Familiar Face--and Work

Since her United States orchestral debut in Hollywood Bowl in 1974, Juliana Markova has returned often to Los Angeles. The Bulgarian pianist, now a resident of England, continues, according to her own description, to specialize “in Russian music and Romantic music.”

Indeed, for her latest local return, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Friday night, she plays again the vehicle of her debut here, Tchaikovsky’s B-flat-minor Concerto.

Yes, she acknowledged last week on the telephone from her home in Denham, her ideas about--and her performance of--the familiar work have changed over the years.

“I’ve matured, and so has my view of the piece,” Markova said. “I’ve changed some details, made new discoveries, found different feelings in it.”

She will appear for the first time with the Latvian-born Soviet conductor Mariss Jansons in a concert closing the current Tchaikovsky minifestival in the Wiltern Theatre.

Markova, who has made England her home base for the past 14 years--she is married to the British pianist Michael Rolls--says her repertory has sometimes grown through serendipity.

“If a conductor will ask far enough in advance,” she promises, “I am happy to learn specific works. Recently, I learned Rachmaninoff’s Second Concerto in four months--though that is really less time than I would like.”

Markova says she enjoys some contemporary music, “but really can’t take the time to learn new works if I can’t be sure of playing them more than once. European audiences are very conservative, and contemporary music is very little played.”

And then there are certain pieces--she mentions the Brahms concertos and Rachmaninoff’s Third--that she prefers to avoid altogether.

“Because orchestral engagements often involve three or four performances of the same program, I don’t think I have the stamina to play these works on consecutive days. That’s a colossal demand on one’s energy.”

The Tchaikovsky series continues Thursday night, when Philharmonic principal cellist Ronald Leonard is soloist in the “Rococo” Variations and Jansons leads the Overture-Fantasy “Romeo and Juliet” and the Fifth Symphony. Friday night, after the First Piano Concerto, the series closer is the Fourth Symphony.

BIRMINGHAM: From Costa Mesa to Boston, 15 performances in 12 locales mark the first United States tour of the City of Birmingham Symphony. The tour begins Tuesday night at 8 in Segerstrom Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center when Simon Rattle, principal conductor of the Birmingham ensemble (he holds a comparable post with the Los Angeles Philharmonic), leads a program consisting of Haydn’s Symphony No. 70, Sibelius’ Seventh Symphony, Stravinsky’s “Petrushka” and Ravel’s “La Valse.”

Thursday night, in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion of the Music Center (with repeats scheduled Friday night and next Sunday afternoon), the program lists the U.S. premiere of Robin Holloway’s “Seascape and Harvest” and the Sibelius and Stravinsky works from Tuesday.

NAMES: Conductor Robert Shaw, music director of the Atlanta Symphony, returns to his alma mater, Pomona College, Thursday night to lead the Pomona College Choir and Symphony in the first performance of Vladimir Ussachevsky’s “To the Young” (written for the current centennial celebrations of the college) on a program with Maurice Durufles Requiem. . . . At the San Diego, Orange County and Los Angeles stops of the June tour by the National Ballet of Canada, principal dancer Karen Kain, expecting her first child, will not appear. Kain is expected to return to the company in early 1989. . . . Michael Alexander, who has been associated in recent years with San Francisco Ballet, has been appointed director of the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department. . . . American pianist Peter Vinograde makes his Los Angeles-area debut in Ramo Auditorium at Caltech in Pasadena Thursday night at 8. His program lists music by Bach, Albeniz, Brahms, Chopin and Jere Hutcheson.