Honeck Leads Philharmonic in Carefully Nuanced Program

Now it begins: a yearlong parade of guest conductors on the podium of the Los Angeles Philharmonic--including old friends and new acquaintances--while music director Esa-Pekka Salonen labors on his yearlong composing sabbatical.

The first visitor, Manfred Honeck, a young Austrian musician with current or recent posts in Leipzig, Germany; Sweden and Oslo, arrived at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion Thursday night and conducted a standard program carefully and impressively, if not always compellingly.

His best came first, in the Overture to Johann Strauss Jr.’s “Zigeunerbaron,” which the orchestra played with utter panache and attention to the conductor’s nuances. This kind of jollity and stylishness is always welcome at the start of Philharmonic concerts; on this occasion, a few cheers followed the performance.

At the other end of the program, young Honeck showed the same obsession with detail, but less sweep and considerably less compulsion, in Prokofiev’s usually showy and affecting Fifth Symphony. A virtuosic challenge for the orchestra, this work can display all the players’ resources of color and dynamics.

That didn’t happen this time around. Honeck seemed preoccupied with the small musical matters of phrasing and balance; things went along yet did not hang together. Each movement seemed a collection of moments rather than a progression of ideas. As a result, the playing emerged under-committed and under-projected.

Another youngish musician, Swiss pianist Andreas Haefliger, illuminated Mozart’s C-major Concerto, K. 467, at mid-program. As he had done at the Hollywood Bowl last summer, Haefliger played with polish, elegance and wit and brought to every musical statement a rare honesty and sincerity.

Among the many joys in this performance--felicitously seconded by Honeck and the orchestra--were the two inventive, stylish and perfectly integrated cadenzas composed by Haefliger himself.

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* Manfred Honeck conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic, tonight at 8, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave. $10-$70. (323) 850-2000.