MUSIC REVIEW : KIMMELMAN RECITAL HONORS BELINFANTE

Thursday, the Laguna Beach Chamber Music Society honored one of its own--Frieda Belinfante--with a piano recital by Seth Kimmelman at Laguna Beach High School Auditorium.

Long active in Orange County as cellist, conductor and teacher, Belinfante is now a member of the board of directors of the society, through which she engaged Kimmelman. The Boston-based pianist scheduled music by several women composers, which he introduced with relevant commentary.

According to Kimmelman, it was Fanny Mendelssohn who invented “Songs Without Words,” rather than her younger brother, Felix. The four selections that he played, while quite characteristic of the genre, sounded more akin to Chopin in accompanimental filigree and melodic passion.

Four tight, pungent Preludes by Ruth Crawford Seeger contrasted sharply with the Romantic Ballade in D-flat, Opus 6, by Mrs. H. H. A. Beach (1867-1944). From a contemporary perspective, Beach’s Ballade sounds almost parodistic, while Seeger’s Preludes, although composed in the ‘20s, have lost none of their pertinent bite.

The exaggeration of the Ballade became more apparent when Kimmelman followed it with the real thing, Chopin’s Ballade in A-flat, Opus 47. He opened the program with a slightly self-conscious account of Haydn’s Sonata in E-flat, No. 45, in the new system.

Technically, Kimmelman proved fast and strong, though not invariably accurate. As an interpreter, he seemed most at home in the Romantic pieces, despite a disconcerting tendency to phrase with the damper pedal rather than his hands.

The appreciative audience began the evening with a standing ovation for Belinfante. Kimmelman responded to the applause with a set of Gershwin song transcriptions in encore, played with compelling zest and a wonderfully spunky, slinky style.