MUSIC REVIEW : Ohlsson Does Justice to Beethoven, Chopin : Recital: The well-known pianist provided handsome offerings of the two composers’ works at a Civic Theatre recital.

Pianist Garrick Ohlsson, who won the 1970 Warsaw Chopin Competition, doesn’t need an excuse to play Chopin. But at his Saturday night Civic Theatre recital, he used Chopin’s birthday as the occasion to serve a second helping of the Polish composer’s music. Although historians cannot agree whether Chopin was born on Feb. 22 or March 1, Ohlsson’s traversal of all four Chopin scherzos plus a nocturne and waltz as encores honored the composer regardless of his actual natal day.

Ohlsson’s approach to Chopin was confidently middle-of-the-road: panache without indulgence, graceful lyricism without fussy mannerisms. Although he lacked the sweet timbre and effusive rubato prized by the Russian school and many Slavic pianists, the 43-year-old American pianist was laudably objective with his Chopin--a notion 19th-Century pianists would have dismissed as an oxymoron. Chopin without mythological overtones, however, is quite sufficient for 20th-Century listeners.

After experiencing some minor control problems in the opening B Minor Scherzo, Op. 20, Ohlsson delivered the more familiar B-flat Minor Scherzo, Op. 31, with graceful assurance and keen architectural insight. Notable in the C-sharp Minor Scherzo, Op. 39, were Ohlsson’s bristling octave runs that complemented the naive solemnity of the chorale theme. He stressed the playful side of the ebullient E Major Scherzo, Op. 54.

Beethoven’s “Appassionata” Sonata, Op. 57, and his lyrical, reflective A-flat Major Sonata, Op. 110, mark his antipodal personae. Ohlsson proved to be equally fluent in each mode.

For the program-opening Op. 110, Ohlsson aptly conjured the philosophical Beethoven. In Ohlsson’s authoritative hands, the final-movement fugue began in earnest simplicity and steadily strengthened to cathedral proportions.

Ohlsson unleashed the heaven-storming passions of the “Appassionata” Sonata with the zeal and brilliance of a young Turk, but with a seasoned player’s command and vision. The sonata’s broad emotional scale matched Ohlsson’s massive, deep-toned technique. He conjured the symphonic scale in this mere sonata.

Ohlsson’s encores were the Nocturne in F-sharp Major, Op. 15, No. 2, and the A-flat Major Waltz, Op. 22. The recital was sponsored by the La Jolla Chamber Music Society.