MUSIC REVIEW : MAGALOFF IN RECITAL AT ROYCE HALL

A comprehensive and self-effacing figure at the keyboard, Nikita Magaloff is a living reminder of old-fashioned pianistic ideals. His seamless legato, his sensitive ear, his quiet hand movements and his articulate phrasing, all admirable in their separate ways, combine to produce solid and thorough music-making.

As heard in a Chopin recital at Royce Hall, UCLA, Saturday night, Magaloff, who will be 75 next month, did not always achieve excitement, but he consistently displayed an authoritative Chopin style and well-wrought readings.

And his program was provocative. It listed, in this order, the four Ballades, the four Impromptus and the four Scherzos.

In another order, the program might have proved more effective. As it was, with the best music coming first, it tended to become anticlimactic.

Magaloff’s readings of these 12 works showed the effects of long acquaintance and constant polishing. Like a raconteur who has been telling the same stories for many years, the Russian-Swiss pianist can in moments turn exquisite details into mannerisms. On the other hand, he can also rediscover musical truth in the most familiar places.

In this generous program, he mined some stunning gems: poignant and emotionally resonant performances of both the A-flat and F-minor Ballades; touching re-creations of the A-flat and F-sharp Impromptus; as noble and satisfying a reading of the B-flat-minor Scherzo as one may hear these days.

For a first encore, Magaloff chose the Nocturne in C-sharp minor.