MUSIC REVIEW : Pianist Frankl, Philharmonic at the Bowl

Peter Frankl has been a regular visitor to our musical bailiwick since 1976, when, at the age of 41, he gave a belated but acclaimed debut recital in Royce Hall. Since then, the Hungarian-born pianist seems to have pleased all observers at each return.

Thursday night, deputizing for the indisposed Alfred Brendel at what would have been Brendel’s second Hollywood Bowl appearance in this opening week of the 71st Bowl season, Frankl did it again: He proved himself a worthy, valuable, authoritative musician of abundant resources.

Substituting for ailing colleagues is not an ignoble calling, but Frankl, now 56 and for the past quarter-century a British citizen, deserves his own niche. From the evidence of his solid and expressive performance of Beethoven’s C-major Concerto, one obvious assignment would be all five of that composer’s piano concertos.

Not all the wit and gaiety in the finale were realized in this stylish reading, in which Frankl was assisted tautly by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, led by Lawrence Foster, but specific moments throughout the work attested the pianist’s individuality.

This was playing of sweep and urgency and unflagging control. The performance unfolded in unforced continuity, its profile unblemished by superfluous detail, but its progress thoroughly characterized. More Frankl, please.

Foster’s positive and exigent influence on the Philharmonic’s playing cannot be overstated, given the superbly contrasting, mechanically tight and stylistically differentiated remainder of this program.

Conductor and orchestra brought jolly, self-fulfilling virtuoso display to the complexities of Berlioz’s “Corsaire” Overture at the top of the program.

Then, after intermission, they maintained that high level of showmanship in two suites labeled “No. 2”: one from Bizet’s “L’Arlesienne,” the other from Ravel’s “Daphnis et Chloe.” Among the brilliant solo contributors, the most brilliant may have been flutist Anne Diener Giles, whose achievements seem to combine limpid sound with unforced virtuosity.