E-Mail This Article to a Friend Hot-blooded Daniele Gatti opens the BSO season BY DAVID WEININGER

For all the hubbub over the beginning of the "James Levine era" at the Boston Symphony Orchestra, next week’s season-opening concerts will be more overture than exposition. The first program of 2004–2005 will see the return of guest conductor Daniele Gatti, who made his BSO debut in 2002, for Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 and Mahler’s Symphony No. 5. Those who have been champing at the bit for Jimmy to take command — and who hasn’t? — will have to sit tight a bit longer: next week’s concerts are one more luftpause before the downbeat still to come.

That doesn’t mean, of course, that the event won’t be without interest. Gatti, a 42-year-old Italian, is the music director of both the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Bologna’s Teatro Communale, and he’s one of the more stimulating and controversial conductors around. His interpretations tend toward the Romantic-with-a-capital-R school: full of wild contrasts in mood, dynamics, and tempo. They can be ardent and gripping; they can also seem supremely egocentric, imposing conductorial fiat at the expense of the composer’s musical values.

Both sides of this musical coin are on display in Gatti’s recent recording of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony with the RPO (Harmonia Mundi). According to the liner notes, Gatti hews close to the composer’s own metronome markings. The interpretation certainly sounds different. The first movement, taken at a faster clip than most, bristles with forward energy and sharp rhythms. It’s exhilarating, even if it doesn’t make much sense of the music’s overall architecture. The slow movement, as deliberate as the first is kinetic, disconnects with its molasses tempi and big ritards. Both the waltz movement and finale are agile, vigorous affairs, full of drive. It’s a fresh and absorbing take on a warhorse, and the Philharmonic shows itself to good advantage, with transparent string playing and first-rate soloists in the brass and winds.

What has recently generated more attention for Gatti than his Tchaikovsky, though, is a spat of bad behavior on stage in February. The RPO had just finished playing Beethoven’s Eroica at a concert in Naples, Florida, and Gatti returned to the stage amid a standing ovation. The crowd was expecting an encore, and it got one — sort of. The conductor, it seems, had not been happy with the way things had gone, and he took out his frustrations in a rant aimed at the audience. Gatti’s imperfect English made the exact wording difficult to pin down, but he heaped abuse on the crowd (for arriving late and applauding at inappropriate times), the hall, the presenters, and the orchestra’s placement on the stage. ("They all suck" was one concertgoer’s tidy summary of the speech.) He even apologized for the orchestra’s poor performance.

This off-the-cuff tirade went on for a few minutes, and audience members were no doubt puzzled as to why a familiar guest whom they’d just showered with praise was savaging them. A few apparently giggled nervously. "This is no joke," shouted the conductor, according to one account. "I am very serious."

No one seems to know just what set Gatti off that night, but Floridians don’t seem to be waiting around to mend fences. The hall’s president said that she would not honor a contract for a return visit by the orchestra during the 2005–2006 season. And a local music critic probably spoke for the entire audience when she called Gatti "a pretentious, angry little twit" who had "tripped over his enormous ego" and alienated "an entire enthusiastic, respectful audience who had paid nearly $100 a ticket."

Gatti seems never to have commented publicly on the incident, and as it was likely an intemperate burst of spite during a long tour, he’d probably just as soon forget about it. All reports indicate that he’s been on his best behavior since then; still, keep your eye on him during the Mahler Fifth, which can stir the passions mightily. There’ll be four performances: September 30 and October 2 and 5 at 8 p.m. and October 1 at 1:30 p.m. Tickets are $27 to $105; call (617) 266-1200.

ALSO . . . One of the highlights of the summer season was a masterful, wide-ranging recital by Ursula Oppens at New England Conservatory’s Summer Institute for Contemporary Piano Performance. A long-time local favorite, Oppens makes a return visit to play at the Boston Conservatory with fellow pianist Jerome Lowenthal as part of the school’s "Piano Masters" series. They’ll play solo works and then join forces for Messiaen’s glorious Visions de l’Amen. That’s on October 5 at 8 p.m. in Seully Hall, 8 the Fenway, and it’s free; call (617) 912-9240.