COPLAND BIRTHDAY : LEINSDORF RETURNS TO PAVILION

Not all of his recent Los Angeles Philharmonic performances have been memorable--and some have been memorable for the wrong reasons--but, when Erich Leinsdorf is at his best, he draws exceptional playing from our orchestra.

Thursday night, returning to the Pavilion of the Music Center after merely six months away, the 73-year old conductor drew stunning, effective and wondrous sounds from the Philharmonic in what seemed like a definitive performance of Beethoven’s “Pastoral” Symphony.

And, oh, yes, the first half of this urban-vs.-country program was a brief tribute to Aaron Copland on the occasion of his 85th birthday.

Leinsdorf’s taut but benign, dramatic but conversational, clarified but resonant reading of the Sixth Symphony swept all before it in terms of concentration, continuity and richness of detail. No contest of wills, ego-posturing or navel-gazing blocked the conductor’s clear-eared path to the essence of this score; no false emphases stood between composer and listener.

The Philharmonic played with relaxed intensity, the full range of its dynamic powers and untiring care for niceties of tone and articulation. The wind principals seemed to deliver their best and most mellow soloism.

And balances between all parts of the orchestra remained handsomely gauged throughout the work. It was a compelling performance, marred only slightly through the insistence, from some members of the audience, on applauding between movements.

The Copland tribute--coinciding with the composer’s birthday, Thursday--might be considered to have begun with Leinsdorf’s conducting of the Third Symphony, on this very podium, last May. That at least would excuse its brevity this week.

Beginning with Igor Stravinsky’s “Greeting Prelude”--actually, variations on “Happy Birthday”--this tribute then included short speeches from Ernest Fleischmann, the Philharmonic’s executive director, and from Leinsdorf. Then, there was the first West Coast performance of the recently orchestrated (by Phillip Ramey), three-minute “Proclamation” and the 16-minute Piano Concerto, with Urusla Oppens as soloist.

As far as it went, this was a pleasant half-concert, though hardly comparable to the full Copland program the New York Philharmonic gave, the same evening, on its home turf.

Leinsdorf conducted with especial efficacy and affection; the orchestra responded in kind, and pianist Oppens seemed to follow at a respectful distance.

The Piano Concerto has been neglected, in the 57 years since its premiere, for at least two good reasons: It is not particularly grateful or challenging for the soloist; and its jazziness seems both contrived and self-conscious. Otherwise, it is a pleasing, compact and energetic piece, short on tunes but filled with ideas. Oppens played it gamely, if without the freedom and abandon it needs.