The Toast of New York? (Or Will He Be Just Toast?) : The L.A. Philharmonic hasn’t played the Big Apple in four years, and never with Esa-Pekka Salonen. Neither conductor nor orchestra has ever been the toast of the town, so what makes them think next week will be any different?

The Los Angeles Philharmonic comes to Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall next week, its first visit to New York in four years and its first trip here with its music director, Esa-Pekka Salonen. Once more, the orchestra joins the great New York musical jostle for recognition.

The parade of orchestras visiting New York this season has already included the Boston Symphony and the Philadelphia Orchestra (both of which offer short seasons here), the Pittsburgh Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, the Houston Symphony, Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, along with orchestras from St. Petersburg, London, Osaka, Weimar, Wales and Slovakia.

And the season is only 2 months old.

Still to come are dozens more orchestras, from Oslo to Austria, from Cincinnati to Costa Rica. They come because the record business is still based here, because the music management companies are here, and because New York reviews help sell tickets and please boards at home.

Many orchestras make regular annual visits, coming here with their own well-oiled publicity machines operating at full tilt, and they get additional publicity support from either Lincoln Center or Carnegie Hall--the two major New York concert venues. Some even hire private local public relations firms for further hype expertise. The competition for attention is steep, and New York, of course, has its own several orchestras, including two world-class ones--the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

How, then, can any single orchestra--or at least any orchestra that is not the Vienna Philharmonic or the Concertgebouw--really make much of an impact in such a climate? Especially given the fact that space in the local newspapers and magazines (all of which have reduced classical music coverage, some drastically, in recent years) is at a premium. The fight (and it really has become just that) for big audiences has become tougher than ever.

Can the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which hasn’t performed in New York for four years, compete?

Apparently it can and will. A surprising amount of attention seems to surround the upcoming appearances in Fisher Hall next Sunday and Nov. 28, since they will be not only the orchestra’s first New York appearances under Esa-Pekka Salonen but the start of an annual pilgrimage by the orchestra and its music director to Lincoln Center. Both the New Yorker and the New York Times, the two most influential publications in town, have commissioned pieces on Salonen. If anything is likely to produce a buzz, such a rare double publicity whammy should.

But what makes this interest especially noteworthy is the fact that New York has in recent years not shown much enthusiasm for the Philharmonic, for its previous three music directors, for other conductors closely associated with it, or for Salonen. Andre Previn, who lives in nearby Westchester County, is now a regular in New York, guest conducting the New York Philharmonic and Orchestra of St. Luke’s, appearing in chamber music, but he tends to generate cool respect and is no longer a hot box-office draw.

Carlo Maria Giulini, however beloved internationally, never had much of a presence in New York. Zubin Mehta, who left the Los Angeles Philharmonic to become music director of the New York Philharmonic, remained here for 13 years, after which time the press had become decidedly hostile toward him, and the orchestra, itself, dispirited. Although Mehta is not regularly invited back to conduct the New York Philharmonic, he does return regularly with the Israel Philharmonic, and he does retain a public.

Nor has the Los Angeles Philharmonic had much better luck with former principal guest conductors who toured with it. Simon Rattle, one of the most admired conductors in Europe and elsewhere in the United States, has conducted little in New York, and his couple of appearances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic or his own highly regarded City of Birmingham Orchestra did not leave a lasting impression. Michael Tilson Thomas, once a regular in the city, now seldom appears. Kurt Sanderling, much revered in Los Angeles and Europe, was somewhat dismissed in New York.

Salonen, himself, has not had any better luck in New York. He, too, has practically no presence here, outside of his recordings. Eight years ago he guest conducted the New York Philharmonic, generated no sparks, and was not invited back. Three seasons ago, Salonen returned with the Swedish Radio Orchestra to no better acclaim.

But Salonen has little to say about such matters: “I am looking forward to returning to New York, especially since these will be the first concerts I conduct in New York with the Los Angeles Philharmonic,” he cautiously remarked during a break between rehearsals with the orchestra last week. “I know the players anticipate our New York concerts, and the prospect of returning regularly in the future to play for New York audiences is especially appealing for both them and me.”

It is never clear why a city as complex and chaotic as New York acts the way it does, whether in matters of politics, social attitudes, eating habits, fashion trends or the arts. But this time, several factors in play seem to have the potential to change New York’s outlook on the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

The first is canny planning on the orchestra’s part. “We’ve purposely waited with Esa-Pekka until he and the orchestra have had time to settle down and get to know each other,” explains Ernest Fleischmann, managing director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

It is a strategy that appears likely to work, given the fact that New York is hungry for exciting young conductors. Last year both Kent Nagano and Russian conductor Valery Gergiev had startling successes, although in previous seasons they had not attracted nearly such attention. Many have their eyes on Franz Welser-Most.

