It’s ‘Farewell’ to the Chandler

And then there were two. Off stage they walked until only concertmaster Martin Chalifour and principal second violinist Lyndon Johnston Taylor were left playing Thursday night. Haydn’s “Farewell” Symphony is the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s moving music, the last piece it is performing in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, which the orchestra has called home for 39 years. Tonight and tomorrow afternoon, the players will repeat the process, and then they really are out of there.

When the Philharmonic gives its first concert in the Walt Disney Concert Hall on Oct. 23, it will offer a complementary celebratory gesture -- not, alas, P.D.Q. Bach’s “Howdy” Symphony, but a program beginning with a solo voice and building up through the evening to a full orchestra.

The Haydn was, in fact, a happy choice for waving goodbye to the dowdy, overdressed, acoustically challenged Chandler. For all the sentiment the orchestra is trying to display about its history in the hall, the administration is clearly overjoyed to have a shiny new auditorium already the envy of the orchestral and architectural worlds. And Haydn never meant his Symphony No. 45 to be treated in the somber way it is often is. He was trickster, and the symphony was a message to his employer, Prince Esterhazy, that the musicians had been kept too long at the prince’s summer castle and wanted to return to their families.

Thursday’s performance was sly and amusing, in part because the conductor was Pierre Boulez, the great Modernist who seldom conducts music of the 18th century. It requires a special occasion like this, but he looked pleased -- all smiles, careful tempos and exacting clarity.

The rest of the program was classic Boulez. With the heavy symphonic furniture already moved -- Esa-Pekka Salonen’s last Chandler program was Mahler’s Third Symphony two weeks ago; Boulez led Bruckner’s Ninth last week -- the Philharmonic kept its final appearance in the hall more of a miscellany.

But moving day never goes exactly as planned, and this was no exception. The original program had included Mitsuko Uchida as soloist in Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G and Messiaen’s “Oiseaux Exotiques,” along with Janacek’s Sinfonietta. Somewhere along the line the Ravel was changed to Richard Strauss’ “Burleske” and the Janacek to Bartok’s Four Orchestral Pieces.

Last weekend, Uchida announced that she was sick and unable to travel from London. Luckily Gloria Cheng, who had performed the Messiaen with the orchestra under Zubin Mehta, was available. A Ravel piece returned in place of Strauss’, though it was the orchestral ballet score, “Valses Nobles et Sentimentales.”

All of this is opulent, sumptuously orchestrated music, and just the kind of thing that is difficult to bring off in the acoustically hazy Chandler. But Boulez is a master of achieving orchestra transparency. If something can be heard, he has a way of making sure it is. And while every detail may not have made an impact, plenty did.

“Oiseaux Exotiques” (Exotic Birds), a 15-minute piano concerto, is an early example of Messiaen’s obsessions with bird song. For Messiaen, birds were symbols of his passion for nature and God. A cardinal’s incessant chirping opened the gates of his imagination, revealing images of a sensuous, glorious paradise. Lately, scientists have learned that birds’ throats filter out overtones, making their calls piercingly harsh. Messiaen put the overtones back, turning bird song into sonorously enveloping whoops of pure rapture.

Cheng produces a glamorous, silvery tone from the piano, and in the several glittery birdcall cadenzas she conveyed just how gorgeously sensual Messiaen’s piano writing is, despite its tremendous complexities. Boulez commissioned the concerto -- written for a small, strident ensemble of winds, brass and percussion -- from his former teacher in 1955 for a new music ensemble he had founded in Paris. He did his usual superb job of showing all the fascinating musical threads that run though what could otherwise seem like a chaotic sonic birdbath.

The Bartok and Ravel couldn’t have been performed with more elegance. Bartok’s Four Pieces is an early work, the young composer not yet captivated by Hungarian folk music, but his vital, strong voice is evident, as is his flair for wondrous lyricism. The Ravel waltzes were an appealing last-minute substitution. Nobility and sentimentality could seem overblown emotions for the Chandler farewell, but Ravel is all supple grace, and there is never any worry that Boulez will overplay the sentimental hand. The waltzes flowed with an enchanting beauty that made the Chandler, for a fleeting moment, look and sound good.

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Los Angeles Philharmonic

Where: Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles

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

Price: $14-$82

Contact: (323) 850-2000