A MARRIAGE OF OLD, NEW FOR PHILHARMONIC; SALONEN SHOWS PENCHANT FOR THE UNPREDICTABLE WITH BLEND OF VENERABLE CLASSICS, MODERN WORKS.

Byline: Reed Johnson Daily News Staff Writer

Of course you're familiar with Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. Now brace yourself for Stucky, Ligeti and Lindberg.

Or maybe you'd prefer a pair of ethereal works by Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu, ``Slonimsky's Earbox'' by the American modernist John Adams, or a new orchestral piece by Jerry Goldsmith, better known for his dynamic Hollywood scores for ``Basic Instinct'' and ``Total Recall.''

What's going on here - something new in the hidebound world of classical music?

Best believe it. At the Los Angeles Philharmonic, 20th-century music is being taken very seriously these days. Not that you won't find plenty of Mozart and Haydn in one of music director Esa-Pekka's Salonen's typically unpredictable programs.

What's unusual is that you're likely to hear a 200-year-old Haydn symphony paired with Gyorgy Ligeti's bleakly beautiful ``Requiem'' - a work barely 40 years old (Stanley Kubrick used it for the ``2001'' soundtrack). This weekend's program matches Beethoven's First Symphony and a Mozart wind concerto with the West Coast premiere of an even newer work, ``Pinturas de Tamayo.'' Conceived as a tribute to the late Mexican painter Rufino Tamayo, ``Pinturas'' was written by Steven Stucky, one of the L.A. Phil's current composers-in-residence.

On the East Coast, most top orchestras still tend to stock their seasons with brand-name composers. But in L.A., the Philharmonic keeps searching for new sounds.

What's more striking is that L.A. audiences keep listening.

``New music doesn't require knowing the language. You can just get in it and mess about with it,'' enthuses Stucky, a composer and Cornell University professor who also oversees the Philharmonic's ``Green Umbrella'' new music series.

``This is music about real life, not about the life of somebody in Vienna 100 years ago.''

Not that the L.A. Phil is down on dead Viennese composers. Far from it. The 1997-98 season contains plenty of them, including an upcoming 100th anniversary tribute to Brahms.

But it also includes a world premiere piece by rising young European composer Magnus Lindberg, an as-yet-untitled work by Goldsmith, and the first of the L.A. Phil's new ``Filmharmonic'' projects in which composers and Hollywood filmmakers are teaming up to create original short ``musical films.'' The debut effort, David Newman's ``Tales from 1,001 Nights,'' will have its world premiere April 30 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion under Salonen's baton.

For years, conventional marketing wisdom held that performing new classical works was like dumping kerosene on the Founders' Circle. Old-line subscribers would revolt if they didn't get their nightly fix of Tchaikovsky, the theory went.

But in Salonen's four years as music director, the L.A. Phil has avoided recycling the same old chestnuts. Instead, lesser-known works by blue-chip composers often are placed side by side with modern pieces in hopes of sparking new insights.

Through its 16-year-old ``Green Umbrella'' series, the brainchild of managing director Ernest Fleischmann, the Philharmonic has struck up close working relationships with such contemporary composers as Oliver Knussen, Ligeti and Adams. All three are featured in programs this season.

Last year, Salonen and the Philharmonic further broadened their following with a popular recording of classic Bernard Hermann film scores. While it's tough to prove that this new music is attracting enthusiastic new listeners, it's worth noting that this year's subscription renewal rate was the highest in the orchestra's history.

``I think that Esa-Pekka is certainly one of the most adventuresome programmers that I have ever seen,'' says composer Goldsmith. ``He seems to be able to program music that will appeal to all.''

While the mediagenic young Finn surely deserves some of the credit, several other factors may explain why L.A. is lending a willing ear to new music.

To begin with, the huge community of exiled European artists who settled here in the 1930s and '40s reshaped the city's cultural fabric. Displaced composers such as Arnold Schoenberg and Igor Stravinsky may have grumbled about the ignorant locals, but their presence here probably fostered a more cosmopolitan, experimental music culture.

Some of that attitude persists today in what Stucky describes as a ``feeling of openness, of looseness.'' The large number of music-industry professionals here also may account for the city's freewheeling tastes.

New music also ``is often quite visually interesting,'' Stucky says. The stage might be filled with all kinds of strange percussion instruments. There's a novelty in seeing violins being plucked alongside electronic samplers or a drum kit. And recently, performers have begun to move about the stage, raising the level of visual energy for audiences reared on rock 'n' roll.

Even the weirdest, experimental new music can seem more accessible than a massive German Romantic symphony. At ``Green Umbrella'' concerts, held at downtown's Japanese American Cultural and Community Center, the atmosphere is serious yet unimposing. Even the musicians dress down a bit (no white ties).

Perhaps most importantly, a living composer can create a bond of intimacy with an audience, particularly if he or she is present to discuss, perform or conduct his or her own work.

``Seeing the composer, meeting him as a human being - and a live human being - and as a sympathetic person who's seeing beauty in the world, can break down the wall between the artist and the person who's out there sitting in the audience who may not ... realize what's about to happen to them,'' says Stucky.

However, he emphasizes, newness alone doesn't guarantee that a work is worth performing.

``There is an attitude that says, well, you've got to give everything a chance. We'll, that's not quite ours. Our philosophy is only to give a chance to that which we think might be great.''

Above all, new music shouldn't be treated as cod liver oil, as something the audience is supposed to swallow because it's good for it. Set high standards, work to educate the audience, and the rest may take care of itself, Stucky suggests.

``What I can tell you is, going around the country and going to concerts that are the equivalent of our `Green Umbrella' concerts, our audiences are larger and more enthusiastic. I've been watching our audience for nine years, and it is getting bigger. There is something permanent if we don't do anything to screw it up.''

THE FACTS

What: The Los Angeles Philharmonic performs works by Mozart, Beethoven and resident composer Steven Stucky.

Where: Music Center of Los Angeles County, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown.

When: 8 tonight and Friday, 2:30 p.m. Sunday; a shorter program will be performed at 2 p.m. Saturday.

Tickets: $8 to $63.

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

Photo: (1) Composer-in-residence Steven Stucky's ``Pinturas de Tamayo,'' receives its West Coast debut tonight at the Music Center.

(2) Modernist John Adams is among the featured composers during this L.A. Philharmonic season.

(3) Film composer Jerry Goldsmith's still-untitled orchestral work is among this season's highlights.