Music Review : Recital: Natural Meeting of Past, Present

Pianist Thomas J. Lymenstull took the stage Thursday night with an involving and intelligent program that balanced unfamiliar 20th-Century works with long-cherished pieces by Haydn and Chopin.

He brandished little self-serving showmanship and no Lisztian heroics, but much evocative security in his recital at McGaugh School Auditorium as part of the Seal Beach Chamber Music Festival. Even his encore--Scriabin’s Nocturne for Left Hand--shunned fireworks in favor of sustained lines and shimmering romanticism.

The pianist included two pieces by contemporary Chinese composers. Selections from Lin Hua’s Preludes and Fugues: “On Reading Si Kong Tu’s Personalities of Poetry” mixed 12-tone technique with lilting pentatonic melodies and mild dissonances, made more gentle by Lymenstull’s unforced, warm-hued touch.

There were flashes of power, but many of the contrapuntal miniatures proceeded in fleeting wisps, sometimes quite impressionistic in effect, always accessible and attractive.

*

Chen Yi, originally from Guangzhou (Canton), but best known among Californians for her work as resident composer for the vocal group Chanticleer, was represented by “Duo Ye,” a conglomeration of demanding virtuosity broken up by clever rhythmic excursions and busy ostinatos, which the performer knitted together with sure-fingered precision.

Contemporary music from this country was represented by an opus by Stephen Hartke, Lymenstull’s comrade on the faculty of the USC School of Music.

On first hearing, “Post-Modern Homages, Sets 1 and 2” seemed more interesting for its quick-witted handling of seven musical twists honoring friends than for its immediate appeal. Nevertheless, there was much to entertain the mind while listening to Lymenstull’s clearly delineated reading, including references to national anthems or works by other composers and a rhythmically driven salute to Donald Crockett, whose musically transcribed initials provide a fast-migrating theme among voices.

In his performance of two works from standard repertory, Lymenstull presented an affectionate look at Haydn’s humorous Sonata in G, Hob. XVI, No. 40, focused and unassuming, with touches of quiet drama. He closed with Chopin’s Barcarolle, intimate, purposeful and poignant and--because it followed Hartke’s “Homages”--undoubtedly reassuring to his more conservative listeners.