Philharmonic Thrills With Lopez-Cobos at the Helm

A magnificent understatement is what Jesus Lopez-Cobos always seems to produce from the podium of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The elegant Spanish musician, too long away from our local halls (he last visited here in 1992, on tour with his Cincinnati Symphony), returned to the Philharmonic this week, and did it again.

He reinstated that most overroasted of chestnuts, Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9, “From the New World,” to its rightful dignity and expressiveness. He let Turina’s “Oracion del Torero” (The Bullfighter’s Prayer) achieve its lyrical peaks without angst or overplaying. And he accompanied veteran pianist Alicia de Larrocha with a suave and authoritative hand.

Friday night in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, this unpromising program--except for the local premiere of Xavier Montsalvatge’s practically forgotten “Concierto Breve” from 1953--awoke and thrilled a sparse subscription audience. And the Philharmonic, surprisingly, played like the sensitive instrument it can be.

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The Dvorak symphony, transparent of texture and perfectly balanced between choirs, sounded fresh and rediscovered, the famous Largo in particular eliciting feelings of nostalgia and honest chauvinism. All the solos, especially those from English and French horns, sang out resonantly and without forcing.

Except for her careful walk to the piano, Larrocha’s appearance delivered the same commanding musical presence and resourceful, multifaceted pianism of yore. She made Montsalvatge’s colorful, virtuosic and attractively eclectic concerto--it is neo-Romantic, neo-Classical and neo-Ravelian all at once--seem both important and irresistible. At 76, she remains a wonder, and an international, pianistic treasure.

The collaboration provided by Lopez-Cobos and the orchestra proved eloquent and wholehearted, as, indeed, did the entire performance.