Music Reviews : Halim Opens Series

To close the first day of activity at the UCLA Piano Festival and Competition, Eduardus Halim, a winner of the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, made his Southland debut Saturday evening in Schoenberg Hall Auditorium. His playing, alas, fell far short of expectations.

In the all-Romantic program leaning heavily on transcriptions, the Indonesian-born pianist brought splash and glitter but little depth to his playing. He over-pedaled almost constantly, and as a result delivered unfocused performances almost devoid of detail. While he dispatched an impressive array of notes, his playing so lacked clarity that it became the musical equivalent of the din at a very large, very loud party.

Not all of Halim’s playing was loud: The 28-year-old Juilliard graduate did display a remarkably wide dynamic range. But there was little shape to his playing, and he appeared to have no concept of how to shape a melodic line.

Most successful was Schumann’s “Humoreske”, Opus 20 (the only non-transcription), where Halim capitalized on the work’s myriad contrasts. His playing, however, exuded no discernible spontaneity.

The Liszt transcriptions that made up the second half--and the encore--received flashy, often bombastic and entirely superficial performances. The pianist showed a capacity for fast finger-work, but rhythmic unevenness and technical errors detracted. The university’s Steinway, moreover, sounded overly bright.

Halim opened with murky readings of three Bach/Busoni chorale preludes.