MUSIC REVIEW : Philharmonic Institute Orchestra Offers a Little Flair at Royce Hall

There were enough comings and goings, offstage peepings and beckonings, unexplained bangs and creakings, and shtick with the physical properties at Royce Hall Sunday evening for something by Feydeau. The official scripts for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute Orchestra, however, by Jacob Druckman, Mozart and Shostakovich, were treated with becoming intensity and flair.

After a bit by Druckman and Institute director Lynn Harrell with a malfunctioning public-address system, the comedy peaked in a routine for stage crew and piano lid, with score by Mozart. As part of the lengthy reshuffling of the stage between Druckman’s “Aureole” and Mozart’s E-flat Piano Concerto, K. 482, the lid of the piano was removed, much to the loudly muttered befuddlement of soloist Yefim Bronfman.

Harrell dashed down the aisle to intervene, but after consultation Bronfman decided to try the instrument as he found it. After the first movement, though, Harrell insistently beckoned conductor Lan Shui and Bronfman over to the side, and out came the crew with the lid, with more grumbling commentary from the pianist.

The restoration of the lid did much to focus and clarify the instrument’s sound, and Bronfman worked out whatever feelings of persecution he may have had in a chilly dissection of the Andante, followed by an athletically pointed Rondo. Bronfman was originally scheduled to lead the orchestra from the keyboard, but Institute fellow Lan Shui proved a valuable substitute on the podium, guiding a reduced band in a mellow, pertinent accompaniment.

Druckman’s “Aureole” is a colorful, percussion-rich soundscape from 1979, more explosive than shimmering but also purposefully committed to clear linear direction. William Eddins, an Institute associate fellow, maintained the forward momentum inherent in the piece, eliciting crisp, clean playing from the very full orchestra.

The only thing funny about the culminating Shostakovich Fifth Symphony was the awkwardly wiggling podium dance it inspired in conductor David Alan Miller in the Allegretto. His was a reading more convincing in suave, affecting lyricism than poorly balanced thunder, encompassing a world of tragedy in his dramatically articulated Largo.