Phil plays it safe but plays it well

After the final weeks of last season, chock-full of new and adventurous music; after conducting Mahler’s extravagant Eighth Symphony at the Hollywood Bowl last month; and after Thursday night’s surprisingly timely gala, Esa-Pekka Salonen has suddenly turned seemingly tame. The first program of the new Los Angeles Philharmonic season at Walt Disney Concert Hall on Saturday night consisted mostly of Debussy and Ravel hits. Next week will feature Russian crowd-pleasers: Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto and Stravinsky’s “The Firebird.”

This doesn’t mean, however, that Salonen has begun checking out early in his 17th and last season as the orchestra’s director. The Philharmonic will embark on an Asian tour this month, and promoters in Tokyo and other capitals in the Far East find a steady diet of the classics profitable. Still, one wonders whether a little something more of our time -- say, a small piece of Toru Takemitsu -- might not have been smuggled in amid Debussy’s “La Mer” and Ravel’s “Mother Goose” and “Bolero.” Saturday’s program opened, instead, with Falla’s Three Dances from “El Amor Brujo” (“Love, the Magician”), which includes what could have been good encore material.

That said, a basic consumer rule of orchestral concerts applied: Buy tickets for any program an ensemble is about to tour. Saturday night was simply the Philharmonic at its best. Gorgeously colored music was, well, gorgeously colored, sounding fresh as a burbling spring, the morning dew or any other cliche you might select.

Salonen recorded “La Mer” -- three short character pieces meant to evoke the sea, which Debussy completed in 1905 -- with the Philharmonic in February 1996. The session was held on a Culver City soundstage, lest Debussy’s translucent scoring turn to mush at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, then the orchestra’s home. The sound is dry, concentrated. Salonen achieves great things rhythmically. A slightly chilly character serves Debussy’s Modernist side better than his sensual one. The playing is virtuosic.

This was, at the time, perceived as a high standard. But a much higher one that could not have been imagined a dozen years ago was reached Saturday night. What was technically confident playing in the past has become emotionally confident. And Disney Hall, of course, provides a marked improvement in the sonic immediacy department.

But the real difference is in Salonen’s interpretation. Before, he understood “La Mer”; now, he feels it. Debussy begins on the ocean floor and slowly comes up for air. Instantly, on this occasion, the hall became that mysterious realm -- first in low basses, then rising through the strings, harps and percussion, revealing flickers of light.

“La Mer” is built on small musical motives, its surface, like that of the sea, always changing, its colors never the same. But there is incredible richness beneath, and both surface and depth -- surging waves and underwater life -- were made vivid.

Ravel’s “Mother Goose” was a favorite of Salonen’s most recent predecessors -- Carlo Maria Giulini and Andre Previn, both of whom emphasized the score’s sweetness and beauty. Salonen’s Ravel, in the past, had often been more technical, zeroing in on the composer’s marvelous use of instruments, which has been an increasing influence on Salonen’s own music.

But as with Debussy, a poised sensuality has also entered into Salonen’s Ravel. Nothing in terms of lucidity or precision has been lost, but this “Mother Goose” was full of lyrical storytelling. Salonen and the orchestra are clearly savoring their last few months together, and the ballet score, along with “Bolero,” were obvious opportunities for a music director to let his players shine.

“Bolero,” in that regard, was particularly interesting. This is one of those pieces that Salonen was born to conduct and Disney was built to show off. At the heart of some of Salonen’s own works is interplay of humans and machines. Mechanical music finds its humanity.

The beat of “Bolero” is unchanging, and the same theme repeats again and again, but the colors and the context are always changing. Along with Salonen’s metric surety Saturday came freedom. Within the orchestral engine, every player proved an individual. Steven Witser’s jazzy trombone solo was the audience hit, but there were no dull moments as the performance built up an enormous head of steam.

The Philharmonic has new blood, including an exuberant new principal violist, Carrie Dennis, who certainly stands out. But old orchestra blood is also sounding newly vibrant. Many of the world’s top orchestras beat an annual path to Asian capitals. They will be, in coming weeks, in very good company.

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mark.swed@latimes.com