Mozart wins the Bowl game

TUESDAY night’s program at the Hollywood Bowl was pleasant, even notable -- all Mozart, and lots of it. Two major symphonies. A big early piano concerto with an earnest young American soloist, Jonathan Biss. Two concert arias sung by a flamboyant young American soprano, Marisol Montalvo.

The conductor, Neville Marriner, who founded the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra in 1969 and who has probably made more Mozart recordings than anyone, had returned here for the first time in ages. The Philharmonic played with a verve that gave one hope its contract negotiations are going well.

All of which is to say that Mozart had a lot going for him Tuesday night. He needed it.

Mozart’s music rarely works at the Bowl. There is the matter of scale. Even in his most public works, such as the celebratory “Haffner” Symphony, which opened the program, this composer communicates with a disarming intimacy. The sudden modulations, the sneaky little melodic decorations, the subtle rhythmic displacements, the harmonies that go almost where you expect them to, but not quite -- these are what get you. You never know what intimate secret he’s going to whisper in your ear.

But the big Bowl has never seemed less intimate than it does now. Everything about it is oversized -- the shell, the video screens, the aggressive catering -- as if designed to make the music recede into the background.

During the slow movement of the Piano Concerto No. 9 (“Jeunehomme”), for instance, waiters stood behind my section of boxes holding huge tubs of popcorn, their walkie-talkies squawking. As the fast finale started up, so did they, running down the aisle to deliver snacks, despite intermission being just a couple of minutes away. What’s a rondo, after all, without buttery, high-caloric crunch?

Video offered further indignities, such as when the cameras stayed with clarinetists swabbing their instruments during the introduction to the Symphony No. 39 in E-flat, which ended the concert. But the band admirably soldiered on.

Marriner is now 81. Looking dapper in a fashionable white tunic, with just the right number of buttons buttoned, he was, understandably, stiffer on the podium than in times past. His tempos have slowed down a shade as well. But the elan, and the lack of stuffiness, remain. If anyone knows how to circumvent the commercial obstacles of the music world, it is surely Sir Neville. Not only is he said to be the most recorded musician of all time, but he conducted for, and helped give credence to, the film “Amadeus.”

Tuesday there was liveliness all around. The “Haffner” flourished with grand flourishes. The account of the E-flat symphony was lovely and lyric without taking itself too seriously.

The concerto, though, was the highlight. Biss, who is 25, has risen quickly in the business. I don’t sense a strong personality yet, but the sincerity of his playing and the technical assuredness proved assuring.

The concerto is a young person’s score. Mozart wrote it just as he was turning 21 and meant it for a young woman to play. It was his most ambitious concerto up to that time, and in the slow movement especially, he plumbed the depths of human expression with the fleeting confidence of one entering adulthood.

It was, thus, a nice touch on this occasion to have a pianist without the perspective of experience and a conductor with a wealth of it. Biss played everything with care and conviction. Marriner let him have his way, but with a knowing wink.

Even so, it was Montalvo’s singing of the arias “Vorrei spiegarvi, oh Dio!” and “Ch’io mi scordi di te?” that produced the evening’s most excited response. Montalvo exaggerates every line -- one second floating pianissimos, the next carrying on with a hellion’s fury. I thought her manic and vulgar but had to give her credit for making Mozart make sense at the Bowl.

What this soprano from Long Island offered most was proof that the Bowl is a place not for dutiful, brain-dead programming but for experimentation. In England, Glyndebourne is preparing a hip-hop version of Mozart opera. Why aren’t we? At least it would give the Patina crew something to dance to as they raced around delivering dessert.

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‘Mozart With Marriner’

Where: Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood

When: 8 tonight

Price: $1 to $92

Info: (323) 850-2000 or www.hollywoodbowl.com