soloists; Wang’s clearly slender, somewhat metallic tone came across well, and Hong’s expressive playing made all its points.

Beethoven’s First Symphony benefited from Salonen’s detailed scrutiny, each of its movements moving along at a convincing gait ordained by its content. But there are also darker shadows in the piece than the conductor’s emphases on neatness and lightness brought out. This was a pristine reading that lacked color and character. The Philharmonic played splendidly, but one missed the work’s full impact.