MUSIC REVIEW : Reveles Infuses Holiday Music With a Virtuoso’s Lively Spirit

In the season when churches overflow with caroling and choral concerts, pianist Nicolas Reveles decided to throw his hat into the holiday ring. His cleverly devised recital at the Immaculata Church on the University of San Diego campus Friday night assembled a dozen keyboard works linked to Christmas themes.

His selections ranged from the obvious--Bartok’s two books of “Romanian Christmas Carols” and the Bach-Busoni Chorale Prelude on the Advent hymn “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme”--to the tangential--Beethoven’s D Major Sonata, Op. 28 (“Pastorale”) and Chopin’s B Minor Scherzo. The Chopin opus suited the program’s theme because the lyrical melody in its middle section is actually a traditional Polish Christmas carol. And although Beethoven did not intend his Sonata to be a Christmas bonbon, European composers have traditionally used the characteristic pastorale meter and imitation of shepherds’ pipes in programmatic instrumental works that celebrate the Nativity.

Reveles’ program would have been little more than a pedagogic exercise, of course, without his elegant technique, varied palette of colors and stylish approach to each composer. Notable was Reveles’ powerful traversal of Bartok’s Romanian carols in which he invoked primal peasant dancers with aggressive chords and cleanly etched asymmetrical rhythms. At the other end of the emotional spectrum, he caught the intimate mysticism of “Premiere Communion de la Vierge” from Olivier Messiaen’s “Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant Jesus” with sensitive shadings and delicate, bell-like chords. His evocative Chopin Scherzo bristled with energy.

Reveles’ Beethoven Sonata, however, seemed overly polite. He stressed the composer’s logic and immaculate linear structures, but when the final coda called for fire and brilliance, he seemed to lose his focus and rush to the finish line. Perhaps placing four short, reflective Pastorale pieces by different composers (Liszt, Hindemith, Scarlatti and Poulenc) immediately before the Beethoven had sated the listener’s ear for this genre.

The panache of Kevin Oldham’s recent composition “Variations on a French Noel” gave Reveles the opportunity to unleash his virtuoso chops, especially in the rousing toccata finale. If Oldham’s work is eclectic and slightly derivative--the first variation is an unsubtle recasting of a variation in Marcel Dupre’s well-known organ composition on the same theme--it is well-constructed and idiomatic.

Reveles opened his recital with a reflective, almost dreamy interpretation of Busoni’s piano transcription of the stately Bach organ chorale “Wachet Auf.” There may have been a tinge of irony in bringing a large concert grand into a church to play a traditional organ work, but the performer made an eloquent case for Busoni’s loving transcription.

This recital will be repeated at 3:30 p.m. Sunday at St. Brigid Catholic Church in Pacific Beach.