Music Review : Salonen Brings to a Close His L.A. Philharmonic Season

For his last program of the season, Esa-Pekka Salonen mixed and matched a French program listing works written mostly in the 20th Century: Debussy’s “Prelude a l’apres-midi d’un faune,” Dutilleux’s “Tout un monde lointain . . . “ (actually a cello concerto) and two works by Ravel, the suite from “Ma mere l’oye” and “Bolero.”

At the first of three performances Thursday night in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion of the Music Center, this agenda worked as an accumulative series of display pieces. It also showed off members of the orchestra in solo spots and proved both a showcase and a sentimental occasion for the homecoming of cellist Lynn Harrell, protagonist in the unfamiliar Dutilleux piece.

Harrell’s colorful and apparently effortless playing of this cello concerto--as complex, convoluted and arcane a work as the 79-year-old composer may ever have written--moved admirably in the direction of unraveling and demystifying its many secrets.

Still, the 25-minute piece, multifaceted, episodic, non-tonal, distracted, a blind march through a foreign land, resists easy acquaintance. Salonen and the orchestra gave lively, dynamic assistance to the impassioned soloist, but only further hearings are going to make the work lovable.

On the other hand, the surrounding Gallic musical landscape provided familiar and cherishable landmarks neatly performed.

Debussy’s bucolic “Prelude” and Ravel’s inescapable “Bolero,” as contrasting a pair of pieces as one can imagine, framed the program effectively. Ravel’s “Mother Goose” suite approached this orchestra’s, and the composer’s, ideal of transparency admirably.

For those who choose to follow the Philharmonic rather than just its glamorous conductor, 15 more symphonic performances, conducted by Mark Elder, James DePreist and Valery Gergiev, remain in this 1994-95 Pavilion season.

* Los Angeles Philharmonic, Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting; Lynn Harrell, cello soloist. Works by Debussy, Dutilleux and Ravel, played in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion of the Music Center, 135 N. Grand Ave., (213) 850-2000. Final performance: Sunday at 2:30 p.m.