MUSIC REVIEW : Nikolai Petrov in Bowl Debut

Hollywood Bowl is a festival of classical pops. That is what the outdoor amphitheater produces regularly, and probably best, and that is what often seems to fill the mammoth showplace with listeners.

Tuesday night, the 1991 subscription season at the Bowl began a second week of concerts with what might seem a cliche of a program. What made it cherishable was the splendid way it was played, by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, led by Yuri Temirkanov, and with pianist Nikolai Petrov as soloist.

Make no mistake: Tchaikovsky’s Fantasy-Overture, “Romeo and Juliet,” Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and Rimsky-Korsakov’s suite, “Scheherazade,” are not works of which anyone need be ashamed, least of all their dead composers. But they are ultra-familiar, overexposed and, when given pedestrian or uninspired performances, tedious.

Temirkanov, a compelling but idiosyncratic conductor, seemed to rise to the occasion of resuscitating these pieces.

“Scheherazade” is a work often, it seems, hauled out not for its beauties--which are considerable--but for its drawing power.

The conductor from Leningrad, who always looks as if he is hard to follow, seemed to bring out its best qualities, as well as its contrasting charms, in a reading full of juice and emotion, beautifully, if nervously, played by the Philharmonic. Concertmaster Sidney Weiss excelled, apparently effortlessly, at the virtuosic violin solos.

Making his Hollywood Bowl and L.A. Philharmonic debuts on the same night, Nikolai Petrov accomplished a perfectly stunning, fluent and apprehendable account of the Rhapsody, one not only technically superb, but emotionally satisfying. What the piece demands in both power and poetry Petrov produced abundantly. With all his resources, the 48-year-old musician seems a pianistic treasure.

Attendance: 11,264.