Music Reviews : Isaac Stern Performs at Philharmonic Benefit

It was time for the Los Angeles Philharmonic pension fund concert, Monday at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, and the call of “Round up the usual suspects!” must have gone out. The names may change, but the faces--and the music--are always familiar at these annual benefits.

For this edition the guests were conductor Leonard Slatkin and violinist Isaac Stern, and their subject matter was three middle-period Beethoven classics.

The good news was that the occasion found the 69-year-old violinist near the peak of his form. There were patches of mechanical disinterest and technical lapses, but for the most part Stern played with consistent spirit and control.

His tone was bright and clear, seldom edgy, and the bravura bits well-articulated. He seemed more concerned with expressive elegance than muscular extroversion. He found particular passion in the Kreisler cadenzas, which he shaped with vigorous purpose and integrated into the concerto with rare authority and point.

A miscalculation was the slow tempo for the Larghetto. Mining the wistful subtext, Stern projected affecting moments, but couldn’t sustain a sense of connectedness and direction. The Rondo was also taken somewhat deliberately, but there the feeling was one of relaxed brio.

Slatkin and a reduced band of beneficiaries accompanied gracefully, with tellingly deployed reserves of power. Occasionally they overwhelmed Stern’s efforts, but the whole was a cohesive joy.

For their own, Slatkin and the orchestra had the “Egmont” Overture and the Eighth Symphony. Slatkin’s Eighth was swift, limber and dramatic, marked by strong dynamic contrasts and articulative punch. His “Egmont”--the distortion of the opening sarabande rhythm aside--was similar, both expressive and illuminative.

The musicians responded with alert, balanced strength. Ensemble values were surprisingly high, given the limited rehearsal, in performances that repaid the benefaction with interest.