L.A. Philharmonic proves spatially aware

Exploring inner and outer space was the theme of the Los Angeles Philharmonic concert led by guest conductor Andrew Davis on Friday at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Mark-Anthony Turnage’s “Your Rockaby,” in its U.S. premiere, took the inner route; Holst’s “The Planets,” the outer.

A 24-minute single-movement saxophone concerto written in 1994 for Martin Robertson, the adroit soloist here, “Your Rockaby” was inspired by a monologue of an old woman trying to sing herself to sleep by Irish absurdist playwright Samuel Beckett.

The program note invited thinking along the lines of such Beckett themes as physical, temporal and metaphysical confinement and the tyranny of individual consciousness. Indeed, as the music unfolded, recurring rhythmic tick-tock figures suggested the passing of time, while dense and diaphanous orchestral textures alternately evoked flights of imagination, recollection of past events, out-of-touch mental wandering and a desired but never achieved state of sleep or total loss of consciousness.

Turnage is so skilled an orchestrator, so fluent in manipulating easily grasped thematic material in a variety of styles, that he has made a valuable contribution not only to the quite limited saxophone concerto repertory but to the concert repertory as well.

Robertson played rhapsodically, and Davis was a sympathetic collaborator. Joining them at the end for deserved bows was the composer.

Holst’s “The Planets,” on the other hand, usually sounds more visceral and engaging than the reading Davis gave. Emphasizing clarity, purity and balance, the British conductor seemed more at home portraying repose, lightness, lethargy or mysticism in “Venus,” “Mercury,” “Saturn” and “Neptune,” respectively, than terrifying aggression in “Mars” or hearty energy in “Jupiter.” The USC Thornton Oriana Choir was the skillful offstage chorus in “Neptune.”