MONTREAL SYMPHONY : FIREWORKS WITH ‘1812’ AT BOWL

Tchaikovsky programs at the Hollywood Bowl are a tradition as old as outdoor concerts in Cahuenga Pass themselves. But the Tchaikovsky Spectacular--a mixed agenda of the composer’s works ending with the “1812” Overture combined with a fireworks show--was only invented in 1969. Since then, and with ever-increasing pyrotechnical creativity, it has thrived.

The 19th edition, given Friday and Saturday nights to audiences each time in excess of 17,000, added special touches of class: a major visiting orchestra--the Montreal Symphony under Charles Dutoit--and a major pianist, Jorge Bolet, who played the First Piano Concerto.

Not surprisingly, then, this spectacular lived up to the name. Dutoit and the Canadian ensemble brought probing and polished readings to “Marche Slave,” “Capriccio Italien” and the “1812” Overture, and supported Bolet’s brilliantly poetic yet unfailingly virtuosic playing of the B-flat-minor Concerto wholeheartedly.

And the fireworks, which had seemed to hit a plateau of splendiferousness in 1986, achieved that plateau again, adding only enough extra loudness in explosions to frighten even brave souls.

Friday, a noisy crowd of picnickers hardly seemed to notice that Bolet and his colleagues accomplished--even with a controversially deliberate tempo in the first movement, a number of uncharacteristic clinkers from the pianist, and moments of ensemble nervousness--an important-sounding, carefully rethought and cherishable reading of the concerto.

Those picnickers appeared more interested in intermission consumption than in appreciating the participants. Nevertheless, this underapplauded performance--one filled with savored details, pertinent nuances and felicitous moments--proved memorable, especially in the authority and telling emotional range achieved by the veteran Bolet.

Dutoit and his energetic, alert orchestra gave the surrounding program a similar intensity--clearly, they hadn’t been warned that weekend audiences at the Bowl do not listen hard. “Marche Slave,” for once, made an ethnic statement, one overbrimming with songfulness. “Capriccio Italian” emerged immaculate in profile, joyfully extrovert in its solo lines.

Finally, in the “Solemn Overture, The Year 1812,” before the loud and eye-filling fireworks show--the handiwork of Master Pyrotechnician Gene Evans and Astro Pyrotechnics--swept all before it, the Montrealers provided symphonic soulfulness and solidity in abundance.