Mehta Leads a Thrilling Mahler’s Sixth

Whoever said Mahler’s Sixth Symphony was bloated?

Conducted by Zubin Mehta, 60 years and three days old, in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion Thursday night, the Los Angeles Philharmonic gave its former music director the kind of thrilling, full-out, emotionally resonant and utterly controlled performance the Sixth seldom receives. And the work’s reputed sprawl and longueurs never once appeared.

Besides the conductor’s clear mastery of this complex piece, the revelations in this performance involved our virtuoso orchestra, which displayed abundant dynamic and emotional range and pinpoint command of orchestral color.

Only the opening movement, which in a positive way made the listener breathless, showed signs of pushiness, though Mehta never actually let it rush; here, and in a tightly held finale, the conductor indicated the cataclysms in the work without overstating them.

In a brief 74 minutes of powerful playing, the high point was the conductor’s almost casual caressing of the byways in the Scherzo; we expected the poignancy he elicited in the Andante.

The first half of the concert didn’t achieve the same heights. In Alban Berg’s well-loved Violin Concerto, soloist Pinchas Zukerman seemed to take most of the first movement to warm to his task; at the same time, Mehta and the orchestra remained unfocused. When they all came together in the second movement, great heart and concentration created a compelling reading.

* The L.A. Philharmonic, conducted by Zubin Mehta, repeats this program tonight at 8 and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. (213) 850-2000. $6-$58. Both performances sold out.