BEETHOVEN PROGRAM AT BOWL AGAIN

There are those who will say that you cannot have too much Beethoven. Maybe--but the point of saturation was almost breached at Hollywood Bowl Thursday night when, for the second time during opening week, the bonny composer of Bonn was lengthily and exhaustively celebrated.

The blameless heroes of the occasion were Gunther Herbig conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Alfred Brendel playing the First (C-major) and Fourth (G-major) Piano Concertos.

The villains were the malevolent amplification and a Steinway that was permitted to be hauled on stage with what seemed to be a broken string that provided an obbligato sounding like a leering xylophone throughout the First Concerto, an intrusion that declined to be silenced even after a piano doctor had administered treatment during intermission.

Brendel would have been justified in stalking off in a rage. But he is one of those show-must-go-on people, and he endured manfully to the jangly end. In the course of his self-sacrifice, he accomplished a great deal of exemplary playing, every note carefully considered, every phrase polished like the family silver.

Indoors, it probably would have been totally exquisite. Outdoors, it tantalized in both pieces but never consistently communicated for long. Love’s labor lost, as it were. The cadenzas were Beethoven’s.

Herbig’s orchestral accompaniments were likewise underscaled for the open spaces, though they were every bit as judicious as the solo playing.

For a starter, the conductor branched out from the usual by playing not only the overture to “The Creatures of Prometheus” ballet, but also the Adagio wherein Beethoven for the only time in all his music employed the harp modestly in one of the earlier versions of what was eventually to become the immortal second theme of the “Eroica” Symphony finale.

Attendance: 8,249.