The Royal Philharmonic has fine credentials championing contemporary music... at home. Then they come all the way to San Francisco with a program of the Brahms First Symphony and "Variations on a Theme by Haydn," and the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 23. And that's all she wrote. One might have understood caution, playing safe music in the colonies, in the distant past (or during the recent Blomstedt regime). But the British cousins presented Brahms and Mozart (and "easy works" from them at that) tonight in Davies Hall where Michael Tilson Thomas has these programs in January: Aaron Jay Kernis, "Musica celestis" Tchaikovsky, Violin Concerto (with Tamaki Kawakubo) Vaughan Williams, "A London Symphony" Mahler, Ninth Symphony Gluck, Music from "Orph‚e et Eurydice" Philip Glass, "Facades" Ravel, "Noble and Sentimental Waltzes" Piazzolla (arr. Adams), "Tango la mufa" John Adams, Violin Concerto (with Vadim Repin) Prokofiev, Quintet in G minor Martinu, Duo for Violin and Cello Schulhoff, Concertino Tchaikovsky, "Souvenir de Florence" (with Repin) Elgar, "The Dream Of Gerontius" At the very least, wouldn't it make sense for a London orchestra to play some English music? Well, perhaps the performance was so exceptional that it made attendance a must? No, not really. Although not a single musician in the orchestra ever looks at him, Daniele Gatti gets a decent enough sound out of the RPO, but nothing like other conductors I heard with these musicians both at their home and on the road. The Haydn Variations featured gorgeous string performances, deeply troubled brass, and an *episodic* approach way beyond what "variations" would explain: stopping and starting again broke up the work's unity. The Mozart was dry and lifeless. Ignat Solzhenitsyn -- adequate, bland, playing notes more than music -- should not be presented as an international star at premium prices; the Moscow Conservatory must have a dozen recent graduates who are more interesting or worthwhile pianists. After the first half, I had no hope for a performance that would bring the Brahms First to life; if it happened, I missed out on it. There was some fun to be had though: the principal bassist, Mary Scully, may well be the most attention-commanding orchestra musician I've ever seen. She attacks every note with fervor that overflows from the stage, a cross between Leonard Bernstein and Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg. Her three-inch heels are of no use as the RPO bass players *sit*, and somehow her height and the position of her instrument combine in making her reach up above her head -- the strangest way I've seen the instrument played. She may be an excellent musician, but she sure comes across as a one-woman band in the middle of the orchestra. So, after all, the RPO did bring something new and different...:) Oh, and concertmaster Jonathan Carney has it easy. The orchestra is tuned by an associate, Gaby Lester, allowing the "leader" to enter to applause and take his seat without doing any "work." Janos Gereben/SF [log in to unmask]