MUSIC REVIEW : Edith Hirshtal in Little Tokyo

A strong addition to the Southern California musical community--she has taught at Cal State Long Beach since the fall of 1984--Edith Hirshtal is a pianist of apparently eclectic tastes and commanding resources.

At her recital in the Japan America Theatre in Little Tokyo on Wednesday night, Hirshtal gave an indication of her wide range of pianistic interests. Most valuable of these may be the Austrian-born musician’s keenness for newish works, two of which occupied the center of her program.

John Naples’ six-minute “Chasms” (1987) made no lasting impression, but served notice of its composer’s penchant for dramatic outbursts and murky passagework. Mark Mantel’s consistently engrossing and idiomatically pianistic “The Breeze, However, Has Subsided” (1986) alternates portentousness with frenzy. The mix is attractive, at least for these seven minutes. Hirshtal gave both pieces dedicated attention, flinching at none of their many challenges.

The 38-year-old pianist also approached major works of Mozart and Chopin gamely and stylishly, though one suspected that her range of pianistic colors and dynamics was severely hampered by the acoustical heaviness of this theater; sound-absorbing curtains behind the piano did not help.

The best of three Chopin pieces was the B-flat-minor Scherzo, given a spacious and apprehendable reading. The Barcarolle seemed to mystify Hirshtal’s clearly musical instincts, and she failed to fill up its emotional spaces.

After irritating, small accidents of technique and memory in the opening movement of the B-minor Sonata, the pianist displayed her reliable and charming facility in the Scherzo, her philosophical repose in the Largo, her command of structure in the finale. With a better lighting scheme--the hall was too dark for reading the program, for instance--and a stronger stage manner, Hirshtal might have been able to take an encore or two; as things were, none materialized.