Music : Again, Mozart at Hollywood Bowl Pre-Season Concerts

Stephen Bishop-Kovacevich, the expatriate--what else do you call a Californian who has lived in London for 31 years?--American musician, made his local conducting debut at Hollywood Bowl over the weekend.

And did so more or less impressively. In Mozart programs, Friday and Saturday (also see below), B-K, if one can call him that, presided authoritatively over a reduced version of the Los Angeles Philharmonic both on the podium and from the piano. Of course, it is too soon to judge, but the 49-year-old pianist’s main distinction still seems to be at the keyboard.

Friday, Bishop-Kovacevich did elicit from the Philharmonic players a lively, integrated and neatly thought-through reading of the Symphony No. 38, the “Prague.” Here, the Los Angeles-born musician savored telling details, transparent instrumental textures and nicely articulated playing from his colleagues. A modicum of polish characterized this performance, also.

Considerably less polish, as well as undisguised inattention, marked the program opener, the familiar serenade, “Eine kleine Nachtmusik,” which seemed to suffer from under-rehearsal, as well as performer-ennui. If a conductor doesn’t love this piece to death, he really ought not to haul it out, once more. There are more interesting, as well as safer, options.

Accompanying Anne Diener Giles, a principal flutist of the Philharmonic, Bishop-Kovacevich appeared insensitive to the soloist’s well-projected feelings about the Andante in C, K. 315, and the Rondo in D, K. 184, two still-irresistible pieces to which Giles brought clear stylishness and obvious affection, as well as effortless technique. The conductor’s attention seemed to be elsewhere.

At mid-program, in his own solo-spot, the C-minor Piano Concerto, K. 491, Bishop-Kovacevich seemed most at home.

Here, he showed again the depth and achievement of his long-admired piano-playing. Though the breadth of his repertory is considerable, and may preclude any particular composer-specialization, B-K’s most comfortable place seems to be in the highest peaks of the literature.

In K. 491, he indicated and laid out the climactic places, while tending thoroughly and felicitously to all supporting details. The orchestra, following his lead, produced a reading as comprehensive as it was touching.

Friday’s attendance: 11,139.