MUSIC REVIEWS : Harpsichordist Kipnis at L.A. Bach Festival

Looking more like a friendly dentist than one of the world’s foremost harpsichordists, Igor Kipnis, in embroidered white smock and monkish hairdo, offered a recital Friday night of Baroque keyboard music by the big three born in 1685: Handel, Bach and Domenico Scarlatti.

The homey atmosphere of the event, in First Congregational Church as part of this year’s Los Angeles Bach Festival, was further emphasized by Kipnis’ choice of music--which proved more often pensive than flashy--his spoken, often humorous commentary and his seemingly uninterested acceptance of applause.

His playing rarely overwhelmed one with its brilliance or even with its high polish--mistakes were not uncommon, though most proved minor--but it never lacked expressiveness or failed to communicate. Even in fugues, Kipnis never settled for mechanical efficiency: His gentle shaping through rhythmic flexibility was ever-active, giving the semblance of arch to phrases--on an instrument dynamically incapable of such feats.

Highlights of his generous selection of Bach included a volatile reading of the Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue in D minor, BWV 903a and 903, and an easygoing, lilting account of the Two-Part Invention, BWV 772a. In Handel’s Suite No. 5, he deftly suggested the improvisatory nature of the Prelude not with rhapsodic flights of fancy but through casual, calm noodling. In the so-called “Harmonious Blacksmith” variations that close the work, he downplayed the title characteristics but built the music to a whirring conclusion nevertheless.

His Scarlatti group, too, emphasized introversion over display, with a stately “Cat’s Fugue,” K. 30, a reticent B-minor Sonata, K. 87, and a spare and graceful C-major Sonata, K. 158. His encores included a bluesy arrangement of “Yesterday” and David Fox’s “Tanguito.” The resourceful, uncredited harpsichord was Los Angeles-made, by Roberts & Brazier in 1988.