Music Reviews : Joshua Bell With the L.A. Philharmonic

An orchestral program of Mozart, Richard Strauss and Brahms sounds about as predictable and familiar as possible. From these composers, however, Andre Previn drew a curious and audacious agenda for the Los Angeles Philharmonic on Thursday evening at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

The concert began with a small contingent of strings and timpani, huddled together in the middle of an otherwise empty stage. Their employment? The “Serenata Notturna” by Mozart, K. 239, a witty, effervescent contemporary of the much better-known “Haffner” Serenade.

A comic concerto grosso, the serenade offered gracious, grateful solo work to violinists Sidney Weiss and Harold Dicterow, violist Dale Hikawa and bassist Christopher Hanulik, with the buffo timpani punctuation provided by Mitchell Peters. Previn kept matters well-balanced and moving, though intonation suffered surprising lapses.

The stage was not much more fully occupied for Strauss’ “Metamorphosen.” In style a sort of heroically swollen chamber music of the gods, in spirit an autumnal elegy, it received a suitably moody reading from Previn and 23 strings, clean and taut but also sounding muted and remote in the Pavilion expanses.

These chamber orchestra offerings were matched with Brahms’ Violin Concerto. Contrast was clearly intended and inevitable, but soloist Joshua Bell also saw to it that there was a real measure of integration.

Not that there was anything small-scale about his interpretation, although his sweet, slender tone was occasionally overwhelmed in the big climaxes. Indeed, his account was warmly expansive, restrained in tempos and generous in spirit.

But it was expressed with the conversational directness of chamber music. Excepting some quirky accentuation, as in the beginning of the finale, it was without rhetorical exaggeration.

Bell plays with a natural grace and simplicity, despite body language that suggests a man trying to jump out of shoes glued to the floor. He seized the bravura work with concentrated zest, but left the deepest impression through winning, ardent lyricism.

His substantial cadenza had much of Kreisler in it, as well as a fearlessly piquant development of Brahms’ Hungarianisms.

The Philharmonic backed Bell with a solid, cohesive effort, sonically ripe and focused. Previn maintained close contact with his soloist, reining in his orchestra’s intermittent attempts to forge ahead.