Evergreens Well-Tended in Philharmonic Concert

For a quintessential Hollywood Bowl weeknight program, consider Thursday’s agenda of familiar big-tune works. Evergreen staples from Rossini and Dvorak got decent, considered performances from conductor Jahja Ling and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto received something much more from soloist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg.

A volatile and demonstrative artist, Salerno-Sonnenberg makes music that craves attention and will do just about anything to get it. The results can seem willful and desperate in some circumstances, but Thursday they proved just the thing to carry Mendelssohn’s well-worn glories across the Bowl expanses with compelling personality.

The violinist tugged at tempos, of course, but not without motivation. Her tone sounded as warm and flexible as the generally well-behaved amplification permitted, and her articulate playing was expressive without exaggeration. She gave an uncommonly reflective account of the first-movement cadenza, allowed the Andante the beauty of simplicity and danced vivaciously in the finale.

Ling did not always support his soloist’s mercurial impulses in the first movement, but when she really needed him, he and the orchestra were there for dramatic emphasis. Salerno-Sonnenberg returned the favor in one passage of the finale, embracing an accompanying role to fine effect.

Working from memory, Ling brought a wealth of detail to Dvorak’s Eighth Symphony. It was all pertinent but not always integrated into a coherent context. Forget the forest; sometimes we couldn’t see the trees for the leaves. The second movement was a case in point, a discontinuous mass of loving nuance.

Ling’s history with the Philharmonic goes back to the training ground of the 1982 Philharmonic Institute, and the orchestra gave him cooperative playing of steady grace and presence on this occasion. The woodwinds contributed with exceptional eloquence, and the cello section executed its numerous thematic responsibilities here with clarity and flair.

To open--post national anthem--there was the chirping brio of Rossini’s overture to “The Thieving Magpie.” Ling delineated its boundaries with ponderous severity but within sections kept the music aloft neatly enough, the tunes well out front and the supporting machinery chugging along efficiently.