MUSIC REVIEW : Bowl Preseason Opener

A long-standing tradition at Hollywood Bowl offers small-orchestra fare during the week preceding the opening of the summer subscription season. This year, two preseason events bring Gerard Schwarz back to the podium of the reduced-in-size Los Angeles Philharmonic.

The first of these was a Mozart program in the outdoor amphitheater Tuesday night. Schwarz, the 44-year-old music director of the Seattle Symphony and former leader of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, chose the Symphonies Nos. 34 and 41 to surround the Piano Concerto in F, K. 459.

Until the closing movements of the “Jupiter” Symphony, however, low-voltage was the energy level of this concert. Thirty-nine players of the Philharmonic, returning from vacation, seemed less than primed for this performance, and Schwarz, usually an elegant Mozartean, seemed musically to be pushing boulders up a steep incline.

His approach to the irresistible charms of the Symphony No. 34 appeared to be one of breeziness and haste, a perfectly valid perspective, when it works. On this occasion, the symphonic machine--this particular set of musicians--lacked the oil to meet such an approach. There was more grind than slide in the result.

Bruce Brubaker, a 33-year-old, prize-winning pianist, made a solid impression--despite some memory slips in the first movement--in his undercharacterized reading of K. 459. Technically impeccable, especially in his polished laying-out of Mozart’s own cadenzas, Brubaker’s performance nevertheless suffered from blandness and a lack of aggression from the keyboard. Schwarz and the reduced orchestra assisted neatly.

After a nervous and unfocused beginning, Schwarz’s leadership of the “Jupiter” Symphony netted a touching, well-paced reading of the Andante cantabile, a buoyant realization of the Minuetto and a tight and alert, if not always immaculate, run-through of the finale. Attendance: 7,462.