LA Philharmonic offered three programs of Berlioz this month, one month after the composer's birth bicentennial. The first featured Anne Sofie-von Otter in "Nuits d"ete," where her lovely voice failed to project enough to have maximum impact. The second half of that program featured two songs at the piano with Miss Otter, and then major excerpts from "Romeo and Juliet." Here Salonen didn't seem in the music, and I wondered how much I would enjoy the next two programs. Salonen came through. Last week he led a fine "Harold in Italy," with the stunning (looking and playing) young soloist, Nokuthula Ngwenyama. I heard someone grumble behind me after the performance, "Now you know why you didn't know the piece." Which I took to mean, "it's boring." Well, I remember not caring at all for "Harold" the first time I heard it. Berlioz takes a couple listens, I suppose. But knowing and loving the piece as I do, the concert performance really thrilled, with exquisite delicacy in the second movement and Salonen's trademark energy in the livelier sections. That program opened with the rare "Tristia," also well-perfomed. Yesterday (1/31), I attended the "Symphonie Fantastique" program. This one was "special." A modern "theatrical" group, Complicite, led by a Simon McBurney, put together a multi-media program. LA Phil under Disney has tried to "modernize" the concert-going experience with film before, but this took the effort to another level. High in Disney's "billowing" wooden rafters was a mast and furled sail right out of "Master and Commander." It slowly lowered until it hit the floor as a mesh-like scrim, in FRONT of the orchestra. There was another smaller screen behind the orchestra, and smaller projections to the side for Disney Hall's side sections, which were bisected (is that a word?!) by the main screen. The images that appeared on the screen were often illustrative during "Leilo," the opening piece. "Leilo" has a narration which Berlioz prepared (according to the program - I only have two "Leilo" sections on CD, in Davis's Philips box). The projections moslty served to illustrate the obvious - paintings of severed heads, for example, underlined Berlioz's decision not to be a doctor. I can't identify with confidence the name of the actor who delivered the narration, but he was a little over-ripe from me, and with the distancing effect of the scrim, I found the "Leilo" experience unimpressive. The highlights were the sung sections. Tenor Eric Cutler and baritone Kyle Ketelson had delighted me the previous week in Costa Mesa, where they sang the lover boys in "Cosi" for Opera Pacific. They stayed in town for this program and both sang well. Then, without pause, the orchestra slipped into "Symphonie Fantastique." I have to admit, it took me a minute or two to realize this had happened, what is partly because the first (and third, as well) movement of "Fantastique" never really seem to stay in my head. The front scrim remained down during the first movement, and then thankfully went up before the second. For most of the "Symphonie," all we saw projected was a man's head with his eyes closed. A man in the row behind me seemed to take this as his cue to close HIS eyes and snore. He woke up for the fourth movement, believe me. It is probably an optical/auditory illusion, but I thought with the lfiting of the scrim, a little clarity to the sound appeared. The reason for the scrim's raising was so we could see the 'theatrical" side of the program - positioned amid the orchestra were 6 or 7 Complicite performers, who did such malarkey as stand up and take off their jackets, cover their faces with their hands, turn slowly around, and at one poiint, lift instruments which were then pulled up through the air to the ceiling on wires. None of that did much for me. However, the orchestra was somehow convinced to "perform" as well, and this I loved. First I noticed chorogreaphed, dramatic "bow" sweeps from the strings. Then the string players truned toward the audience and played, which may not sound like much but had a stunning effect. Then some instrumentalists stood to perform their brief solo sections. I can't express how these simple actions brought the performance to life. Does a little showmanship really hurt? Usually orchestral players look dour when playing and downright bored when not. Perhaps being asked to "perform" in another sense also helped the orchestra to deliver a spectacular "Fantastique," because that's what really counts, and I thought Salonen and his players rocked the house. Even that long third movement, which frankly I have been bored by in recorded performance often, held my attention with fine detail and taut delivery. And the last two movements - well, that's Salonen's home territory - climaxes and tension. The audience roared its approval, and sincerely - this wasn't one of the standing ovations from the beginning of the season which were as much for the hall as for the performance. I left after five minutes of whistling and stomping and three stage calls for the performers - the yelling and clapping was still going on as I made it through the maze of hallways and down to the main lobby (which was crowded with tourists on this lovely Saturday afternoon, watching the applause on large TV screens). Anyway, bravo Salonen and Phil, and to Complicite, at least my thanks for convincing the players to get in on the action. As for the projections - those I could do without. They always seem like a good idea, but has anyone seen a program where they actually added to the performance and didn't distract or annoy? Maybe the Pixar people will come up with something - wait, they're not Disney any more, are they? Oh, well... In June, one more Berlioz program - the "Requiem," with Eric Cutler as soloist. Next for me at Disney - Carmignola and Vivaldi. C Mullins Los Angeles