INSTITUTE ORCHESTRA AT HOLLYWOOD BOWL

Stodgy programming is often characteristic of training orchestras. The more so, perhaps, when those in training include conductors.

That was not the case with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute Orchestra Sunday evening at Hollywood Bowl. The program allowed Institute director Michael Tilson Thomas and three conducting fellows to display their own abilities, as well as those of the orchestra and soloists, without recourse to tired repertory.

The concert culminated nicely in Berlioz’s “Harold in Italy,” a symphony for orchestra and viola. The piece doesn’t require a virtuoso soloist, but 22 year-old Paul Neubauer proved he earned the principal viola seat in the New York Philharmonic with more than just flashy fingers. He played with warm, firm tone and lyric grace in his Bowl debut.

Tilson Thomas seemed to have complex, finely detailed ideas about the work, but his young players and the Bowl environment let him down. The Institute Orchestra made robust, purposeful sounds in the concerted passages, but the solos--sectional as well as individual--were uneven, the finale unraveled a bit, and a restive crowd of 6,073 obscured the more delicate moments.

The clap-happy audience applauded after each movement, and it didn’t take much to bring Neubauer back. As if embarrassed by the undemonstrative nature of “Harold in Italy,” he offered an unannounced encore exhibiting his quickly bouncing bow and the clarity of his instrument.

Bennett Lerner had a similarly restrained vehicle for his Bowl debut--Copland’s Piano Concerto. Its overly intellectualized jazz elements afforded Lerner opportunities to impress with a clear control of rhythm and an appropriately ironic intelligence. David Miller elicited equally lean, propulsive playing from the orchestra in a generally taut, supportive accompaniment.

Leif Bjaland helped establish the prevailing spirit of good taste and refinement with an account of Strauss’ “Don Juan” that stressed soaring lyricism over orchestral angst. Indeed, it proved too tasteful, allowing emotional urgency to dissipate, and dullness to replace despair. The institute musicians produced the sweeping, vital lines Bjaland wanted in the big tunes, but stammered rhythmically some at the end.

Edward Cumming opened the agenda with “Fireworks,” an early piece by Stravinsky. It too sounded unduly reticent, and the orchestra seemed not quite comfortable with the characteristic cross-rhythms, despite Cumming’s clear beat.