MUSIC REVIEW : Perlman Offers Some Pleasantries

Some great performers take their listeners on spiritual odysseys, all the while enlightening them, challenging them, invigorating them.

Sunday, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, violinist Itzhak Perlman took his listeners for a stroll around the block. Everything was familiar, comfortable, friendly. Neither arduous music nor arduous music-making blotched the atmosphere of peace and tranquillity in Mr. Perlman’s neighborhood. He should have worn a cardigan, not a tux.

Beethoven’s congenial Sonata No. 8 in G, Schumann’s urgent Sonata No. 1 in A minor (congenial in Perlman’s hands) and, a rarity, Stravinsky’s Divertimento, based on music from “The Fairy’s Kiss” (Stravinsky at his easiest), made up the printed agenda.

But it was when Perlman brought out a stack of music at encore time that the audience went into rapture, and when Perlman played some of it he seemed at his best. Here, in two Kreisler transcriptions, a Heifetz transcription, in Elgar’s “Salut d’amour” and Saint-Saens’ Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, musician and music were in perfect harmony.

Earlier, things proved less convincing. The 48-year-old violinist gave the Beethoven sonata the easy once-through, slighting its contrasts, smoothing out its playfulness. The giddy finale refused to take off, thanks to some less-than-stellar ensemble work between Perlman and his accompanist, Janet Goodman Guggenheim.

Schumann’s lofty music sounded pleasant and earthbound, with Perlman offering all-purpose richness and lyricism yet little sense of the longer line, and a sometimes resourceful Guggenheim, the piano lid almost closed, too often settling for a supporting role.

Stravinsky’s Divertimento found Perlman apparently more involved, lending its Tchaikovsky tunes a gentle warmth and curve, its Stravinskian rhythms a bounciness and light drive. Here, the ease of his technique added to the charm of the music.

He revealed the full sugar content of his encores, sparkled gracefully in the virtuoso bits, offered some mild quips in between and earned an instant standing ovation for the fluffiest of the fluff, the Saint-Saens standby. Almost everyone seemed satisfied.