Persevering Russian National Orchestra a Joy

Its third visit to Southern California, making its Hollywood Bowl debut this week, is posing certain problems for the Russian National Orchestra, the ensemble founded by Mikhail Pletnev in 1990.

First, its leader suffered a foot injury last week, and is unable to conduct the first two programs. At the first of four performances, he was replaced by the orchestra’s associate conductor, Dmitri Liss. Another problem is playing out of doors, a situation that always complicates delicate--and exposing--instrumental balances and can remove, depending on climatic conditions, all or some of the natural resonance indoor venues provide.

Not to worry: The opening performance on Tuesday night before a vociferous audience in Cahuenga Pass went smoothly. The 1999 sound system, though artificial, delivered the Russians’ playing with a modicum of fidelity. And conductor Liss seemed never to get in the way of well-rehearsed, solid playing from the orchestra.

Best, the program, comprising a five-movement suite from Khachaturian’s “Gayane” ballet, Liszt’s Hungarian Fantasy and the Suite No. 3 by Tchaikovsky, was a joy, perfectly appropriate to this classical pops venue, as well as unhackneyed.

The orchestra’s many resources include an accomplished, virtuosic string choir, strong winds and a deep sense of ensemble surprising in an instrumental body less than 10 years old. The band can also boast a wide dynamic range used effectively and an alert command of style--at least the styles needed in these three pieces.

The high point of the evening came in an outpouring of lush tone and emotional openness achieved in the Tchaikovsky suite. Here, the playing seemed to grow more beautiful as the work progressed, the pleasure culminating in the many-faceted, burnished glories of the theme-and-variations finale.

Less exalted in accomplishment--the material is derivative and second-level, after all--but still satisfying, the “Gayane” excerpts were fun to hear again, and a reminder of what we once called semi-classical music. Khachaturian is nice, but not forever.

The only disappointment in these proceedings was not in Jura Margulis’ exceptional pianism in the Fantasy, but in the fact that he was not given an additional showpiece in which to display his gifts.

Liszt’s problematic work, a stop-and-go affair at best, challenges a soloist briefly, but does not reveal kaleidoscopic achievement. Young, steel-fingered and highly musical Margulis--his father, the veteran Vitaly Margulis, is soloist in the same venue tonight--deserved a companion piece along with the Liszt. Rimsky-Korsakov’s one-movement Concerto would have done, or Franck’s Symphonic Variations.

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* The Russian National Orchestra, led by Associate Conductor Andrey Boreyko, plays tonight, with soloist Vitaly Margulis, who plays Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto. The orchestra also plays Friday and Saturday, the conductor to be announced. All concerts, 8:30 p.m., Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N. Highland Ave. $1-$100. (323) 850-2000.