MUSIC REVIEW : Alexander Paley Plays Tchaikovsky at Bowl

It can be a disconcerting experience sitting through a performance of Tchaikovsky’s Second Piano Concerto. Disconcerting because it suggests to an open-minded listener that somewhere inside Tchaikovsky’s psyche, and certainly not deep inside, lay the makings of a hack.

At the Hollywood Bowl Thursday, the Moldavian emigre pianist Alexander Paley took on this sometimes neglected, long-winded concerto (in Alexander Siloti’s substantially cut edition), and despite some heroic efforts on its behalf, could not revive it.

This much should be said however: Paley apparently doesn’t hold a low opinion of the work. He played it as if it were as profound and elegant and exciting a concerto as ever was written. That is, of course, as it should be. But such an approach has its pluses and minuses.

Performancewise, his reading had few dead spots. He brought rapt attention and delicate, distended nuance to Tchaikovsky’s lyrical efforts and a dramatic flair to the bombast--he shaped the bombast. This led to overstatement of the obvious in a few cases when understatement would have been the better part of valor. But it also provided much borderline material with the necessary fervor to make it convincing.

Paley’s technical grasp of the taxing work was never in doubt. Lawrence Foster and the Los Angeles Philharmonic supplied a hefty, occasionally overpowering accompaniment.

The rest of the program, the Bowl’s penultimate of the season, was taken up with Russian bonbons. Foster led a wonderfully knowing account of Prokofiev’s “Lieutenant Kije” Suite after intermission, an account refined in instrumental detail, subtle in character and generally tidy. Thomas Stevens offered glowing onstage trumpet solos.

Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Capriccio Espagnol” didn’t fare quite as well, some poorly gauged balances and mistimed ensemble work keeping the otherwise colorful reading earthbound. Glinka’s “Russlan and Ludmilla” Overture served as the nimbly and forcefully executed curtain raiser.

Official attendance: 10,768.