Salonen, Philharmonic Play Debussy, Bruckner Splendidly

In advance of its tour to Spain and the Canary Islands this coming Wednesday to Feb. 9, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by music director Esa-Pekka Salonen, offered two of the major tour works in performances at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Wednesday and Thursday.

Technical superiority and sweeping musical perspective, both well above the norm for this orchestra, characterized the playing of both Debussy’s “La Mer” and Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony.

As heard Wednesday--in the new, early-bird, 7 p.m. series--this was no half-hearted tryout or simple preview. These readings reflected the ensemble’s world-class symphonic standards and the conductor’s deep musical probing.

The rich playing Wednesday night was the function of an orchestra that has the mechanical means to produce every dynamic gradation and the maturity to make each performance seem spontaneous.

“La Mer” became an object lesson in effortless cohesion of the orchestra’s larger sections; individual soloists meshed their contributions meaningfully, without destroying Salonen’s clear sense of continuity--even though the work is abstract, it must move in a line the listener can follow.

Bruckner’s lush Fourth, which, at least in its two opening movements, creates a graspable, nonverbal narrative, proved similarly convincing, as Salonen made its progress natural and ineluctable. Not everyone loves Bruckner--the sing-songey, sidewinding Scherzo again proved irritating to at least one non-convert, for instance--but this performance was hard, nay, impossible to resist.