MUSIC REVIEW : St. Petersburg Philharmonic Shows Off Big-League Skill

Three years after belated Southern California debut appearances, one of the great orchestras of Europe returned to us Sunday--but with a new name. That name is St. Petersburg Philharmonic and the ensemble has been, like the city of its origin, redubbed since that first visit in 1990.

Whatever you call it, the orchestra that played a matinee concert in Segerstrom Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center is bigger than life: It makes a mighty sound, which can be scaled down to a wispy pianissimo or turned up to a major symphonic blast. It plays passionately and accurately at all speeds, indulges in ritards and every other kind of rhythmic nuance at the flick of a wrist and makes beautiful sounds in almost every moment.

No, it does not invariably produce the awesome precision of another great Philharmonic, that of Berlin, nor does it command the consistent warmth and lushness of the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam. Yet it is irrefutably in their league in all matters musical and technical.

Sunday afternoon in Costa Mesa, under its Latvian-born principal conductor, Mariss Jansons, the orchestra played a Rossini/Rachmaninoff program that had to open ears, thrill hearts and titillate minds. (The same program, with the same conductor, will be given Sunday in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at the Music Center; Saturday, music director Yuri Temirkanov leads the orchestra in a Tchaikovsky program at the Pavilion.)

The thrills in the “Gazza Ladra” Overture consisted of more than hearing 100 players meet Rossini’s virtuosic challenges in tight and transparent ensemble--something like observing a massive truck speed through an alley at 90 m.p.h. They also included equally deft handling of the composer’s singing phrases and quick passagework, and artful projection of the wit therein. At all times, the players seemed to be giving Jansons’ expressive conducting everything it asked.

Rachmaninoff’s big-boned Symphonic Dances, arguably his masterpiece, expose any orchestra to critical scrutiny; its demands are many, and many-faceted. Jansons & Co. accomplished a kaleidoscopic and sweeping performance that illuminated details, probed the work’s emotional life, and projected all its beauties.

As he had in 1990, pianist Dmitri Alexeev (the spelling of his surname is new this year) proved the ideal soloist in his chosen vehicle. Through any given season, audiences hear countless run-throughs of Rachmaninoff’s “Paganini” Rhapsody, and tend to approach each one with some trepidation--experienced listeners suffer disappointments more often than others.

This performance, handsomely seconded by conductor and Philharmonic, reclaimed the authenticity of the piece in terms of pianistic resourcefulness, musical continuity and myriad details of touch and timing. It flowed, but never predictably; one knew what was coming, but not how it would be colored or inflected. It sang, but with a fresh voice. And every note seemed part of the grand design. Now, we must hear Alexeev in recital.

At the end of the afternoon, and in response to loud approval from the Costa Mesa audience, Jansons and the orchestra offered two encores, Elgar’s “Wild Bears” and the March from Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Coq d’Or.”