Music : Dutch Pianist Ends List-Glenn Series

Pianist Martijn van den Hoek--who closed the List-Glenn Institute’s concert series at Cal State Los Angeles Saturday night--has an imposing, cosmopolitan resume: professor of piano at the Akademie fur Musik in Vienna, first-prize winner in the 1986 Franz Liszt Piano Competition in Budapest, “Cultural Ambassador” for the Port of Rotterdam.

Throughout his impressive recital, Van den Hoek displayed ample intelligence and virtuosity. But there were moments when one wished for a little less of both, longing for a more spontaneous and relaxed poetry.

He began in his Rotterdam role with Sweelinck’s Variations on “Mein junges Leben hat ein End,” a grateful and melodious opener in this generous reading.

He then turned to Schumann’s “Kreisleriana,” in a tautly controlled and cohesive performance. He clarified Schumann’s rich textures with shrewd voicings and digital crispness. His virtuosity came through in the lightness and clarity of touch in those clumps of rushing arpeggios, and in emphatic, symphonic climaxes. Where Schumann urged “sehr rasch,” Van den Hoek played very rashly indeed. Perhaps a more gracious lyricism is called for in the songful passages, but its absence detracted little from his intensely concentrated reading.

His account of Chopin’s B-minor Sonata could, at times, sound too controlled, too continuously tense. The first movement, for all the pianist’s oratory, failed to reach its full heights, and the lyricism never bloomed in the nocturne-like Largo. His grandly virtuosic account of the finale, however, proved undeniably effective.

In Debussy’s “Estampes,” the pianist’s technical gifts again came to the fore, in an assured, abundantly colored yet episodic reading. The encores--an agile performance of a Scarlatti sonata in F, and a boisterous, jaw-drop-inducing “La Campanella” capped the evening with a flourish.