MUSIC REVIEW : Beethoven Filters Through Bowl’s Fireworks Dazzle

There must be a psychological force governing the experience of concert-goers who know that a performance will conclude in a bombast of fireworks. When you sit in anticipation of a pyrotechnical orgy, can the finer aesthetic points be savored? Expectations can get skewed.

Fireworks have been lighting the night sky around the Cahuenga Pass regularly of late, beginning with the Tchaikovsky Spectacular a few weeks back. In the next two weekends at the Hollywood Bowl, fireworks will erupt to the tunes of John Williams and Handel, respectively. Friday night, it was Beethoven’s turn, as the “Beethoven Spectacular” unveiled itself in heroic fashion.

Spectacular is a relative term. In this case, it referred not only to the over-killing finale, but repertoire, emphasizing the Beethoven of heroic, grand and sometimes martial uplift, rather than the dark brooding Beethoven. With an attendance of 13,745, the crowd, too, was fairly spectacular.

Danish conductor Eri Klas, a familiar guest conductor with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, worked up a suitably lucid brio under the circumstances, coaxing a crisp efficiency on the Overture to “The Creatures of Prometheus” and a refreshingly restrained, lyrical reading of “Leonore” Overture, No. 3.

In the middle--the musical middle--came the Hollywood debut of 34-year-old, L.A.-born pianist Stephen Prutsman, who rose neatly to the occasion of the Fifth Piano Concerto, “the Emperor.” From its still ear-grabbing introductory solo flourish on, Prutsman conveyed an intimate understanding of the work’s emotional demands, its regal hubris and reflective asides.

As for the climactic reading of the symphonic poem “Wellington’s Victory,” well, enough was more than enough. Beethoven’s frothy pastiche--including such immortal tunes as “God Save the King” and “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow”--was festooned with unintentional comic soldier play onstage, arrhythmic artillery fire, and the promised fireworks dazzle, including “ah”-inspiring fireworks shot across the stage.

An unexpected breeze rerouted the plumes of smoke into the box area, the smell of sulfur may have overpowered the aura of culture. Smoke got in our eyes, in the literal rather than the romantic sense.