Music Reviews : Pianist Johannesen in El Camino Recital

With more than four decades before the public, Grant Johannesen is certainly entitled to stray from the music that best suits him: works of concise structure. Which is what the American pianist did to some degree in his recital Friday at El Camino College.

But at least one listener would rather hear a whole program of specialties than a balanced agenda that compromises the artist. On this occasion, Johannesen made a powerful argument for repertory tailoring, in music by Beethoven and Prokofiev and a couple of French curios.

After a slightly discombobulating start, the American pianist settled down to the important task at hand. He charged Beethoven’s Fantasy, Opus 77, and F-sharp Sonata, Opus 78, with a heaven-storming spirit, and moved through dense terrain with utter authority.

Similarly, Johannesen put his considerable technique and powerful attack at the service of Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 7. A thrilling performance. He also captured with insouciance the jazzy drollery of Ravel’s Franco-Americanisms in a piano transcription called “Five O’Clock Fantasy” from “L’Enfant et les sortileges.”

Disappointment came, however, in his account of Schumann’s “Fantasiestucke.” Here he lacked concentration and let loose too many uncontrolled sounds to produce a taut melancholy and a poignant singing line. With a muddling of temperament and bravura, he reminded the audience that this is not his metier.