MUSIC REVIEW : Stanislaw Skrowaczewski Steps In at Hollywood Bowl

Watching and listening to Stanislaw Skrowaczewski work provokes contradictory thoughts. The eyes show you a conductor with a beat alternating between palsy and smooth fanning; the ears hear crisp, vigorous music making.

Skrowaczewski led the first of two programs with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Tuesday evening at Hollywood Bowl. The veteran conductor is substituting for Edo de Waart, who belatedly discovered some scheduling conflicts.

It was clear from the start, with an intriguingly detailed National Anthem that ended with a gong crash, that Skrowaczewski was not going to fly on automatic pilot in his inherited assignments.

An initially brisk, then tender, ultimately heroic account of Wagner’s “Meistersinger” Prelude followed. Skrowaczewski imposed a real feeling of purposeful drive in the work, encouraging clear instrumental illumination, without rhetorical idling or sentimental overindulgence.

However imprecise Skrowaczewski’s gestures may have appeared across the Bowl distances, the Philharmonic followed him nimbly and seemingly eagerly.

All solo opportunities were seized with elan. That was also true in the Bartok Concerto for Orchestra which came after intermission. There Skrowaczewski was not able to maintain the same level of connectedness in all the movements, making no concessions to the environment. He did make emphatic points in the more muscular moments, and the orchestra again supported his efforts with polished performances, some mistimed entrances notwithstanding.

The soloist for the evening was Richard Goode, in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1. He brought a refreshing combination of pristine technique and controlled passion--manifested in a volcanic first movement cadenza--etching Beethoven’s rhythmic tweaking with sharp accents. He also found a full measure of grand repose in the Largo.

Skrowaczewski and a conventionally reduced orchestra accompanied tidily for the most part, some divergent ideas being broached in the Largo pizzicatos. The playing was light and strong.

Attendence: 7,590.