Music Reviews : Salonen Conducts ‘Sacre’ and Brahms

April has been Esa-Pekka Salonen month at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, giving us an extended look at the talents and tastes of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s next music director.

Last week’s program of Haydn, Carter and Sibelius was a remarkably concise summary of the range of repertory that Salonen does best. Thursday night, beginning Salonen’s final weekend on the podium, we weren’t as fortunate.

Stravinsky’s “Le Sacre du Printemps” ought to be prime Salonen territory, yet his performance Thursday only had flashes of real excitement. Salonen is not one for an analytical, pinpointing approach; he apparently prefers a vaguely defined, slightly diffuse big picture.

While there were violent accents aplenty, the galvanic rhythms were rounded off and tamed where they should leap and lurch. Also, the Philharmonic has sounded more alert in past “Rites” than it did Thursday.

Salonen is one of those rare conductors who realize that “Sacre” can be just as incendiary a work today as it was in 1913. The best moments were the ones where he simply let everything rip, with tearing, devastating effect, in the “Procession of the Sage” and the “Dance of the Earth.”

And he puts on a snazzy physical show for the customers--hair flying, body convulsing almost like a possessed Petrushka.

Alas, before getting to the Stravinsky, one had to wade through a drifting, monotonous performance of Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1.

There was very little contrast or fire in pianist Peter Donohoe’s work, mostly a lot of watery, slurred legatos under heavy pedal. At first, Salonen seemed bent upon drowning out his mild-mannered pianist with thick, lumpish orchestral sound, but he did produce some impressively quiet pianissimos later on. In any case, it was not his finest hour--correction, 47 minutes.