MUSIC REVIEW : Temirkanov, Philharmonic Sparkle

Brilliance and elegance, sometimes mutually exclusive qualities, came together neatly at the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Thanksgiving week program presided over by Yuri Temirkanov.

Friday night in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, both the ready-to-be-inspired orchestra and the often inconsistent conductor, clearly egging each other on, achieved awesome musical standards.

The agenda, which the cynical might identify as a pops program, unashamedly offered accessibility: Rimsky-Korsakov’s sometimes forgotten Overture, “The Russian Easter Festival,” led handsomely into Lynn Harrell’s impassioned and golden-toned playing of Dvorak’s Cello Concerto; after intermission came Rachmaninoff’s stirring Symphonic Dances in a resplendent performance.

Guest conductor Temirkanov led all three works with a perceivable continuity, letting each movement ebb and flow to its own communicative ends.

The near-surprise was not the conductor’s control of plasticity of phrase and line--which in the finer moments of previous visits he has shown in masterly fashion--but rather the Philharmonic’s ability to achieve both nuance and virtuosity on demand. All of the playing became superior; some of it proved spectacular.

The vexing question regarding the Symphonic Dances does not involve the work’s quality or its stature as Rachmaninoff’s masterpiece. The question is: Will we ever take the composer seriously enough to give him and this wondrous piece the respect they deserve?

In any case, this performance realized not just the beauties, but all the intricacies and inner life of the Dances. Earlier, Temirkanov had explored Rimsky’s overture with the same careful affection.

At concert’s center, cellist Harrell made the well-worn Dvorak piece, which we seem to hear once a month, year-round, sound fresh, new and important--a feat for one who has probably been playing it over more than three decades. An appreciative audience seemed to demand an encore, which the American musician granted in a touching transcription of Chopin’s C-sharp-minor Nocturne.