BURGE IN RECITAL OF RECENT WORKS

An infrequent visitor to these parts, David Burge nevertheless makes every visit count. The distinguished American pianist has been playing recitals hereabouts for more than a decade, sometimes in out-of-the-way places, but, chances are, if you have heard him, you haven’t forgotten the occasion.

In a full-length recital at the Arnold Schoenberg Institute at USC, Monday at 5 p.m., the 55-year-old Burge again produced a memorable occasion.

He introduced to local audiences recent compositions by Kamran Ince, Alfred Fisher, Coriun Aharonian, Graciala Paraskevaidis and William Albright and revived strong, and slightly older, pieces by George Crumb and Albright. In so doing, he held the unswerving interest of a rapt, clearly knowledgeable audience.

Ince’s suite, “The Blue Journey,” Fisher’s “Fantasy Pieces,” Aharonian’s “Y Ahora?” and Paraskevaidis’ “Un lado, otro lado” are works of color and atmosphere that utilize unconventional techniques (string-plucking, mallet-striking, plectrum-use, etc.) to extend the expressive range of the piano.

In a conventional piano recital, any one of these works might make for fascinating listening. Heard on the same agenda, they tended to reiterate their charms.

Crumb’s “Gnomic” Variations (1981), on the other hand, would dominate in any context. It speaks with authority, compression and, sometimes, violence. The composer’s communicativeness, like his invention, never falters; here, again, he has created an important work that avoids becoming self-important, but simply articulates its ideas with conviction.

Albright’s new “Sphaera,” for piano and computer-generated four-channel tape, requires a virtuoso technique from its protagonist; sometimes causes the piano to sound like a cimbalom; uses taped sounds in uninterrupted counterpoint to the solo part; moves forward in a crescendo of effects and intensity. And it does all these things successfully.

After all this seriousness, Burge closed the proceedings with two of Albright’s three “Dream Rags” (1970); they reinstated unqualified delight into an otherwise sober event.