Philharmonic Showcases 20th Century Fare

Unperturbed, cool and analytical, and unfolding with structural elements displayed, Esa-Pekka Salonen’s performances at the helm of the Los Angeles Philharmonic project clarity of thought and a probing ear. What they sometimes do not project is an imagination with which listeners can identify. All that the Finnish conductor finds in the music he does not always communicate to his audience.

This happened again Thursday night when Salonen built, and the orchestra then delivered, a 20th century program some would find varied and contrasting. What the three works on the agenda--Debussy’s “La Mer,” Prokofiev’s First Piano Concerto and Bartok’s Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta--shared was brilliance and showiness. Both qualities dominated this event, met enthusiastically by a large crowd gathered in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

All that seemed to be missing in a genuinely transparent reading of “La Mer” was the poetry of subtle touches and an apprehendable continuity. Otherwise, the work’s instrumental colors and dynamic breadth emerged immaculately executed.

The closing Bartok canvas, which half a century ago seemed so daunting for both players and listeners, became a handsome mural on which the observer might hang diverse mental pictures not otherwise projected by the conductor. Still, as in the Debussy work, the framework was there: the full range of orchestral details, revealed clearly. And the many contrasts of mood, if not the artistic whole, were indicated.

Yefim Bronfman, for nearly two decades now a regular virtuosic visitor to the Philharmonic’s stages, returned for as rousing a performance of Prokofiev’s D-flat Concerto as one can imagine, a tour de force that brought the audience rightly to its feet. Virtually nothing--technique, assertiveness, confidence or power--became unrealized in this exciting reading, one also fully materialized in the orchestra’s, and Salonen’s, controlled collaboration.

* Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic repeat this program Sunday at 2:30 p.m. in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. (213) 850-2000. Tickets $6-$58.