Among established conductors, Colin Davis, on the rare occasions he can be enticed here, is a much-admired figure, and so, too, is Pierre Boulez, now that a couple of decades have passed since his troubled music directorship of the New York Philharmonic.

But beyond that, it is hard to find a conductor, young or old, who is much of a draw--more often it is the orchestra, soloist or repertoire that attracts the main attention. Moreover, while sophisticated New Yorkers might like to think themselves aloof from some of Salonen’s more obvious attractions--his youth and good looks--they have been known to be seduced.

Salonen will also have some of the same advantages that Nagano, Gergiev and Welser-Most have had, namely an aggressive push from his record company, Sony Classical. Unlike many American cities, the New York audience for concerts and recordings overlaps, and Salonen comes to town with many acclaimed recordings with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

In addition, Sony has released two new compact discs to coincide with the tour, including the premiere recording of Witold Lutoslawski’s Fourth Symphony, which will be getting its New York premiere. Sony will also actively promote Salonen, including throwing a luncheon to introduce him to the press.

Fleischmann also has had some good luck on his side this time around. It so happens that the two Philharmonic dates--the Sunday and Monday following Thanksgiving--offer few conflicts to music lovers or press. There are no important events at Carnegie Hall at that time. At Lincoln Center, in the smaller Alice Tully Hall, the popular American soprano Sylvia McNair offers a recital at the same time as the Philharmonic’s Sunday matinee; Monday night the Metropolitan Opera performs “Don Giovanni,” but it is not a new production or a first night.

This really is sheer luck. The Philharmonic’s two-week tour--which begins in Mexico City on Tuesday, moves on to Washington Saturday night, and follows New York with four days in Florida--is planned, according to Fleischmann, because Thanksgiving tends to be a slow time at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Moreover, December, while always the slowest month for visiting orchestras in New York, is unusually uncluttered this year (only the Oslo Symphony at Carnegie Hall), which means that if the Philharmonic makes a good impression, it is likely to be better remembered.

But what may also most affect the Philharmonic’s reception is that New York itself is a changed town from what it once was. Both the New York Times and the New Yorker have changed chief music critics since the last time the Philharmonic was in town, and both have shown considerable interest in the Philharmonic. The Times’ Edward Rothstein has traveled to Los Angeles the past two seasons to review the orchestra (although neither time when Salonen was conducting), and the New Yorker’s Paul Griffiths has also spent time in Los Angeles preparing his piece on Salonen.

Moreover, a sampling of past New York Times Philharmonic reviews indicates that they have not been all that harsh, simply a bit lackluster. For instance, when the Philharmonic last visited New York, it had a prestigious date, the opening concert of Carnegie’s 100th season. Donal Henahan, then the chief Times critic, wrote that performances under Previn were “hardly different from what might be encountered from a visiting orchestra on almost any night during an ordinary Carnegie season” but seemed a bit pallid only because this was supposed to be a gala occasion.

Ten years earlier, Peter G. Davis, now music critic for New York magazine, wrote that “excellent though it may be in many departments, (the Los Angeles Philharmonic) is not a virtuoso orchestra.” It was good enough, however, for Davis to find in a performance of Tchaikovsky’s “Pathetique,” under Giulini, that “expressive intensity was achieved with utmost discretion and fastidious attention to detail.”

The New York press is not, in fact, really quite so tough as its reputation. Very few reviews of any major orchestra are outright pans. But while those reviews may sound just fine at home, many in New York view a modest success as no success at all, since it will do nothing to make an orchestra stand out from the crowd.

It is also a myth that there is, particularly these days, a unified voice or attitude in the press. But too much hype always presents a danger. If a major publication takes too emphatic a stand, it is a sure bet that some other publication will find the need to react to that .

And New York would hardly be New York if it didn’t push its visitors around, at least a little. It is no secret that Previn and the Philharmonic did not part amicably, so could it be just a coincidence that at McNair’s Tully recital, the same hour as the Philharmonic’s Sunday concert, the soprano will sing the premiere of four new songs by Previn to texts of Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison?

* The Los Angeles Philharmonic performs next Sunday at 3 p.m. and Nov. 28 at 8 p.m. at Avery Fisher Hall, New York.