Graf is a deft hand at the Phil’s helm

Depth and authority mark the work of Hans Graf. These qualities, and a pervasive vein of subtlety, were a constant in the Austrian conductor’s trio of concerts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic over the weekend, his debut appearances here.

Astuteness of programming was also in evidence at the final performance, in Walt Disney Concert Hall on Saturday night, when Graf led two relatively gentle works from the 19th century, Schubert’s Overture in E minor and Robert Schumann’s Cello Concerto, before ascending the climaxes of Shostakovich’s violent and cathartic Eleventh Symphony, subtitled “The Year 1905.” Philharmonic principal cellist Peter Stumpf was the soloist in the concerto.

Shostakovich’s 1957 symphony requires the broadest expressive range a modern orchestra can summon: an eerie quietude and massive fortissimos, spidery soft passages and demonizing musical brutality. Its pictorialism uses the entire orchestral arsenal. Graf elicited from the Philharmonic all the work’s many contrasts, in a reading of stunning and apprehendable continuity. When the often-thrilling finale arrived, the loudness in Disney Hall was almost, but not quite, painful. The conductor’s good taste kept what can seem tawdry and overblown within the range of convincing.

The many beauties in Schubert’s practically forgotten Overture in E minor, written when the composer was just 22, and in the Schumann concerto came across clearly in the Disney Hall ambience. Both sang forth with an innocent directness, and the orchestra played with a pleasure that seemed effortless.

The collaboration between soloist Stumpf and the 55-year-old conductor showed an easy rapport and musical sympathy. Stumpf’s handsome, burnished sound and Romantic sense of proportion gave nuance and color to Schumann’s ever-wondrous lyricism. The performance flowed and flourished.