MUSIC REVIEW : Nelson Freire With Buckley, Philharmonic

Competence rather than conviction seemed to characterize the achievement of Richard Buckley when the conductor led his second Hollywood Bowl concert Thursday night.

For the 36-year-old American musician, the Los Angeles Philharmonic played carefully but without maximum interest or energy.

Buckley’s program, made up of Shostakovich’s “Festive Overture,” the second suite from Prokofiev’s ballet, “Romeo and Juliet,” and Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto, might have been planned for display. In the event, it revealed the conductor’s shallowness more than the brilliance of the orchestra.

Returning after an absence of almost 17 1/2 years, Nelson Freire made the D-minor Concerto an occasion of triumph. Few pianists conquer its extrovert challenges so completely, and effortlessly, while at the same time delivering the rich panorama of its inner musical life.

The Brazilian pianist, now 44, seems to command the full range of Rachmaninovian nuance--which is saying a lot, where the complexities of this work are concerned--plus the digitality and stamina to hold it all together. Freire may well be the Jorge Bolet of his generation: a great musician disguised as a piano virtuoso.

In the concerto, the Philharmonic players--before an audience of Rachmaninoff lovers counted at 10,179--responded nimbly to Freire and Buckley. To Shostakovich’s cliche-ridden, neo-Tchaikovskyan overture, they provided a crisp and bright reading.

Without genuine inspiration emanating from the podium, they moved through the “Romeo” excerpts neatly enough, leaving dramatic urgency to come after intermission.