MUSIC REVIEW : Feltsman in Bowl Recital

Although a crowd of 5,875 doesn’t do much to fill Hollywood Bowl, it’s still quite a gathering for a piano recital--even one by so celebrated a keyboard hero as Vladimir Feltsman, the much touted emigrant of the season just a few years ago.

The socio-political celebrity surrounding Feltsman’s arrival in the U.S. three years ago has abated considerably, leaving an excitable but seldom exciting artist of formidable technical attainment. He would seem an unlikely candidate to illuminate a program that could be the archetype for senior recitals everywhere, but his playing Wednesday proved highly individual, even quirky at times.

Schumann’s “Carnaval” benefited most from the pianist’s idiosyncratic attention to phrasing and articulation, though at the crisp extreme hardly flattered by the sound combination of instrument and amplification. Feltsman worked hard to make the motivic connections clear, creating a taut, large-scale piece rather than a suite of miniatures.

Quick tempos and the dry sound left Beethoven’s F-minor Sonata (Opus 2, No. 1) a lightweight castaway. The prickly articulation of the opening movement seemed more peevish than dramatic, and the Adagio developed with stodgy deliberation. The Minuetto and finale crackled, though, with controlled energy and pointed bravura.

Feltsman began the C-minor Partita by Bach with a flaccid introduction denying allegiance to any stylistic school, then drew closer to the Glenn Gould model in the more linearly forthright sections of the Sinfonia.

His penchant for exaggerating little motives distorted larger phrasings, but Feltsman kept the music limber and forward looking, alert to the dance music origins. He exhibited a tendency to rush and drop notes at unexpected moments that recurred in the Beethoven and Schumann, but also displayed the clarity that served all textures well.

In encore he turned to the popular rewards of Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag,” in an affectionate, unfussy account.