MUSIC REVIEW : Viola Recital in Pacific Palisades

Peter Hatch has been championing the distinctly undersung viola repertory locally for many years. Since 1983 his principal forum has been an annual concert series entitled “The Magic of the Viola.”

The 1989 installment of the series began Sunday evening, with a program that focused on showmen’s tricks rather than any real magic. Capably played by Hatch, the recital also inaugurated the new, 125-seat Pierson Playhouse in Pacific Palisades as a public chamber music venue. With clear acoustics and sight-lines, and a fine, resident Kawai grand, the hall could make a significant addition to Westside musical life.

The violin music of 19th-Century virtuosos Henry Vieuxtemps and Joseph Joachim is hardly heard today, let alone their viola music. Vieuxtemps’ Sonata is a quirky work of both gold and brass, while his needlessly revived Elegy proved pure dross. Joachim’s three “Hebraische Melodien” mines a characteristic vein of earnest, long-lined brooding.

Hatch provided a wealth of firmly focused, clearly directed sound. His is a rather reticent stage personality, and he came to grief tempermentally and technically in Vieuxtemps’ most eccentric, flamboyant passages.

The equally daunting challenges of Enesco’s Concert Piece, however, were cleanly nailed with conviction and elan. He made a cogent case for Hindemith’s Sonata, Opus 11, No. 4, and supplied three sweetly sung encores, one of his own arranging.

Italian pianist Francesco Bencivenga had no easy task with most of these accompaniments, and played them with imposing technical clarity and musical sympathy.