BEETHOVEN BOWL

All bets on Beethoven at the Bowl were off Saturday.

Conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, who explained last season that he had forsworn the Bonn master as well as Brahms and others, pocketed his ducats and led the Los Angeles Philharmonic in a Beethoven program.

The amplification system managed to bring thin, scratchy, muddled sound to newly dismal depths. The damp night air wreaked havoc on the strings, causing extraordinary intonation problems. Two of its solo victims--players from the orchestra who customarily turn in pristine performances--suffered sagging pitch that came close to being intolerable.

Otherwise, everything was dandy.

A crowd of 10,021 Beethoven-loving picnickers munched and crunched to the strains of the “Leonore” Overture No. 2, which Salonen put forth in weighty, deliberate terms. However much care the young Finn may have taken to lay out the structure and underscore the drama, his efforts were sabotaged by poor ensemble and the above-mentioned acoustic difficulties.

Miscalculation on his part, though, accounted for the work’s further fragmentation; he took the finale at such a furious clip that it seemed unrelated to all that came before. Still, a larger issue arose: Why would a gifted conductor agree to return to Beethoven by way of defeating circumstances that include only token rehearsal time?

Whatever the answer, one had to take Salonen’s intentions on faith--quite a different story from the brilliant debut he made last fall at the Music Center.

One also had to take on faith the Triple Concerto as espoused by cellist Daniel Rothmuller and violinist Alexander Treger; they did enjoy, however, the terrific piano collaboration of James Tocco, who acted as an ultrasensitive integrator.

But faith had little to do with the “Eroica.” Here Salonen found acoustical conditions somewhat improved, and, after a fast and perfunctory opening Allegro, he put a down payment on what will no doubt become a major bid for even this overworked icon.