MUSIC REVIEW : Tilson Thomas Brings His London Symphony to Torrance

On the podium, a lively imagination and an analytic intelligence have long served Michael Tilson Thomas well. But they brought him glory Sunday night, when he returned to Southern California in his latest orchestral post, that of principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra.

Tilson Thomas has been at the helm of the British ensemble for only half a year, but his performance with the orchestra at the South Bay Center for the Arts displayed a comfortable working relationship with the musicians. The instrumentalists seem to respect and understand their new leader; they certainly play with fervor for him.

And the 44-year-old conductor, looking both more authoritative and relaxed than ever--some of us have been watching him since he was 21--gave every evidence of enjoying his new place.

He moves with quiet elegance now, seldom seems to dance, and his gestures are both fewer and more effective. He was always a result-getter; now, he works less for those results.

Heard in the probing, rather than flattering, acoustic of Marsee Auditorium in Torrance, the London Symphony still produced handsome, sometimes even lush, sound, a strong orchestral blend and first-rate soloism. It seems a malleable ensemble: Its aural profile changed from Ravel to Gershwin to Berlioz, and with profit to each composer.

Tilson Thomas’ approach to Ravel’s “Rapsodie Espagnole” delivered an almost breathless transparency but no scrawny playing, and a full orchestral palette clarified by sensitive balances. Here, as later in the “Symphonie Fantastique,” layers of inner voices seemed to coexist and complement each other.

The Berlioz work benefited from a similar aesthetic, as well as a thoroughly thought-through scenario. The conductor makes the “Scene aux champs”--as does also Charles Dutoit, another expert in the Gallic musical experience--the rational and emotional heart of the work, a plain of sanity around which dance the fervid imaginings of the hero. Proceeding from this core, Tilson Thomas and his colleagues produced a colorful, multifaceted, kaleidoscopic performance rooted in reason.

The perfect, but not jolting, contrast came in Gershwin’s irresistible and joyous Second Rhapsody, in which pianist Tilson Thomas risked much in being his own conductor.

He meshed the two functions engagingly, appearing in moments to perform both duties simultaneously. The pianism was accomplished brilliantly and the collaboration emerged both aggressive and insouciant. All the performance needed was a top on the Yamaha grand piano to send the solo part more loudly to its hearers.

After a stop in Orange County on Monday, the London Symphony tour arrives at Pasadena Civic Auditorium on Wednesday night, under auspices of the Ambassador Foundation, with a different program: Wagner’s “Siegfried Idyll” and Mahler’s Fifth Symphony.