A Controlled Eschenbach Returns to L.A. Podium

More than a decade after his last appearance here, Christoph Eschenbach returned this week, leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic through a standard orchestral program culminating in Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony. A hard-listening, only mildly cough-ridden audience greeted the German conductor and never even seemed to think about applauding between movements.

If the evidence of his podium manners can be believed, Eschenbach is serious about control; he apparently likes to dictate details, which he does efficiently, without extraneous movement.

But, as sometimes happens in this perverse human activity, control most often comes to those who do not seek it. And, as happened Thursday night in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the leader who squeezes the hardest may produce less juice than the one who squeezes not at all.

Prokofiev’s Fifth, long a specialty of this orchestra, is a vehicle and a musical journey for a virtuoso ensemble. The occasional raggedness in this performance--which seemed to occur more often in the exposed slow movement than elsewhere--might not have materialized so disconcertingly had the players been given looser rein. Conducting is a hard job; only problem-solvers need apply.

Nevertheless, the musical results, if not immaculate, proved bright and well-balanced, in the Philharmonic’s showy tradition.

*

The work’s procession of moods, from angst to triumph--through many intermediate states--emerged logical and followable.

Not a perfect program-mate for the outgoing Prokofiev piece, Elgar’s moody Cello Concerto preceded it almost lugubriously. The work is more lovable and more assertive than it sounded here, under the self-regarding, soulful and unprojected ministrations of soloist Stephen Isserlis, whose slender tone seldom emerged strongly from the not-overthick orchestral fabric provided by Eschenbach & Co.

To begin the evening, the conductor presided over a crisp, tight and neatly detailed account of Mozart’s “Haffner” Symphony.

* The same program will be performed at 8, Sunday at 2:30 p.m., Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, (213) 850- 2000. $6- $58