Conductor Mehta’s Thrilling Program Grips Heart, Mind

A frequent visitor to the podium that long ago was his own, Zubin Mehta usually gives casual listeners the excitement they seek when they attend concerts, and he also provides the most serious musical sensibilities with something to think about.

He did both, again, Thursday night, when he led the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Wagner’s “Rienzi” Overture, the rarely heard First Violin Concerto by Szymanowski and one of his own longtime specialties, Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony. There was much to enjoy, as well as much to think about.

Thirty and more years ago, Beethoven’s Third Symphony, in Mehta’s reading, used to be direct, blunt, almost overstated, a young man’s embrace of another young man’s impassioned and revolutionary work. Today, it’s much the same work in Mehta’s hands--yet there are differences.

The opening movement, just two hairs slower than it once was, speaks more convincingly and dramatically, and with a broader emotional range. The Funeral March, on the other hand, has more motion and a longer arc; it had been self-pitying but is now more stoic. Greater detailing--among other elements, louder louds and quieter softs--informs the extended finale.

Of course, the orchestra is different too--more of a virtuoso band in every section. The playing Thursday in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion was regularly thrilling and consistently transparent.

The Scherzo, for instance, seemed to have layers of meaning as well as layers of dynamics, and an inner life--hidden voices brought out--of great richness. The horns here provided glories to take the listener’s breath away. And, throughout the work, their leader, William Lane, who also presided over the playing of the “Ring” excerpts two weeks earlier, made noble, burnished sounds.

The entire performance emerged as mellow and even-tempered, yet without contradicting the work’s essential bumptiousness and style.

The first half of the program paired Wagner’s exuberant “Rienzi” Overture, scrappily and spiritedly played, with the exotic sophistication of Szymanowski’s 1916 Violin Concerto.

The soloist, Philharmonic concertmaster Alexander Treger, applied imperturbable virtuosity and a singing tone to the fiendish demands of this showpiece. Assisted wholeheartedly by Mehta and the orchestra, Treger triumphed effortlessly over Szymanowski’s neo-Oriental--the word may be politically incorrect, yet it is also perfectly descriptive--canvas.

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* The Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Zubin Mehta, repeats this program tonight at 8 and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave. $15-$70. (323) 850-2000.