MUSIC REVIEW : Valery Kuleshov Gives Ambassador Recital

The art of Valery Kuleshov, the Russian pianist who made his local recital debut Wednesday night at Ambassador Auditorium, is one of nuance, quietude and introspection.

Silver medalist of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 1993, Kuleshov can play loud and fast, dazzle with his octaves, make a powerful sound--just like any virtuoso competition winner.

But what he seems to do best is regard his navel--and the composer’s. For this he is equipped with a gentle touch and a poet’s sensibility.

In his program of Scarlatti sonatas, Schumann’s “Kreisleriana,” brief pieces by Scriabin and Liszt’s “Reminiscences de ‘Norma,’ ” the 33-year-old pianist, who appeared here last year as soloist with the Pasadena Symphony, displayed the limitations of his approach to the piano and to the repertory.

All evening, one wondered: Is it his palette, or his personality, that leans toward grayness?

A definite answer may be impossible to reach at this early date.

What is certain from the evidence of Kuleshov’s recital, however, is that the pianist, though gifted, accomplished and stylistically aware, does not produce a kaleidoscopic sound or performances of fully realized character. In music both bombastic and probing, he distances himself, holds back, deflects full commitment. He lacks projection.

Oddly, his most satisfying playing came first, in four sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti, gems highly colored, pertinently characterized. Had he treated every item in the “Kreisleriana” suite with comparable detailing and articulation, the results might have been definitive. As it was, his Schumann seemed a pleasant down payment on later rewards.

One had to admire Kuleshov’s playing of Scriabin’s Sonata No. 9, and the subsequent “Poeme” in F-sharp and two etudes by the same composer, for each outlined the mystery and integrity in the music, not just its eccentricities. And, though Liszt’s “Norma” rhapsody never became truly heroic, its many virtuosic hurdles were vanquished tidily.

After the program proper, Kuleshov offered four encores: a Bach-Busoni chorale; Chopin’s Etude in C, Opus 10, No. 1; a Chopin Mazurka, and the “Carmen” Fantasy by Vladimir Horowitz.