MUSIC REVIEW : Perlman in Orange County Recital Debut

Itzhak Perlman may not be a pops specialist, but his appeal is as broadly based as any crossover artist. Through sheer charismatic humanity, his recitals become a major socio-cultural event.

Not an uncommon event, either, but one new to Orange County. The violinist made his local recital debut Monday, courtesy of the Orange County Philharmonic Society, for an audience that filled Segerstrom Hall at the Performing Arts Center to capacity, overflowing into stage seating.

For the occasion, Perlman brought all his usual intense expressivity, his very full bag of technical glitter, and a compact, unhackneyed and thoughtful program. Not a unique program--he repeats it tonight at UCLA, sold-out weeks ago--but a daring one for any artist less communicative than Perlman.

The centerpiece was the interpretively daunting challenge of Prokofiev’s Sonata in F minor. This is not hum-along stuff, but fiercely eccentric music--sputteringly furious, occasionally crabby and convoluted, and with more than a touch of chill in even its most tender moments.

Perlman made it consistently absorbing, no small feat. Choosing it may have been a nod to the Prokofiev centenary, but it was clearly no purely pro forma matter either.

From the feathery wind-over-tombstones music to the most emphatically severe and dug-in passages, Perlman produced the ideal sound for the moment. He also integrated his drama with the powerfully moody work of pianist Janet Guggenheim in a sensitively balanced collaboration.

The point of Grieg’s Third Sonata, in C minor, would seem to be the fiddling finale, a dark, vigorous dance projected with characteristic panache by Perlman. The long-lined song of the middle movement is prime Perlman territory as well, initiated with finely pointed grace by Guggenheim. But the rhapsodies of the first movement remained a diffuse, unfocused mystery even in these hands.

Perlman is versatile enough to scale back his tone and temperament for Mozart, though he seemed to revel in the lightness for its own bow-bouncing sake. His choice was the Sonata in F, K. 526, and his exposition of it proved most convincing in the bittersweet lyricism of the Andante and in the zestfully scampering finale.

The recital ended with “works announced from the stage,” an integral part of Perlman programs that serves as an encore set and a chance for warm, hammy, irresistible humor. He introduced the set with a funny shuffle through the sheet music on the piano, before settling on Kreisler’s “Caprice Viennois,” Wieniawski’s Caprice in A minor, Elgar’s “Salut d’Amour” and Sarasate’s Zapateado.

The fast ones--very fast here--could run out-of-tune and stammer at times, but all revealed Perlman’s endless joy in the doing. The standing audience might have clapped all night, but Perlman took only one bow.