MUSIC REVIEW : San Diego Pianist Displays Power and Insight

With the abundance of piano competitions these days, there is no shortage of young winners craving attention and audiences. San Diego pianist Bryan Verhoye can boast more than a few contest laurels on his resume, but he is not just another competition keyboard howitzer. He is a musician with a clear voice and definite point of view.

Sunday evening at the Point Loma Community Presbyterian Church, Verhoye gave a serious recital that displayed both his logical and intuitive musical powers. The first half, devoted to three Scarlatti Sonatas and Beethoven’s E-flat Sonata, Op. 31, No. 3, explored the structural and analytical side of music-making.

Clearly, this is Verhoye’s home turf. His Scarlatti Sonatas, with their crisp articulation, shimmering textures, and sensitive rubato, remained the program’s most complete and satisfying offerings. Verhoye showed a wealth of interpretive detail through his serene, confident traversal of Scarlatti’s supremely logical idiom.

Although Beethoven’s precocious E-flat Sonata is anything but a mathematical equation, Verhoye’s clear overview of its architecture kept the musical surprises in their place. In spite of the sonata’s unforgiving and unrelenting rapid tempos, Verhoye maintained an effervescent equanimity. His was anything but generic Beethoven. It had the performer’s initials carved on it, without, however, obscuring the composer’s intent.

The program’s rhapsodic second half, Rachmaninoff’s “Variations on a Theme by Corelli,” Op. 42, and Mily Balakirev’s “Islamey” left more to be desired. Verhoye needs to put more muscle in his bravura playing. Although he had no trouble with Rachmaninoff’s oozing chromatic overlay in the more introspective variations, in those explosive outbursts of rampaging, 10-finger chords, Verhoye’s keyboard thunder was too distant. To be certain, a larger instrument would have helped--Verhoye played on a six-foot grand--but more passion from the performer would have also made a difference.

“Islamey” is one of those Lisztian showpieces--Liszt himself liked to dazzle his audiences with it--designed primarily to ensure a standing ovation. One of Verhoye’s staples, his “Islamey” is still not definitive, although it had a fleet, high energy sheen that was pleasurable.