MUSIC REVIEW : Sometimes Little Things Mean Less

The Los Angeles Philharmonic is suffering from a split personality this week, and next week promises more of the same.

Esa-Pekka Salonen and 66 key members of our resident orchestra are staffing the Music Center Opera pit on behalf of Peter Sellars, Claude Debussy and “Pelleas et Melisande” (see Page 1). Meanwhile, the leftover players, mostly culled from slightly lower ranks, are venturing Bach and Mozart (with Haydn to come) on the forestage of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion with and for Jaime Laredo.

Functioning as solo violinist as well as guest conductor (with viola duties to come), Laredo is making a valiant effort to hone Philharmonic virtues in crucially intimate challenges. Our virtuoso ensemble isn’t often celebrated for its efforts to go for Baroque, and bigger, he reminds us, isn’t always better.

Friday night, in the first of two scheduled programs, Laredo and friends proved three points: (1) playing Bach is hard; (2) playing Bach well is harder; (3) playing Bach stylishly under the prevailing conditions is virtually impossible.

The Fifth “Brandenburg” Concerto, which opened the program, requires bravura flourishes from the central flute, violin and harpsichord. It also requires sensitive, cohesive responses from a chamber orchestra, not to mention a uniform interpretive approach and sensitivity in depth to matters of authentic embellishment, dynamic definition and imitative phrasing.

It takes a lot of time to get a random group of players to think, blow and bow as one, especially if there is no boss to enforce order on the podium. It takes a lot of scholarship, not to mention patience, to persuade all-purpose instrumentalists that Bach isn’t short for Bachmaninoff .

On this occasion, Janet Ferguson, a principal flutist here since 1985, tootled prettily. Laredo fiddled energetically and offered cues, when possible, with the nod of his head. Jeffrey Kahane kept his deft fingers busy on the harpsichord, but despite discreet amplification could seldom be heard. Some 20 Philharmonic players, with associate concertmaster Bing Wang at the first chair, scrambled to follow virtually invisible orders.

The result was not very neat and, worse, not very interesting. Although everyone’s intentions must have been noble, this remained mechanical Bach, intrinsically modern ( ergo anachronistic) and more dutiful than beautiful.

The Violin Concerto No. 1, BWV 1041, which opened the second half of the program, offered more of the same. One admired Laredo’s dexterity. One admired the orchestra’s reasonable steadiness under seemingly leaderless pressure. One listened in vain for the all-important harpsichord continuo mustered in the remote distance by Grant Gershon.

And one wondered where all the elegance and urgency had gone.

The Mozart half of the agenda began with an oddly Romanticized performance of the E-flat Piano Concerto, K. 271, performed with more bravado than finesse by Kahane with Laredo beating time in the background. The evening ended with the Symphony No. 29, K. 201, dispatched with blank efficiency.

Little things don’t always mean a lot.

* Jaime Laredo returns to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion of the Music Center with members of Los Angeles Philharmonic in music of Bach, Mozart and Haydn Thursday at 8 p.m., Friday at 1:30, Saturday at 8 and Sunday at 2:30. Tickets $6 (student rush) to $50. (213) 365-3500. Laredo also presides over a Symphonies for Youth program Saturday at 10:15 a.m., and an Open House for children, Saturday at 11:30. Information: (213) 850-2000.