MUSIC REVIEW : Pianist Alicia de Larrocha in Schumann Recital at Pavilion

No pianist of our time makes music more freely or spontaneously than Alicia de Larrocha. It is as natural as breathing to her and as essential to her well-being.

She played a Schumann recital in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Tuesday night, supplemented by three of her inimitable Spanish encores. Rarely does an artist communicate as directly as Larrocha did with her adoring audience.

Larrocha is no keyboard thunderer. She has no need to roar or tear passion to shreds. She seems to depend as much on suggestion as she does on reality. She hints rather than expounds. Her playing is really small scaled, but it can give the illusion of inclusiveness; nothing obvious is ever lacking.

Instinct and perceptiveness predominate, yet the playing and musicality are under unerring control. It would require an aural microscope to detect a miscalculation.

Larrocha is also one of the most versatile of musicians. In advance, one might have wondered how her hypersensitivity would take to Schumann’s boisterousness and Romantic sentiment. Not to worry. The extroversion was as deftly handled as the introversion. She conveyed strength without effort, and she floated melodies on edgeless moonbeams.

She had no apparent intention of setting forth special ideas about Schumann’s style, yet from what pianist today can one hear a clearer definition of that style?

She did not consciously have to apply charm to “Carnaval” or to “Faschingsschwank aus Wien.” The music simply rippled and danced on its own momentum, fabulously elastic and innately rhythmical, breaking into song with the ease of a bird in Spring. There have been more formidable approaches to Schumann, but none more lovable.

The rarely heard Allegro in B minor, Opus 8, was equally well presented, though it is on a more mundane level of inspiration.

The three Spanish encores rivaled each other in subtle magic of tone and insinuating mysteries. In order, they were: “The Secret” by Mompou, the “Dance of Terror” from Falla’s “El Amor Brujo” and a “Danza Espanola” by Granados.

Alicia de Larrocha makes her Orange County debut at the Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa tonight at 8. Tickets: $8 to $25. Information: (714) 556-2787.