PERLMAN SOLOIST AGAIN : FOSTER CONDUCTS BRAHMS’ SECOND

Except for some overzealous sound-engineering in the finale of Brahms’ Second Symphony, the playing of the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Hollywood Bowl Thursday night was attractively and realistically delivered to a festive crowd.

That crowd had no doubt gathered to hear Itzhak Perlman give his practiced and brilliant renderings of Ernest Chausson’s “Poeme” and the Second Violin Concerto of Henryk Wieniawski. These, of course, materialized, in untroubled performances by the popular Israeli violinist.

The bonuses came before and after, in Lawrence Foster’s solid, virtually irresistible conducting of the Brahms work and of Weber’s “Freischutz” Overture--each subject to moments of instrumental unfocus but authoritative and convincing nonetheless.

Because he does not look the firebrand or the mysterious stranger, Foster’s power on the podium has sometimes been ignored. But not by orchestras--these accomplished, nearly immaculate performances demanded special recognition. In the Second Symphony, particularly, Foster uncovered both the most articulate tempo-scheme and the most telling musical details--all in expressing that core of melancholy which forms the heart of this work. The Philharmonic played handsomely.

And Perlman did not disappoint. Except that there is more of the demonic in Wieniawski’s once-ubiquitous, now apparently obsolescent, D-minor Concerto than he delivered, Perlman’s revivals of these war horses became a reminder of their glory days.

The audience--counted by Bowl management at 11,342--clapped mindlessly between movements.