MUSIC REVIEW : Miller Leads Philharmonic in Riveting Rands Premiere

Conducting his first evening program of the new year, David Alan Miller brought to the podium of the Los Angeles Philharmonic exceptional thoughtfulness and restraint.

The program for these mid-January concerts--a recent orchestral work by Bernard Rands, Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and Mendelssohn’s “Scottish” Symphony--doesn’t necessarily require such inwardness, but, in Miller’s hands, it all made sense.

An overriding concern about current world events may explain the particularly quiet mood in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Thursday night. The normally large subscription audience seemed undiminished in size, yet its responses to the playing, though interested, became uncharacteristically muted.

For the experienced listener, what gave the most surprise was the thoughtful approach applied to Rachmaninoff’s fiery Rhapsody for piano and orchestra. Here it was played handsomely and authoritatively, but with uncommon quietude, by Alexander Toradze and the Philharmonic, yielding a new perspective on very familiar music.

Over the years, Toradze has seemed to specialize in the violent, the demonic and the virtuosic. This time, although his pianistic resources certainly proved in first-class working order, he chose to use his powers of concentration in ways poetic rather than vehement. The results produced a certain, unique charm.

Rands’ ”. . . body and shadow . . . ,” written for and first performed by the Boston Symphony two years ago, seems to be a compelling orchestral canvas. It juxtaposes an objective, direct and cool opening movement with a lyric, impressionistic and melodious second. The 22-minute work holds the listener through not only these natural contrasts but also a progression of changing instrumental textures that prove engrossing in themselves.

With unflagging authority and a clear sense of familiarity, Miller and the orchestra made this West Coast premiere sound important; further hearings, certainly deserved, ought to confirm that impression.

Closing the program, Miller and the orchestra achieved a mostly felicitous reading of Mendelssohn’s Third Symphony, one strong in soloism, in mellow tone and in a fine sense of continuity. In an apprehendable musical line, the performance moved convincingly from start to finish.