Youthful Energy Grips L.A. Phil

Alan Gilbert, who led the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Friday, is a mere baby in conducting years, just 31. A listener might expect to hear, and forgive, some youthful excesses or unfinished edges in the performances of such a lad, but it was otherwise.

The son of two New York Philharmonic violinists and already making the rounds with the big orchestras, Gilbert conducts with assurance, taste and acumen, a deep musicianship beyond his years.

His program balanced Colin McPhee’s “Tabuh-Tabuhan,” a work some 40 years ahead of its time, with Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, 40 years behind. In between, furthering the youth motif, 20-year-old pianist Yuki Takao played the 25-year-old Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto.

Many fine musicians hold a genuine affection for the Rachmaninoff. Others don’t. To them, it sounds like musical muscle flexing, a lot of roar with little bite. Its actual substance seems pretty thin and its morbidity unearned. The appearance of the “Dies Irae” in the finale, for instance, sounds as forced as a jazz soloist quoting a bit of Mahler’s Ninth.

But Gilbert’s reading made amends. To the overbearing splashiness of the work, he brought tightly wound control, a compactness that had force. In the gushing lyricism, he sought shape and pace, tapering phrases subtly. At the same time, he got the most out of the rhythmic interplay and snazzy orchestration. This was smart Rachmaninoff.

Minimalism’s missing link, McPhee’s seldom heard “Tabuh-Tabuhan,” pushes back that movement’s starting point to the 1930s. Inspired by the composer’s encounter with the Balinese, it plays like a lost score of John Adams. Gilbert and ensemble gave it a luxurious and fully detailed performance.

Takao’s pianism in the Beethoven was pearly, pretty and quietly charged with exuberance. His interpretation stayed nicely within classical lines--he never stretched a Beethovenian point--and his poetry was simple and direct. Gilbert gave active, articulate support. There was no youth wasted this night.