A Night of Energy at Podium, Piano

Vigor and confidence were two of the sterling qualities noted at Paul Daniel’s first Los Angeles conducting appearances, with the L.A. Chamber Orchestra, three years ago.

Those same virtues marked the British musician’s debut appearance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the Hollywood Bowl on Tuesday night, when he led a Mozart and Richard Strauss program with youthful enthusiasm and a complementary, tight rein on the musical flow.

His conducting of Strauss’ “Ein Heldenleben,” after an unsettled beginning (perhaps due as much to sound engineering as podium leadership), gave the work convincing narrative drive. The orchestra played conscientiously and even with panache; the brass soared but never went over the top; and concertmaster Martin Chalifour proved, again, truly heroic and touching in the extended solos in “The Hero’s Companion” movement and in the finale.

Mozart also shone on this occasion. As the evening’s opener, Daniel presided over a happy “Marriage of Figaro” Overture.

More important, there was Robert Levin, the master pianist who has come to own the Mozart piano concerto repertory. He returned for a serious yet jolly--and ostensibly spontaneous--performance of the great C-major Concerto, K. 503, the one often called No. 25.

One of the thrills of Levin’s playing--he excels in more than Mozart--is his combining of admirably sculpted musical architecture with a tangible sense of making it up as he goes. One feels that each of his performances is different from the others, even though the work itself never changes. This visit was no exception, resulting in a memorable, moving, probing performance.