MUSIC AND DANCE REVIEWS : MINORU NOJIMA AT EL CAMINO COLLEGE

A disarming literalness seems to characterize the pianism of Minoru Nojima, who returned to El Camino College on Saturday night for a program comprising Mozart’s A-major Sonata, K. 331, Beethoven’s “Appassionata” Sonata and the “Symphonic” Etudes (with four of the rejected Posthumous Etudes reinstated) by Robert Schumann.

Yet, after more than a decade of receiving the Japanese musician’s enlightening musical visits here, some pianistic connoisseurs can almost begin to take Nojima’s performances on faith.

For those of us hearing the 40-year-old pianist in a solo recital for the first time, the initial impression--in the Mozart and Beethoven works--was one of extreme emotional reserve, pristine note-honesty and quiet self-effacement. Nojima’s approaches obviously do not stress Mozartean charms and Beethovenian ranting. Such approaches are valid, of course, but unusual.

After intermission, a stylish sense of Romantic freedom marked the Schumann set and displayed Nojima’s resources of color, tone and dynamic breadth, also his poetic bent and effortless virtuosity. One had to admire it all, without at any point feeling any generated heat.

Like Markova the night before, the pianist clearly felt his program proper needed no addenda: He took no encores.