Music Review : French Traditions Surface in Robson’s Pasadena Recital

Long before the mid-piece announcement of a cuckoo’s call, one had identified Mark Robson’s new and pleasant Nocturne as an hommage to Olivier Messiaen, at the pianist-composer’s recital at Neighborhood Church in Pasadena, Tuesday night.

The brand-new work concluded the first half of a heavily French-accented program, and charmingly.

A former student of Yvonne Loriod (Messiaen’s longtime associate and wife) in Paris, the 37-year-old musician--also an organist, if one is compiling hyphens--began his program with Stravinsky’s Serenade in A (1925), as French, and pianistically grateful, a work as Stravinsky ever wrote. He ended it with three Debussy Etudes, brilliantly and idiomatically performed.

Robson’s gifts are more than merely multifarious; they seem to be evolving.

Not all the parts of this recital--also including music by Brahms and Scriabin--achieved the admirable intensity of his playing of Janacek’s “V Mihach” (In the Mist) suite, yet all of it was approached with musicianly thoroughness. Live acoustics in the square Neighborhood Church sanctuary, as well as a resourceful, covetable new Fazioli piano did not hurt the strong impression the pianist was making.

Some of the playing, however, seemed less than completely realized, closer to half- than fully baked.

Using the score for Stravinsky may have put a scrim between player and listener. Many of Brahms’ emotional complexities--in the Variations, Opus 21, No. 1--were indicated, but not with ultimate clarity or sweep. And the quirkiness, the dark side, of Scriabin--in two short pieces and the brief Tenth Sonata--seldom materialized.

Still, Robson’s accomplishments are considerable. One assumes he also wrote the literate and entertaining annotations accompanying the printed program.

The new recital series continues Jan. 17, when Vicki Ray plays music by Busoni, Berg, Knussen, Crockett, Santos and others.