Tate, Philharmonic Rise to Brahms’ Third Heights

Perhaps his “Star-Spangled Banner” pressed too hard and too fast, perhaps his “Meistersinger” Prelude remained plodding and earthbound through its length. But when Jeffrey Tate and the Los Angeles Philharmonic got to Brahms’ Third Symphony Thursday night at the Hollywood Bowl, all was well: transparent and buoyant.

This resplendent performance proved an antidote to the orchestra’s uninspired reading, last November in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, under Roger Norrington.

Tate coaxed from the orchestra on Thursday clear textures, an untroubled continuity, the full dynamic breadth the work encompasses and an immaculate instrumentalism. All the cares of the day--the heat wave among them--seemed to disappear in the conductor’s affectionate Brahms focus.

Before intermission, 15-year-old pianist Helen Huang made a felicitous Bowl debut in that most sunny and most appropriate of vehicles, Mendelssohn’s G-minor Concerto. The Japanese-born, American-trained Chinese musician displayed an irresistible musicality, abundant and solid technique and considerable ease of execution--plus a projected sense of the work’s ebullient character.

Most promisingly, her shaping of the pristine slow movement revealed a command of lyric statement and pearly tone. Hers is a talent to watch, and savor.

What Tate seemed to want to achieve with the Wagner Prelude at the top of the program was to give it its seriousness, a fatal desire considering the piece’s self-contained optimism and easy sobriety and its built-in lightness. It doesn’t need help; it needs only to be left alone. Like a good orchestra playing Brahms.