Music and Dance Reviews : Previn Leads Philharmonic in Prokofiev Program

Think about Andre Previn’s repertory specialties, and probably Prokofiev does not come immediately to mind. But he has been working consistently and effectively with the composer’s music, as witness his recent recordings with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Previn will also soon record the Sinfonia Concertante, with the orchestra and Austrian cellist Heinrich Schiff, who made his Philharmonic debut in the work on Thursday evening on a Prokofiev program at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

That should be a disc worth getting. In what remains the most comprehensively challenging concerted work for cello, Schiff displayed conquering technical heroics in service to well-thought communication, and there was nothing mean about the vital contributions of Previn & Co. either.

Schiff held nothing back, whether in concentrated lyricism or tortured passagework. Yet all remained thoroughly under control, sensitively supported with taut sound.

Previn and the Philharmonic backed Schiff’s effort with clarity and accommodating balances. The whole was purposefully paced, with even the longueurs of the opening integrated in retrospect.

The concert began with explosive readings of the March and Scherzo from “The Love for Three Oranges.” The brisk, direct performance hit with a sonic impact rare in the Pavilion.

In between came the Seventh Symphony, product of a composer broken on the rack of Stalinist cultural ideology in 1948. Inspired in large measure by Rostropovich, Prokofiev was able to overcome the effects of official censure in recomposing the Sinfonia from an earlier concerto, but the careful textures and simple charms of the Seventh reveal little of his typical bite and power.

Previn laid it out neatly enough, without communicating anything more compelling than a sense of compassionate affection for what the work could have been. The Philharmonic responded in kind, with fluent solos and ensemble strength, but aloof in spirit.