MUSIC REVIEWS : BUSWELL, PERRY PLAY PROKOFIEV

After hearing the Prokofiev program delivered so forcefully by violinist James Buswell and pianist John Perry on Monday night at USC, one left Hancock Auditorium hoping that this perfectly matched partnership might extend beyond occasional one-night stands.

The two players, Buswell from the Indiana University faculty and Perry from the USC faculty, both possess all the technical tools. But, more importantly, on Monday they shared the same interpretive vision of this rarely heard music, and projected it with the same tightly controlled energy. The performances of the sonatas in F minor and D, plus the Five Melodies, Opus 35, were so persuasive that at least one in the small but enthusiastic crowd could only wonder why the music isn’t heard more often.

Undoubtedly, the highlight of the evening was its finale--a blistering reading of the F-minor Sonata. It is an intense, diabolical, fiendishly difficult piece. And a total joy to experience. The players handled the unending mood shifts with nonchalant bravura. The extended silence that followed that final, resigned sigh of the last movement showed the effect this music--and this performance--had on those assembled.

The pair had opened the program with the earlier (and infinitely less weighty) Opus 35 melodies, played with conviction and warmth. A broken string midway through proved the evening’s only setback.

Pre-intermission, Buswell and Perry gave a muscular account of the D-major Sonata. The performance provided the sole occasion when instrumental balances fell slightly out of kilter: here and there, the rich-toned playing of Buswell became overpowered by Perry’s otherwise exemplary contributions.