Zubin Mehta’s soaring adieu

Thursday night, Zubin Mehta conducted his last program with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. There was no acknowledgment of the occasion, no fanfare -- other than in the music itself, where there is plenty in the evening’s main work, Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony. As it packs up for the move to the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the orchestra is making its farewell gestures to its home since 1964 on other occasions. But, in fact, the concerts this week may prove the most meaningful and touching valediction to the Pavilion.

Touching isn’t a word that critics often apply to the imperious Mehta, who endured often brutal treatment from American critics during his 17 years as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and 13 with the New York Philharmonic. But if any single conductor has been lord of this particular manor, it is Mehta. He conducted the opening concert in the Pavilion, and he has returned regularly since leaving the Philharmonic in 1978. At one time, the ushers’ outfits made a nod to Mehta’s Indian heritage, and for years his portrait hung near the bar in the Grand Hall. Surely, he has led more concerts in this hall than anyone else, and he looks at home on its stage.

More important, he sounds at home in what we tend to think of as a troubled acoustic environment. Mehta’s performance on Thursday of the Bruckner Seventh -- which he first conducted with the Philharmonic in 1962 when it still performed in the old Philharmonic Hall and has conducted here and elsewhere countless times -- was magnificent. It also sounded magnificent.

Perhaps a bit of nostalgia is kicking in, but perhaps not. What the ear hears is, obviously, determined by the physical structure of a room, but it also is determined by how and how well the music is played in the room. After more than 40 years of playing this symphony with this orchestra, after nearly 40 years of conducting in this hall, Mehta knows what works, and there is no substitute for that kind of experience.

Bruckner’s orchestration is full and rich. And it was a sense of Brucknerian saturation, a kind of acoustical amplitude and wholeness that Mehta brought to his performance of the Seventh. The symphony is grand, lasting about 65 minutes. It opens with a lofty yet sweepingly lyrical theme that begins in the cellos, with parts of it joined by horns, violas and clarinets. The violins play soft, airy tremolos, with subtle variations of the harmony.

It is the combination of the musical breath and the small details of color and harmony that give this theme, and all else in the symphony, its embracing sonic depth, and that sense of sensing the big picture while enjoying the meaningful details is what made the performance so remarkable.

Mehta’s way with Bruckner has become less flashy over the years. Every now and then he will still draw your attention by unexpectedly emphasizing a retard. But for the most part, he expertly allows the music to unfold, everything in its place, Bruckner’s towering vision revealed as exulted, proud, powerful. When he first came to Los Angeles, Mehta set out to make the Philharmonic a great Bruckner orchestra. He accomplished that long ago, and the results were evident Thursday.

The program opened with Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, and who knows how many times Mehta has conducted that old favorite with the Philharmonic? This time, he used it to introduce to Los Angeles a 19-year-old Japanese violinist, Sayaka Shoji, whom he has been championing lately. She is physically slight, and the violin looks large and unwieldy on her shoulder. But that only makes her sure command of it all the more impressive.

Technically, Shoji breezes through the concerto. Her tone is firm and her phrases confident. She is not inexpressive. She builds pleasingly emotional climaxes, and turned on the lyricism in the slow movement. She proved a dazzler in the big cadenza. Mehta was encouraging, supportive and, in the last movement, a touch domineering to assure an exciting finish. We now need to give this young player time to let her personality develop.

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Los Angeles Philharmonic

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

When: Today, 8 p.m.

Price: $14-$82

Contact: (323) 850-2000