Philharmonic Sparkles in Symphonic Dances

There may have been no dancing in the aisles, but there easily could have been at Esa-Pekka Salonen’s program of symphonic dances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Thursday night in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

What looked like an unprepossessing agenda on paper turned out to be one of the orchestra’s more brilliant performances.

The repertory made sense: Juxtaposing Bartok’s characteristically pungent Dance Suite (1923) with the Symphonic Dances from Leonard Bernstein’s over-familiar “West Side Story” and Rachmaninoff’s final masterpiece--the word is well chosen--the Symphonic Dances, created an ascending parade of possible climaxes only a virtuoso orchestra could achieve.

Salonen’s relentless energy and well-considered insights, and the Philharmonic’s long experience with these scores, accomplished the rousing results one heard on this occasion.

And the works themselves, pieces we tend to take for granted, glowed. Call it inspiration, or spontaneity, or the confluence of events, but each one gave off its best aura.

In the masterly orchestrations--from the smaller, pit-band originals--of Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal, the “West Side Story” dances are among Bernstein’s strongest works, in a league with the opera “Candide” and the “Age of Anxiety” Symphony.

Played indoors (instead of in an outdoor festival setting like the Hollywood Bowl) and delivered with such expertise and intensity, they thrilled the listener--and seemed even to surprise the jaded Thursday night audience.

Rachmaninoff’s wondrous Dances of 1940 achieved the same result, due to a kaleidoscopic, full-out performance by the orchestra, led with complete control by Salonen. The opening Bartok suite began the proceedings on the same high level, and in a performance of, at once, urgency and transparency.

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Los Angeles Philharmonic repeats this program Sunday at 2:30 p.m., Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., L.A. $12-$78. (323) 850-2000.