Philharmonic Displays Resources, Restraint

No visual distractions impeded on the aural pleasures offered at the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s weekend concerts, when Esa-Pekka Salonen conducted Debussy’s “Images” and Berlioz’s “Harold in Italy” for the orchestra’s second week of the fall-winter season in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

On Friday night, a friendly but small audience greeted the resident music director and Evan Wilson, soloist in the Berlioz work. As he had at the Hollywood Bowl in 1993, Wilson again exhibited the authority, technique and plush tone one has come to expect from his exposed outings.

Unfortunately, someone miscalculated by placing the soloist--the Philharmonic’s principal viola--not stage center, next to the podium and near the stage apron, but farther back, on the highest level of the orchestral risers, just behind the outside row of first violins and in front of the harps.

This placement seemed logical, and should have produced an acoustical spotlight on the sound of the solo instrument. Alas, it did not, and resulted instead in Wilson often being swamped by his orchestral colleagues, and seldom fully projecting his tone into the auditorium.

Disappointing as this was, Wilson’s suave sound and virtuosic manner, in combination with Salonen and the orchestra’s tight and rounded reading, netted a fluid and urgent performance of the symphony-concerto.

The earlier half of the evening--scheduled to be repeated Saturday and Sunday--put on display the orchestra’s many resources and gifts in a compelling, often transparent re-creation of Debussy’s Impressionistic showpieces.

Restraint marked the entire performance, the restraint of brilliant power under control, of assertive but understated instrumental colors, of orchestral climaxes held in check until the moment of greatest potency.

The subtleties of “Rondes de printemps” emerged in mellow bursts. The dichotomy of “Gigues,” both danceable and thoughtful, titillated the senses. The transition from “Parfums de la nuit” to “Le matin d’un jour de fe^te” was laid out with masterly smoothness, and no lurching; the subsequent climax had to surprise, as the composer must have intended. A wondrous performance, resonant in every wise.