MUSIC REVIEW : Philharmonic Shines in the Eclectic

In a fascinating set of five programs, Esa-Pekka Salonen inaugurates his tenure as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic this fall with repertory both eclectic and unhackneyed.

Thursday night, in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion of the Music Center, Salonen’s third program--after the fifth, he leaves the Philharmonic podium to guest conductors, until February--brought particularly uncliched works to the orchestra’s weekly subscribers.

It began with the West Coast premiere of Fred Lerdahl’s 5-year-old “Cross-Currents,” revived Robert Schumann’s long-missing (from Philharmonic concerts) Cello Concerto and reached its climax in the hardly overplayed Fifth Symphony by Carl Nielsen. Nielsen’s powerful work had not been played here since Gerhard Samuel last conducted it in the Pavilion, in the spring of 1972.

The potency of Nielsen’s impassioned rhetoric remains as strong now as it was, 20 years ago--when the work was already half a century old. Thursday night, a renascent and alert Philharmonic gave the piece all the contrasts it may contain, as well as all the drama it can bear, yet without any of the overplaying or stridency some may remember from years past.

This was a masterly reading, complete with bold instrumental strokes, a generous dynamic scheme and thrilling outbursts from both brass and string choirs, as well as perfectly gauged woodwind solos. Salonen’s fine-grained detailing and natural pacing accorded the work an ascendant emotionalism; the orchestra supported his structural overview with especial care.

Before this catharsis, a quieter one materialized in the first Philharmonic performance since 1969 of Schumann’s Cello Concerto. The soloist this time was Yo-Yo Ma, who produced as convincing a musical line in this tightly wrought work as it is likely to receive.

Beauteous sounds and utter concentration are the threads that tie together Ma’s wide-ranging repertory; one has long since taken his technical wizardry for granted. This time, he brought Schumann’s fragile masterpiece to fruition with immaculate articulation, making each musical sentence an integral part of the whole. Salonen and the orchestra were attentive partners.

Lerdahl’s “Cross-Currents” uses all parts of the symphonic ensemble in rotation rather than in congress, creating Oriental calm through instrumental fragmentation.

In 11 minutes of steady orchestral activity, the players produce a long string of portentous, haunting, fluid, skittering and distracted statements, all connected by brief silences; there are few unfilled sound-moments here. The piece, and composer Lerdahl, taking a bow with Salonen, were cheered by the Thursday night audience.