Since the dashing and precociously accomplished young Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel was selected to lead the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the classical music world has become intoxicated with the elan of youth. Philip Mann, the San Diego Symphony’s Assistant Conductor and resident American Conducting Fellow, is the local orchestra’s golden boy, although at age 32, he has a few years on Dudamel.

Saturday (February 27) at Copley Symphony Hall, Mann made one of his rare appearances on the Jacobs’ Masterworks Series, the orchestra’s meat-and-potatoes classical series. Most of Mann’s job description keeps him busy with educational outreach and pops performances.

Conductor Philip Mann.

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In a well-balanced and freshly conceived program of Richard Strauss, Mozart and Debussy, Mann demonstrated his fluent, genial conducting technique and his overall poise leading the symphony. Unlike Dudamel, he does not exude an inexhaustible electricity or intense concentration that has brought the Venezuelan his cult-like following. On the podium, Mann appears almost casual, running his hand through his curly mane and regularly flashing his self-satisfied smile.

His program’s centerpiece was Mozart’s Concerto for Flute and Harp in C Major, K. 299, featuring two of the orchestra’s stellar principal players, flutist Demarre McGill and harpist Julie Ann Smith. The elegance and polish of these soloists filled this modest piece—Mozart produced this duo concerto on commission for two instruments not at all dear to his heart—with a conviction and substance just short of astonishing.

Most flute players work to create their best tonal color and use it all of the time because it is the best they have to offer. McGill, however, possesses a wide range of beautifully produced colors, from light and silvery to dark and reedy, that he calls upon as the mood or tempo or turn of phrase requires. This tonal variety coupled with his ability to energetically crest on top of a melodic phrase makes him a riveting performer, and his Mozart was, to borrow a title from a much later composer, a “Poème d’extase.”

Smith’s ability to pluck a clear, singing melody from a tidal wave of arpeggiation made her McGill’s ideal partner in crime, especially delectable in their graceful pas de deux in the Andantino. Mann consistently chose sympathetic tempi and kept the orchestra in deft balance with his soloists.

Strauss’ youthful tone poem “Don Juan,” Op. 20, Mann’s program opener, lacked focus and the plush, Viennese string sound that this flashy opus requires. The work’s signature opening flourish was rocky, and I thought the piece never quite settled into a confident groove, although Sarah Skuster’s luxuriant, ardent oboe solos brought her well-deserved accolades from the audience.

Mann and the orchestra brought out the drama and rigor of Debussy’s familiar tone poem “La Mer” while patiently nurturing the contrasting moments of shimmering repose. It proved a good night for the brass, especially in the majestic sunrise of the first movement and principal trumpet Calvin Price’s refined, translucent solos in the other two movements. Mann took particular pleasure in the composer’s atypical playful mood in the “Jeux de vagues.”

As if Debussy’s matchless ode to the sea were not nautical enough, Mann added Ernest Bloch’s short orchestral essay, “The Waves,” as an encore. Winning and evocative as it was, Debussy is a hard act to follow.

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