MUSIC REVIEW : L.A. Philharmonic Program Salutes Heroism : The concert of works by Wagner, Christopher Rouse and Richard Strauss will be repeated tonight at the Performing Arts Center.

One of the secrets of successful programming is provocative placement. For example: In his second and final week as guest conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, David Zinman put together an agenda--to be repeated tonight in Orange County--in which each of three works played off and illuminated each other most resonantly. In any other order, this music might have made a different kind of impact.

In Wagner’s Prelude to Act III of “Lohengrin,” Christopher Rouse’s Symphony No. 1 and Richard Strauss’ “Don Quixote,” the unspoken theme, as pointed out by Rouse before a concert Thursday night in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion of the Music Center, was heroism.

As played rousingly with stunning instrumental control and polish, the Philharmonic’s evening-opening account of the “Lohengrin” Prelude almost surprised the listener with its simultaneous bravura and containment. Multilevel musical experiences do not happen every week at the Philharmonic.

Yet this one was caused and accomplished with minimal fuss from the podium; Zinman remains a conductor of maximal effectiveness who moves with minimal visual grandstanding.

Rouse’s 6-year-old First Symphony, written for Zinman and his Baltimore Symphony, becomes a work of heroism through struggle, conflict and the rhetoric of alienation. In the 27 intense minutes of this L.A. premiere performance, the Symphony sometimes loudly achieved a finally quiet victory over pessimism, all the while engaging the observer in its progress to that not-predictable end.

The 42-year-old American composer calls this piece tonal, and it may be, if one counts the number of bars in which consonance, rather than grating dissonance, holds sway. But what one remembers is the bite of atonality on the way to sound-resolutions in this gripping, abstract musical scenario. Zinman’s utter conviction seemed reflected in the orchestra’s impassioned and apparently immaculate reading.

“Don Quixote” could boast the heat and expertise of cellist Lynn Harrell, a soloist who has made this work his own through numerous and memorable performances, here and elsewhere.

This time, Harrell seemed mechanically off-form as he began, focusing technically as the piece continued. His is a risk-taking approach in any case, since he chooses to probe in great detail the many facets and nuances in an already complex assignment.

By midpoint, all appeared to fall into place. Violist Evan Wilson--the orchestra’s new acting principal in that section--showed admirable achievement as a Sancho Panza of many virtues and colors; concertmaster Alexander Treger took the violin solos with his usual panache.

At the end, during extended applause from the audience, there was a chaotic scene of male bonding as Harrell, Zinman and Wilson all embraced and took bows, then acknowledged the many solo players in the orchestra who had also contributed. None of this seemed inappropriate.

David Zinman conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Richard Strauss’ “Don Quixote” (with cellist Lynn Harrell), Wagner’s Prelude to Act III of “Lohengrin,” and Rouse’s Symphony No. 1 tonight at 8 at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Tickets: $15 to $42. A free concert preview will be given at 7 p.m. Presented by the Orange County Philharmonic Society. Information: (714) 646-6277.