Soviet Pianist Ratser in U.S. Debut at El Camino College : Music: Liszt, Schubert, Rachmaninoff on program.

You could just take one look at the program and figure out that the pianist had chops. Big pieces by Liszt and Rachmaninoff are not ventured by the faint of heart. And given that Dmitri Ratser is a multiple competition winner, you knew that there was some whiz-bang virtuosity in store. You wouldn’t have been disappointed.

Ratser has spent the last decade concertizing and competing inside the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc. This concert--in Marsee Auditorium at the South Bay Center for the Arts at El Camino College on Saturday night--was his North American debut.

He opened with Liszt’s sprawling essay in deviltry, the “Dante” Sonata. He played with gusto, from a purely technical standpoint. But he pushed most of its grander moments (there are many), pulled at its contemplative ones and the piece remained dramatically diffuse. He continued with more Liszt, this time Schubert song transcriptions--”The Maiden’s Complaint,” “Serenade” and “Atlas”--then the negligible Tarantella from “Annees de pelerinage.” Ratser distended their melodies until they lost their songful flow.

Ratser’s most massive moments remained rhythmically clear and avoided brittleness. He insisted on balanced pounding. By this time the piano needed a tuning, which it got at intermission.

Ratser then offered, by way of virtually no contrast at all, one of Rachmaninoff’s most overwritten scores, the Piano Sonata No. 2 (revised version).

Here, he thundered, dashed, zoomed. But he failed to shape; he didn’t swoon. When the music got going, he plowed straight ahead, letting the sheer accumulation of notes make their impact.

He concluded with the North American premiere of Soviet composer Alexander Rosenblatt’s Variations on a Theme of Paganini. Set in various jazz styles, the variations are geared towards virtuosic display. Ratser played them frenetically, bouncing himself into standing position with the final chords.