MUSIC REVIEW : Pianist Uchida Exhibits Strengths in Recital

Until her second encore, which came well after 10 o’clock Tuesday night, Mitsuko Uchida showed very few of the mannerisms and preciosity that some have noted in her appearances here during the past decade.

Indeed, the Japanese-born, Vienna-trained pianist indulged in almost no sighing, head-bobbing or ceiling-gazing in her first Dorothy Chandler Pavilion recital.

Which is not to say she eschewed poetry in a program of music by Beethoven, Schumann, Webern and Schubert. In a comprehensive artistic arsenal, aural poetry of the most sincere and projected kind is Uchida’s main commodity; she uses it as a fine actor uses the voice.

In fact, a poetic sensibility suffuses all the music Uchida makes. Through this agenda of contrasting pieces, that sensibility informed, illuminated and reinvigorated works that can seem too familiar.

The high point of the event may have been Uchida’s effortless and vital performance of Schubert’s seraphic (but often dull) Sonata in G, D. 894, a sweeping account that seemed considerably shorter than its actual length, and emerged in a continuous, compelling line of thought.

The greatness of the piece has seldom seemed so inescapable, the perfection of its musical landscape more pristine and heaven-sent.

On a more mundane level--and dotted surprisingly with a number of eye-opening clinkers--Schumann’s familiar “Carnaval” gave delight through the strong application of dynamic contrasts, precipitous or willfully slow tempos and abundant detailing. Yet Uchida’s playing could not be considered eccentric; its many parts complemented each other, and an overview of palpable continuity ran through it.

The bonus--if one can, and one really shouldn’t, separate a single element--was the soft-playing: near-inaudible pianissimos as firmly formed and projected (in a hall seating more than 3,000) as any mezzo-forte. It reminded one that true technique encompasses many characteristics beyond speed and dexterity.

The two halves of this provocative program began, respectively, with Beethoven’s dramatic Sonata, Opus 90, the brief but important gateway to the composer’s final five works in the form, and with Webern’s very brief and important Variations, Opus 27. Both were illuminated by seriousness, humor and thoughtful details.

A set of two encores--played almost without interruption--comprised No. 2 of Schoenberg’s Six Little Piano Pieces, Opus 19, and the second movement of Mozart’s Sonata in C, K. 545.

It won’t do any good, but one must complain about the nearly incessant chorus of coughing that marred this performance. Perhaps the coughers didn’t know they were ruining other listeners’ enjoyment of this recital in the Chandler Pavilion; perhaps they don’t care. They should be reminded.