Montreal’s loss is L.A.’s gain

When Charles Dutoit walked onto the podium Thursday night at Walt Disney Concert Hall, his hair was still jet black. But much else has changed since he last conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic, in 1979 at the Hollywood Bowl.

Back then, Dutoit was still the new kid on the block, the young artistic director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal. The Swiss conductor had yet to turn the Canadians into what many came to consider the world’s best “French” orchestra. He and Montreal still had before them the dozens of spectacular bestselling recordings that helped usher in the Digital Age and the compact disc.

Dutoit was also not known then for being a tyrant in rehearsals. At least, that is what some players in Montreal publicly accused him of being two years ago, just as he and the orchestra were planning their 25th anniversary season. Dutoit, who denied the charges, immediately resigned.

The negative publicity hardly seems to have hurt his career. He remains in demand as a guest conductor, and his name reportedly keeps popping up on the short lists of orchestras searching for new music directors. If the enthusiastic sold-out crowd at Disney on Thursday is any indication, he also remains as popular as ever with the public. If the superb playing by the Philharmonic is any indication, his rehearsal methods, whatever they may be, get results.

Dutoit’s program with the Philharmonic was not quite as ambitious or as French as it might ideally have been. Indeed, it felt as if there was an excess of caution involved in its planning. In the first half were Berlioz’s frequently heard “Roman Carnival” Overture and Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances. Was it a just-in-case scenario that led to the spotlight after intermission being turned to Gil Shaham as the attention-getting soloist in Brahms’ Violin Concerto?

In the end, there seemed to have been little to worry about. Dutoit readily achieved with the Philharmonic the tightly focused, tart sound that was his trademark in Montreal. Perhaps he was tense -- he dropped his baton in the Berlioz and seemed lost for a minute or two until a violist was able to retrieve it for him -- but the “Roman Carnival” was exciting anyway, full of bite.

Dutoit has always been an ideal Rachmaninoff conductor for those who don’t like excessive Russian sentimentality. In the Symphonic Dances, the composer’s last orchestral piece and his most sophisticated, the conductor emphasized piquant color and forceful rhythms, giving the dances, which are death-haunted, a touch of the macabre. The playing was taut and brilliant, with an emphasis on the winds and brass over the strings. Thanks to the added help of Disney’s startling acoustical immediacy, the performance made the once lauded state-of-the-art Montreal Dutoit recordings seem sonically shallow by comparison.

Neither the thick German sound world of Brahms nor the excitable playing of Shaham would appear compatible with Dutoit’s taste for the savory. But the conductor was once married to one of the most excitable of today’s musicians, pianist Martha Argerich, and she still favors him over just about any other conductor. Likewise, Dutoit and Shaham made an interesting pair.

In recent years, the once staid Shaham has assumed a more aggressive body language. He still dresses formally and hasn’t changed his hairstyle, but he stomps around onstage when he plays, as theatrically as Nigel Kennedy. He throws himself into Brahms’ more dramatic moments, but he also doesn’t hesitate to turn his meaty tone into a nearly inaudible gossamer sound.

Dutoit’s Brahms, on the other hand, is clean and cool. But he let the violinist have his head, and he seemed to enjoy playfully interacting with him.

The last movement, a Hungarian dance, was best. Both men threw caution to the wind. It would be nice if the Philharmonic would do the same and invite Dutoit back for something major.

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Los Angeles Philharmonic

Where: Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., L.A.

When: Sunday, 2 p.m.

Price: $15-$120

Contact: (323) 850-2000