THEY'LL PLEAD THE FIFTH IT'S THAT AND THE FIRST FOUR BEETHOVEN CONCERTOS, TOO.

Byline: David Mermelstein Correspondent

CALL IT the Goldilocks syndrome. Chopin, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms, Ravel and Schoenberg wrote too few piano concertos - between one and two. And Mozart wrote too many - upward of 20.

But Beethoven, ah, now there's a composer who had the right idea: five well-crafted piano concertos, each decidedly individual, each breaking new musical ground. The perfect number for, say, a piano-concerto cycle, with enough variety to make listening interesting, yet not so much music as to be overwhelming or - perish the thought - boring.

The notion seems to have appealed to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which starting tonight will offer all five concertos in four programs over 11 days. The featured pianist is Mitsuko Uchida, an artist much esteemed by Philharmonic music director Esa-Pekka Salonen, who will conduct.

Actually, it's hard to imagine a pianist Salonen prefers over Uchida, with whom he's worked frequently over many years. ``She's got sharp intellect, quick wit and profound analytic ability. Yet when she goes on stage, she's transformed into this musical animal.''

Though neither Uchida nor Salonen is regarded as a Beethoven specialist - her passions run toward Mozart, Schubert and Schoenberg and his toward the moderns - their performing all five concertos in order of composition is a significant event. It has been almost 15 years since the Philharmonic played these five concertos with a single pianist, and 35 years since such a cycle occurred at the orchestra's primary home.

Both Uchida and Salonen have performed these works many times before - but never together - and the pianist has even played them as a cycle on record and in concert, though with more breathing room than here. ``I've never done it in 10 days,'' said the pianist by phone from her home in London just after Christmas. ``I would have spread it over three weeks. But it was the only way I could do it in L.A. It may not be the most satisfactory arrangement, but however you do it, it's a bit messy.''

One result of the crunch is that Concerto No. 1 (actually, the second piano concerto Beethoven composed but the first published) is scheduled only once, tonight. Concertos Nos. 2 and 4 get two performances each, and Nos. 3 and 5 will be played three times apiece.

Though Salonen calls the works ``the most powerful series of instrumental concertos by any composer, period,'' he suggests that local audiences may respond to the music unexpectedly. Citing the plethora of large-scale symphonic works played by the Philharmonic earlier this season, he characterizes the cycle as a refreshing break from the ``massive'' and lauds the music's ``chamber-music-like'' aspects.

``My ideas of these concertos, except perhaps for the No. 5, is that these pieces have a surprisingly intimate character,'' he says.

That thought is not lost on Uchida, who goes to lengths pointing out connections between Beethoven's piano concertos and those of Mozart, drawing especially detailed comparisons between Beethoven's Third and Mozart's 24th and between Beethoven's Fourth and Mozart's 25th.

``I haven't read it anywhere,'' she says. ``But the 25th Concerto is composed as if it could be by Beethoven. That old fox knew the Mozart piece! And I find it very moving that Beethoven remembered this piece or might have been inspired by it.''

Yet Uchida also insists on Beethoven's singularity. ``Even from the very first, the B-flat Concerto, it is Beethoven,'' she says. ``It could not have been written by anyone else. At the end of the second subject in the first movement, there is a sudden shift to D-flat major. There is no logical way of going there, no precedent for that. It has nothing to do with Mozart. That happens again and again in Beethoven.''

According to Salonen, hearing these concertos as a cycle affords audiences a rare chance to experience musical evolution up close. ``It allows listeners to follow the development and the concept of how a piano concerto starts,'' he says. ``From a fairly conventional point in the No. 2, it then develops into a completely different thing like the No. 4, which is only conventional on the surface.''

BEETHOVEN PIANO CONCERTOS

What: Pianist Mitsuko Uchida takes on all five of the composer's concertos as Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the L.A. Philharmonic.

Where: Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles.

When: 8 tonight for Beethoven's Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 plus Haydn's Symphony No. 6, ``Morning''; other performances are 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, 8 p.m. Jan 13-14 and 2 p.m. Jan. 16.

Tickets: $15 to $125. [phone], www.laphil.com.

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Esa-Pekka Salonen thinks the Beetoven cycle provides a nice contrast to recent L.A. Philharmonic programming, especially the first four concertos' ``surprisingly intimate character.''