MUSIC REVIEW : Jansons Conducts Leningrad Phiharmonic

Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, a work heard hereabouts, year in and year out, more than regularly--in the last 10 days, one could count at least three performances in local halls, for instance--is so familiar we often take it for granted.

But there was nothing to take for granted Thursday night when the visiting Leningrad Philharmonic played the second of its four tour programs in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and ended it with the ubiquitous Fifth.

As was reported after the Leningrad orchestra appeared in Costa Mesa on Sunday--with the same program it later performed on Wednesday in the Pavilion--its Tchaikovsky playing is revelatory.

This time, associate conductor Mariss Jansons led the orchestra in a program beginning with a suite from Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet,” and the same composer’s First Piano Concerto.

Jansons, who proved his expertise as a Tchaikovskian when he made his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in March, 1988, again showed his mastery at the close of this agenda.

The Latvian-born musician’s reading of the Fifth had the musical authority and emotional grasp of his remembered Second, Fourth and Sixth Symphonies with our own Philharmonic, at those Wiltern Theatre performances.

Fervor, plasticity of line and emotional directness made this a memorable performance. And the Soviet orchestra played splendidly, giving Jansons all the sweep and detailing of his well-paced conception. Some of those details will remain in the memory for a long time to come.

The Prokofiev half of this performance, however, disappointed.

In the “Romeo” suite, Jansons seemed to encourage the band to overplay. He certainly did not discourage the very loud and unmodulated blasting that emerged regularly during these five movements. What one heard at the peaks of loudness was more noise than resonance, and quite unpleasant. Also, the playing was unbalanced and exhibited quirky tone qualities.

The disappointment in the D-flat Piano Concerto was in not being able to hear with reasonable clarity what seemed to be a definitive reading by Dmitri Alexeyev, who had played the Third Concerto at the concerts of Sunday and Wednesday.

Alexeyev would appear to be as accomplished and charismatic as his reputation. What one could hear, beneath the sonic storm usually covering his playing, made the blood rush and the eyebrows raise. And in a work we used to consider more interesting than cherishable. Obviously, this is a pianist.