MUSIC REVIEW : Weiss, Zinman, Philharmonic Play Glazunov

The Violin Concerto of Alexander Glazunov used to be a staple of the elegant-slushpump repertory. Heifetz played it as if it were Beethoven. David Oistrakh made a nearly definitive recording that surged with passion.

In recent years, however, the sentimental showpiece has endured benign neglect. Endre Balogh ventured it with Mehli Mehta and the American Youth Symphony in 1984, but, until this week, the Los Angeles Philharmonic hadn’t touched it for three decades.

Wednesday night at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the bravura honors fell to Sidney Weiss, our stalwart concertmaster. David Zinman, a guest from the Baltimore Symphony, tended to musical traffic on the podium.

Weiss refused to wallow in the Romantic gush. He stressed clarity and poise wherever possible. In so doing, he followed the exalted Heifetz example.

He could do little to ennoble the melodic platitudes or untangle the linear convolutions. Blame Glazunov for those. Still, the violinist did play with abiding charm, refinement and flair.

If he found the unreasonable pyrotechnics of the final allegro slightly daunting, he was in good historical company. Even the mighty Oistrakh had a little trouble lighting Glazunov’s fires.

Zinman, who provided properly rich and rousing orchestral support, had opened the program spiffily with the local premiere of John Harbison’s “Rembering Gatsby” (1985). This well-dressed, slightly edgy fox-trot for soprano sax and orchestra has been culled from an abandoned opera inspired by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It is a mildly amusing, utterly inconsequential mock-period piece that lasts 8 minutes and ought to be a hit on pops programs.

After intermission, Zinman led the orchestra through a rather thick, tough and bloated performance Schumann’s “Rhenish” Symphony. The scale was grand, the articulation unwieldy.

Nothing went seriously wrong. Nothing went memorably right.

This wasn’t a particularly exciting concert. At least it was short. One is always grateful for brief favors.