MUSIC REVIEW : Pianist Frederic Chiu at Ambassador Auditorium

Pianist Frederic Chiu--who played on the Gold Medal Piano Series Monday Night at Ambassador Auditorium--has the sure-fire technique that every competition winner has these days. Happily, he also revealed something more: a mind behind those fast fingers.

Chiu, although just in his mid-20s, showed a mature understanding of the music at hand, and pursued musical insight over virtuosic display. In the Four Chorale Preludes by Bach as arranged by Busoni, which opened his compact program, he brought rich, somber sonority to bear on the stately counterpoint while the chorale tunes resounded clearly on a separate plain.

He showed a refined sense of the dramatic elements in two pieces from Ravel’s “Miroirs.” With sweeping lines and kaleidoscopic coloration he painted a vivid picture in “Une barque sur l’ocean” and with purposeful contrasts, telling accents and crisp execution he captured all of the driving, opulent energy of “Alborada del gracioso.”

In the three Opus 34 Waltzes by Chopin, unfortunately, he wasn’t nearly so convincing. His overshaped melodic lines lacked direction, his stiff rhythmic inflection sapped the music of graceful movement. Gian Carlo Menotti’s Ricercare and Toccata (on a theme from “The Old Maid and the Thief”) didn’t rise above its negligible worth, serving Chiu as mere virtuosic filler.

He concluded strongly with an intelligently shaped, starkly colored, robust reading of Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 7.