MUSIC REVIEW : Foster Leads L.A. Philharmonic

Players of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, no less than other workers in the fields, benefit occasionally from a hiatus in their labors.

Tuesday, when the orchestra returned to Hollywood Bowl after a week’s vacation, its audience also profited from the break: The Philharmonic, under its old and good friend, Lawrence Foster, played up to its best standard.

Elgar’s “Enigma” Variations, climaxing and concluding the Tuesday program in Cahuenga Pass, exhibited the players’ deep sense of ensemble, their strong skills as soloists and their accomplished use of symphonic resources--in ever-shifting and transparent instrumental textures.

Foster--now 48, and recently named music director of the Aspen Festival and School in Colorado--led our virtuosic band with a benign discipline and an appreciation for the composer’s kaleidoscopic emotional canvas. A gorgeous, controlled performance.

Familiar music by Felix Mendelssohn occupied the first half of this program, heard by a reported 8,849 paying customers.

The incidental music to “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” began the proceedings joyously--how elegant the Wedding March when not wheezed by an organ!--in tight and directional readings of exceptional finesse. These were compromised only by the whir of passing aircraft and freeway traffic.

And Joseph Kalichstein, a regular visitor with this orchestra for 15 years, was soloist in a pleasant revival of the G-minor Piano Concerto, which he played sturdily, if without either maximum exuberance or irresistible authority. Perhaps, as always, the outdoor setting precluded the pianist’s making a deep connection with his audience. The strange-sounding and boxy amplification of the piano on this occasion certainly did not help.