Oundjian’s conducting soars

Peter Oundjian made an inauspicious debut conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl two years ago. The two appearances for the Canadian musician, a highly successful violinist and chamber player, were flat at best.

At his indoor debut with the orchestra, Thursday night in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Oundjian’s authority and command were impressive.

He led a willing and cooperative orchestra in a performance of Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony that was extraordinary for its sweep and specificity, its voluptuousness and transparency.

Famously familiar, the great E-minor work is like “The Nutcracker,” “Tosca” and “Pictures at an Exhibition” -- easy to hate as well as love. It can seem swollen and overstated, reiterative and endless. But not this time.

Oundjian let the piece, and the orchestra, breathe, sing and soar. The climaxes -- few and telling -- arrived on time, naturally, and the piece was paced articulately. Rachmaninoff’s emotionalism was under control yet still touched the listener. Appropriately, the audience cheered at the end.

Before intermission, the former fiddler collaborated handsomely with violinist Alexander Treger, the Philharmonic’s concertmaster, in an elegant but pointed performance of Mozart’s Concerto No. 4 in D. Treger’s polished playing, aristocratic, pungent and mellow, was particularly highlighted in the full set of cadenzas by Joseph Joachim, models of virtuosic invention.

Debussy’s “Prelude to Afternoon of a Faun” began the evening in a faceted and colorful performance, perfectly balanced in weight and sound perspective.

*

Los Angeles Philharmonic

Where: Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., L.A.

When: Today, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2:30 p.m.

Price: $14-$82

Contact: (323) 850-2000