What if I told you the Los Angeles Philharmonic decided to bring in a guest conductor who could ostensibly be a viable Music Director candidate, let him conduct a compelling pair of symphonies and local premiere of a concerto featuring one of the orchestra’s star principals, and yet the organization seemed to collectively shrug as if it didn’t care?

Let’s talk about last weekend’s successful visit by Manfred Honeck.

The Austrian has been Music Director of the Pittsburgh Symphony since 2008, and they have been the only American orchestra invited to the Salzburg Festival so far this decade. His appearances with the LA Phil have been infrequent, with over a dozen years passing since his only other Walt Disney Concert Hall stint in 2013. Before that, he had a small handful of engagements with them during their Dorothy Chandler Pavilion era.

So you’d think that last weekend’s three concerts would be a potential tryout, even an unofficial one, for the big chair at the LA Phil. After all, he’s the only sitting Music Director of an American orchestra to appear with the orchestra this year. He has been a regular visitor with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, and San Francisco Symphony during that same time, and the reviews have been strong to quite strong. The program included three pieces — the rarely heard Haydn Symphony No. 93, the never-before-played-here Reinecke Flute Concerto featuring Principal Flute Denis Bouriakov, and the all-too-common Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5 — that made for an interesting test case.

Yet the version of the LA Phil playing for him was a shell of its normal self. The first violins in particular were gutted: on top of having 4 of the top 6 chairs already vacant, neither of the remaining 2 — Bing Wang (Acting Concertmaster) nor Rebecca Reale (acting 2nd chair) — were present. In their place on the first stand were a guest concertmaster, Akiko Tarumoto, and a member of the 2nd violin section, Johnny Lee. Multiple other guest players populated the strings and woodwinds. Passover and Easter likely provided the rationale for many of the absences, which is completely understandable. The accompanying minimal promotional support by the orchestra’s marketing and social media, less so.

The resulting orchestra, no matter how well qualified the substitutes happened to be, more closely resembled a Hollywood Bowl iteration of the LA Phil than one guest conductors and audiences would usually experience at WDCH. Additionally, at least one of the missing musicians is a member of the Music Director search committee. And Mr. Honeck is not on the orchestra’s 2026-27 schedule. All of that adds up to collective institutional apathy about his appearance.

Based on the strength of last Saturday night’s concert and the positive reaction of the players who were on the stage, it seems like a missed opportunity. Even if there are better candidates for Music Director, there was enough to like from this concert to want to have him back often.

Mr. Honeck set an auspicious tone with his take on the Haydn 93rd Symphony. The composer’s works used to regularly be a part of LA Phil seasons during Esa-Pekka Salonen’s tenure as Music Director. Since then, not so much. That is a shame, and Mr. Honeck’s interpretation reminded us why. He provided a clear yet organic-feeling scaffolding, while still managing to highlight the work’s charm and wit. The orchestra playing was rich and responsive, with Principal Bassoon Whitney Crockett leaning into the famous 2nd movement raspberry (read: fart) note and, more importantly, adding considerable lyricism throughout.

Mr. Honeck’s interpretation of the Tchaikovsky 5th Symphony was unabashedly muscular and lush on one hand, and richly detailed on the other. He took multiple opportunities to play with tempo and texture in unexpected and atypical ways. Sometimes, it was illuminating; others, it was quirky at best and distracting at worse. The overall result might not have been to everyone’s taste but it was undeniably memorable and entertaining. I certainly was grateful for having a conductor with a strong point of view and the expertise to pull it off.

The orchestra gave him everything he asked for and then some, seeming to revel in the chance to play full throttle for much of the piece. Strings were robust, woodwinds chewy, and brass burnished in all the best possible ways. Principal Horn Andrew Bain played the famous 2nd movement solo with plangent beauty. After it was all done and the audience gave multiple rounds of enthusiastic applause, Ms. Tarumoto led the orchestra in their own grateful ovation for the guest conductor. Mr. Honeck responded to everyone with a broad smile and repeated gestures of appreciation for audience and orchestra alike.

In between, Mr. Bouriakov joined the gathering as soloist for the first-ever LA Phil performances of the Flute Concerto by Carl Reinecke. As orchestral works go, it is no masterpiece. As a romantic-era virtuoso showpiece for flute, however, it excels. Mr. Bouriakov dug into it with the combination of lyricism and technical expertise for which he is renowned. His playing was beautiful throughout, soaring and spinning in the outer movements and dramatic and melancholy in the elegiac middle section.

The orchestra gave him energetic support. On one or two occasions, Mr. Honeck could have held back more to let the soloist shine through, but it did not detract from the overall success. For a well-deserved encore, Mr. Bouriakov gave a jaw-dropping rendition of a flute arrangement of the opening section of Bach’s Partita No. 3 for Solo Violin (BWV 1006). Anyone who hadn’t given a standing ovation after the concerto appeared to jump to their feet after the encore.

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Random other thoughts:

• As with the prior week’s concert with Paavo Järvi, the Walt Disney Concert Hall audience was all-too-eager to applaud at the end of every movement. By the time the 3rd movement of the Tchaikovsky symphony ended, Mr. Honeck made a point to hold his hands up and quickly transition to the 4th movement to preclude any undue interruption. Likewise, during the dramatic pause near the end of the 4th movement, he reached his hand back and held a finger up to the audience as if to say, “One moment, please don’t start clapping yet.” It worked.
• In case you forgot, Akiko Tarumoto is the former LA Phil Assistant Concertmaster. She moved to Boston with her husband, former First Associate Concertmaster Nathan Cole, when he become Concertmaster of the Boston Symphony. She’s a spectacular violinist, and it was great to have her back with the orchestra for these performances.

Los Angeles Philharmonic: April 4, 2026; Walt Disney Concert Hall
Manfred Honeck, conductor
Denis Bouriakov, flute

Haydn: Symphony No. 93 in D major, Hob. I:93
Reinecke: Concerto for Flute and Orchestra in D major, Op. 283
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64

RELATED POSTS

• REVIEW: Paavo Järvi opens eyes and ears with latest LA Phil appearance (March 29, 2026)
• REVIEW: The Great Indoors: First LA Phil subscription concert of 2022/23 shows off orchestra members, Walt Disney Concert Hall (October 2, 2022)
• Chatting with the LA Phil woodwind principals Whitney Crockett, Denis Bouriakov, and Boris Allakhverdyan (October 13, 2017)

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Photo credits:

• Manfred Honeck: photo by Felix Broede
• Denis Bouriakov: photo courtesy of artist’s website