BERLIN ORCHESTRA JUST BRILLIANT.

Byline: David Mermelstein Staff Writer

If the Los Angeles Philharmonic plays better in the next few weeks, the conductors leading the orchestra may be entitled to only some of the credit. For this weekend, several Philharmonic players could be spotted among the throngs at the Walt Disney Concert Hall eagerly applauding the Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Simon Rattle.

The Berliners, nearing the end of a six-city American tour, became the first visiting orchestra to perform in the fledgling auditorium, offering concerts Friday night and Saturday afternoon.

Generally considered the world's best symphony orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic has technical prowess and tradition on its side. Three of the last century's greatest conductors - Arthur Nikisch, Wilhelm Furtwangler and Herbert von Karajan - secured their reputations with the ensemble, which has been instrumental in preserving and polishing the musical legacy we call the standard repertory.

Rattle, an Englishman knighted in 1994, is the orchestra's sixth chief conductor and its first artistic director. He is also a local favorite, practically a native son following his decade-long stint as the L.A. Philharmonic's first principal guest conductor, starting in 1981. And though he has not been a stranger to L.A. since devoting himself more fully to various European commitments, audiences over the weekend cheered him like a returning hero.

He largely deserved the raptures. On the job in Berlin just over a year, Rattle clearly has the orchestra firmly in control, the musicians seeming to indulge his every gesture. Like Lorin Maazel, who in a similar time span has put his stamp on the New York Philharmonic, Rattle has made a storied ensemble his own.

Yet the characteristics that make the Berlin Philharmonic distinctive these days were very much in place the last time the orchestra visited Southern California, in autumn 2001, when Rattle's predecessor, Claudio Abbado, conducted the ensemble.

Rattle has furthered the thinning of Berlin's sound begun under Abbado, and he has, by most accounts, embraced more new scores. But the crisp articulation, perfect intonation and well-oiled ensemble work of the players predate Rattle. So do the orchestra's signature mannerisms: the woodwind players' pronounced swaying and the loose-limbed, broad bowing of the string choirs.

Friday's concert opened with Bartok's ``Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta.''

Rattle's slow-moving but unflagging approach to this resolutely weird score gradually gained in intensity yet remained understated, the pure, ethereal string tones produced by the Berliners ideally suited to his purpose. Rattle's dynamic modulations were expert, and an enthralling Hungarian magical mystery tour was the result.

Henri Dutilleux's ``Correspondences,'' performed on Saturday, was the only work on the programs newer than the Bartok. It was commissioned by the Philharmonic and had its premiere just two months ago.

The piece, for soprano and orchestra, juxtaposes two short poems with two letters, the first by Alexander Solzhenitsyn to Mstislav Rostropvich and Galina Vishnevskaya and the second by Vincent van Gogh to his brother Theo. The music is colorful and provides a fine showcase for the entire orchestra.

And Canadian soprano Valdine Anderson did a commendable job replacing an ailing Dawn Upshaw as soloist. But Dutilleux's score is relatively uninspired, and one couldn't help wish that Gyorgy Ligeti's Violin Concerto, which the Philharmonic performed at Carnegie Hall two weeks earlier, had been programmed instead.

Like the Bartok, Haydn's Symphony No. 88, which preceded the Dutilleux on Saturday, came off very well. It was played by forces consistent with Haydn's time - only three double-basses, for instance. Yet the orchestra sounded anything but anemic, the strings at once robust and refined and the brasses punchy. Rattle managed exquisite balances, and though dynamic contrasts were acute, this was an elegant performance, the finale concluding with a tutti that was both remarkably unified and rife with individual accents.

Saturday's program ended with ``La Mer,'' where the lapping pulse Rattle got from the lower strings was a wonder, as were the climaxes he drew from his players. When an audience member coughed in the third and final section of the work, Rattle slowed the music down, scowled in the direction of the chastened offender and continued without breaking either his or the orchestra's concentration. It was a testament to Rattle's powers of concentration, which are considerable.

But another work on that program, Sibelius' Seventh Symphony, which should have been just as successful, suffered from a lack of contrast. It began arrestingly, in almost Wagnerian fashion, with plenty of bloom in the strings and warmth from the brasses, and the ensemble was as tight as could be. And yet Rattle found no atmosphere in this one-movement work.

And in Schubert's ``Great C Major'' Symphony, which concluded Friday's program, no amount of beautiful tone or clarity of texture could compensate for Rattle's wayward approach to the score. The Philharmonic, reduced in size to replicate the orchestral standards of Schubert's day, sounded full-bodied and colorful, and Rattle's control was masterly.

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The Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Simon Rattle, performed Friday and Saturday at Disney Hall.

Osamu Honda/Associated Press