Zinman Returns With a Fresh Vision and British Rarities

Guest conductors at the Los Angeles Philharmonic can bring more than just provocative and ear-opening programs. They can provide perspectives on old repertory and new approaches to business as usual, as David Zinman, the veteran American conductor, proved Thursday in his return to the orchestra’s podium for a single program this week.

He brought back to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion two works by British composers not often heard here, Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis and Edward Elgar’s First Symphony. And he separated the two with a bracing, worthy piece for violin and orchestra, Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade (after Plato’s “Symposium”), played by Joshua Bell.

Tightly coordinated, lush-toned and polished string playing is ever-welcome on these programs, and the orchestra’s strings showed exceptional accomplishment in the first half of this one. The Vaughan Williams piece resounded effortlessly with its organ-like sonorities and smooth transitions; one wanted only to keep conductor Zinman for more than one week.

Soloist Bell, in the quasi-concerto, gave an easygoing but virtuosic display of his deep musical skills, as usual. Every detail was in place and resonated in the total performance. In poetry or vehemence, the work’s many moods held the listener’s interest. Zinman and company were rapt collaborators.

Over the years, the experienced listener has come not to trust Elgar. His music can, and often does, reach an emotional core in the listener. But just as often it alienates through overdoing.

The overwrought First Symphony, characterized by a laissez-faire structure, ambitious but uninspired melodies and paucity of interesting musical ideas, tests the patience.

At its best, it seems to be 30 minutes of angst spread out to 60 minutes of padding. Zinman and the Philharmonic gave it a passionate performance, and it still seemed too long.

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Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by David Zinman, tonight at 8, and Sunday , 2:30 p.m., Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., L.A. $12-$78. (323) 850-2000.