Splendid Play at Bowl

Scoff if you will, but longtime Hollywood Bowl watchers--this 37-year veteran, for one--have observed that sometimes, just sometimes, special performances happen there at the full moon. One certainly took place Thursday night, when Yoel Levi returned to Cahuenga Pass for his second appearance of the week as guest conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Levi’s Russian program, consisting of Tchaikovsky’s “Marche Slave,” the Second Piano Concerto of Rachmaninoff and Ravel’s landmark orchestration of Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition,” achieved a high standard: The conducting had sweep, the orchestra responded enthusiastically, and details fell convincingly into place. And Andre Watts, at 55 practically an elder statesmen among American pianists--and more and more a distinguished one--revived the Rachmaninoff piece heroically.

A staple of every Bowl season in memory, the familiar work can seem banal and overused. Thursday, Watts brought exuberance, deep consideration and vigor to its Romantic resonances. Also, he possesses fingers as powerful and articulate as the piece may need to reassert its sagging freshness. His performance proved strong-minded as well as beauteous.

Levi, as he had done Tuesday night when accompanying vocalists, proved an attentive, complete collaborator. Good accompanists, as always, are in short supply in this musical world; this one should be cherished.

Handling Ravel’s kaleidoscopic orchestral palette, the Romanian-born conductor brought liveliness and a wide-ranging dynamic imagination to Mussorgsky’s varied and contrasting pieces. The result was an ear-opening, rather than an ordinary, tour through the gallery. Levi and the Philharmonic began the program with a compelling reading of Tchaikovsky’s “Marche Slave.”