MUSIC REVIEW : Temirkanov Leads Russian Program at Bowl

Still one of the more inconsistent master conductors on the international scene, Yuri Temirkanov continues to delight and confound. He did both at his second and final Hollywood Bowl concert of 1993 Thursday night in Cahuenga Pass.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic, a symphonic ensemble usually able to follow anyone through anything, on this occasion produced alternating moments of clarified and virtuosic music making and just plain instrumental slovenliness. Those familiar with the orchestra would have to credit the podium guest for both kinds of moments.

Even so, it was largely a satisfying evening at the mammoth amphitheater, where 11,822 happy clappers seemed to have a wonderful time listening to a typical Bowl Russian program, beginning with the Polonaise from Tchaikovsky’s “Yevgeny Onegin,” closing with a suite from Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet” ballet score and offering, in between, young Leif Ove Andsnes as the glamorous soloist in Rachmaninoff’s D-minor Piano Concerto.

Sweep and drama and portentous quietude, the major musical features of the “Romeo” excerpts, emerged strongly at times in what often turned out to be a nervous orchestral performance.

Despite first-rate solos from a number of Philharmonic principals, the level of suavity and mellowness coaxed from the entire orchestra by the two previous conductors this summer simply did not materialize this time around. Uncharacteristically, the orchestra seemed tentative.

Rachmaninoff’s Third Concerto, which received a virtual standing ovation at its conclusion, also occupied a mediocre performance level. Andsnes, the 23-year-old Norwegian virtuoso, certainly covered all its technical bases confidently and with no apparent discomfort.

Nevertheless, the work’s myriad musical and emotional complexities were merely indicated, not probed, and its kaleidoscope of pianistic colors emerged mostly one-dimensional.

Whatever else Andsnes is--gifted, accomplished and artistically astute, certainly--he is not yet a poet, and poetry is the necessary quality needed to set off this work’s heroism. Without a contrasting vulnerability, steeliness has little value.