A satisfying Bowl return for conductor

COOL, confident and cocky, the American conductor Hugh Wolff returned to the Hollywood Bowl on Tuesday night after a 19-year absence. Wolff last appeared in Cahuenga Pass at his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in September 1987, also in a classical pops program showing his versatility.

The conductor’s career has thrived in the intervening years; most recently, he has presided over the Frankfurt Radio Symphony for the last nine seasons. His leading of the Philharmonic this week displayed competence and honed skills, if unexceptional musical personality.

Nonetheless, the performance was thoroughly satisfying. After a rousing national anthem, the best came first in a jolly account of Michael Torke’s “Javelin,” a perky, nine-minute piece written for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. It is a bright, impossible to dislike overture in the style of Leonard Bernstein’s “Candide” opener. Conservative and garish, it resembles a meeting between Mendelssohn and John Williams. The Philharmonic played it brilliantly.

Real Mendelssohn came next in the ubiquitous Violin Concerto, played with serene assurance and virtuosity by the unflappable Hilary Hahn. This became a pristine, honest performance of pure musicality and no artifice. Its core was, of course, the ravishing central Andante, followed by the playful finale. Wolff’s accompanying was sometimes rocky near the end, but no matter. The Bowl audience screamed its approval.

Hahn’s encore took the form of the complexities of a transcription of Schubert’s “Erlkonig.” More screaming from the audience.

Brahms’ Second Symphony, perhaps the most lyrical, personal and heart-on-sleeve of his four symphonies, closed the program nicely, if at moments raggedly. The opening Allegro became disjointed and thus missed its marks. Wolff, with great thoughtfulness, held the grand Adagio together tightly, and the rest went smoothly. Throughout, woodwinds and horns -- especially the horns -- kept alive Brahms’ beating heart.