MUSIC REVIEW : Polish Pianism From Andrzej Dutkiewicz

The concert series of the List-Glenn Institute this year is not long on repertory novelty. But the recital by Andrzej Dutkiewicz Tuesday night at the Cal State Los Angeles Music Hall, proved a dynamic exploration of new music from Poland.

Professor of both piano and composition at the Warsaw Conservatory, Dutkiewicz brought a nationalistic program that began with Chopin and ended with pieces by himself and three colleagues.

The hinge in the agenda was the Five Etudes, Opus 33, by Szymanowski. Though mostly pungent and percussive in Dutkiewicz’s playing, these short pieces effectively united the contemporary works with the Chopin heritage.

Dutkiewicz emphasized color and texture in his own pieces, though the three-movement neo-classical Suite for Piano had tremendous linear energy and Stravinskyan wit. The “Three Sketches in Retrospect,” composed in memory of Eugene List, ranged from the modal, parallel chords of Hymnus, through the fractured folkishness of a Mazurka to the harmonically fluttering, almost minimalist Pastorale.

The latter piece had much in common with “A-LA,” including pedal effects and shimmering chords shifting through suspensions and common-tone modulations. All are virtuosic, though most flamboyantly so in the concluding Toccata of the Suite, and Dutkiewicz the pianist gave Dutkiewicz the composer pointed, powerful performances.

Marion Borkowski’s “Fragmenti,” Zbigniew Baginski’s “A.D. 1988” and Renate Kunkel’s “Phrases”--all dedicated to Dutkiewicz--had much in common with the master’s style. These works all held passages which elicited truly soft playing and pearly tones from Dutkiewicz, something largely missing from the rest of his efforts.

That proved most unsettling in the Chopin set, launched with a big, blunt E-flat Nocturne, Opus 9, No. 2.