Ordinary Philharmonic Fare, Extraordinary Concert

All Christoph Eschenbach, the German pianist and conductor, had to do Thursday night was walk on stage at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion to signal something exceptional was about to happen to close the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s winter season.

Nearly bald and exquisitely tailored in avant-garde designer formal wear, he looks not quite of this epoch. His is that self-possessed look of someone so hip that everyone else around him--in this case the orchestra musicians in their conventional tails and gowns--suddenly seems a bit demode.

But far more remarkable is the fact that Eschenbach is also that kind of musician. The cut and fit of each phrase is perfect. The lines are sculpted ruler-straight. The quality of the detailing is simply amazing. Yet nothing is stiff, everything flows.

As music director of the Houston Symphony and of the Ravinia Festival, the Chicago Symphony’s summer home, Eschenbach also has the reputation for imagination in programming. For instance, his new recordings with the Houston Symphony include the year’s most interesting Schubert disc--the first recording of Luciano Berio’s “Rendering,” a postmodern reconstruction of Schubert’s uncompleted 10th Symphony--and the first recording of Christopher Rouse’s alarming Second Symphony and affectionate Flute Concerto. He has also, lately with Houston, made the best recording available of Bruckner’s Second Symphony and of Schoenberg’s snazzy orchestration of Brahms’ G-minor Piano Quartet.

By these standards, Eschenbach’s program this weekend is unremarkable. It begins with a popular Mozart piano concerto (No. 23) and concludes with a popular Mahler symphony (the Fifth). Mozart concertos and Mahler symphonies are, in fact, everywhere. The Mahler Fifth was played by the Philharmonic not quite a year ago under Boulez and just a couple of months ago by the Pasadena Symphony.

But there is nothing ordinary about Eschenbach. For the Mozart, which he conducted at the keyboard, even the most conventional run up the keys could hold a special surprise. Eschenbach articulates with great precision and point, often playing notes normally tied together in long legato lines as machine gun staccato. His rhythmic correctness is arresting. But within this exacting formal framework, there is an alluring elasticity. It is almost as if the pianist has found that musical equivalent of a new super element, stiff and strong, but completely flexible.

The same is true with dynamics. The sweet, fluffy lyricism of Mozart’s Adagio movement came as if from the air itself, so soft and effortless was Eschenbach’s playing of the opening phrase.

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And the same was also true for Eschenbach’s conducting of Mahler. He seemed to get deep inside the mind of maybe the most extraordinary imaginer of orchestral sound the world has known. He brought forth all those extraordinary inner details, as conductors often do to give their interpretations individuality, but he never succumbed to the temptation to let those details overspeak their parts. This was a Mahler performance without a single cheap trick, and that is something rare indeed.

The Philharmonic plays very well for Eschenbach. The Finale was a elated virtuosic tour de force. And what a luxury not to have to worry for a second about the brass.

But for Eschenbach, security and even brilliance isn’t quite enough. He asks for, and in the Mozart personally demonstrates at the keyboard, the added degree of finesse that separates impressive from great. The ensemble came close--closer in the Mahler than the Mozart, and closest in Mahler’s touching Adagio--but wasn’t quite there. With luck it will, however, have smoothed out the final rough edges for the performances tonight and Sunday. And if it does, these will easily cap what has been one of the orchestra’s most deservingly celebrated seasons.

* Christoph Eschenbach repeats his program with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, tonight at 8 and Sunday at 2:30 p.m., Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave. $8-$60. (213) 365-3500.