MUSIC REVIEW : ASHKENAZY ZEROS IN ON ROMANTICISM

Vladimir Ashkenazy is known for the breadth of his repertory, but Wednesday evening in Symphony Hall the Russian-born pianist focused his attention on a small pocket of Romanticism. Three early works by Robert Schumann and a pair of familiar Beethoven sonatas, the “Waldstein” and the “Appassionata,” comprised his entire program.

The diminutive Ashkenazy darted quickly across the Symphony Hall stage, which had been covered with carpeting and draped with black cloth hangings to dampen the room’s acoustics for his solo recital. The performer appeared slightly impatient, eager to complete his task. To his appreciative audience, he offered but a single encore.

Ashkenazy’s Schumann proved a rare treat. From the opening measures of the F Major “Novelette,” Op. 21, No. 1, it was clear that his temperament was completely congruent with the ethos of the music. He brandished its march-like theme with stylish bravado, yet in moments of introspective contrast, he turned poetic. In spite of the rhapsodic character of the second “Novelette” in D Major, he fashioned a coherent and convincing reading, relishing its formidable technical demands without flaunting them.

It is easy to understand why Schumann’s F-sharp Minor Sonata, Op. 11, is not frequently programmed: its unorthodox formal structure makes it pretty odd as sonatas go. Ashkenazy showed no interest in serving it up as a sonata manque , however. He correctly saw it as a highly emotional Valentine disguised as a sonata, sent by the composer to the then-teen-age Clara Wieck, who later married Schumann. With exquisite detail, Ashkenazy delivered its rhetorical declamations and unbridled ardor. The breadth of tone he coaxed from an otherwise hard-edged Steinway was only one clue that he held the work in tender esteem.

Ashkenazy’s performance of Beethoven’s F Minor (“Appassionata”) Sonata was not much more than a stormy mirror image of the C Major (“Waldstein”) Sonata that opened his recital. His brand of Beethoven comes from another era, in which the virtuoso sweep of the sonata is paramount. With enough sustain pedal to engulf Debussy’s “Sunken Cathedral,” Ashkenazy turned out seamless, driving Beethoven, submerging the composer’s signature contrasts and juxtapositions.

Especially in the “Appassionata,” Ashkenazy’s powerful left hand produced a thundering bass that tended to overbalance the overall texture. The clarity and subtlety that set apart Ashkenazy’s Schumann sonata were unfortunately missing in his Beethoven sonatas.

The recital, like last week’s performance by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, was presented by the La Jolla Chamber Music Society.