MUSIC REVIEW : Cheng Recital Opens Piano Spheres Series

The exact point at which musical novelties join the mainstream repertory is difficult to gauge. But that point marks the place where audiences suddenly appear.

A crowd of connoisseurs gathered Tuesday night at Neighborhood Church in Pasadena, when Piano Spheres, the recital series exploring soon-to-be-standard repertory, began its second year with a bracing program by Gloria Cheng.

Cheng has done it before; now, she continues to build an audience for the unfamiliar. Her agenda on this occasion included music by the young Pierre Boulez, Esa-Pekka Salonen and John Adams, the middle-aged Olivier Messiaen and the older Elliott Carter, Johannes Brahms and Terry Riley.

Variety this menu had in abundance. It also made sense, moving steadily from true miniatures--Boulez’s colorful “12 Notations” of 1945 and Salonen’s witty “Yta II”--through more expansive canvases by Messiaen and Riley.

Cheng handled Messiaen’s boldly complicated “Canteyodjaya^” (1949), which climaxed the first half, with virtuosic aplomb and easy projection. She also dominated Riley’s recent “The Heaven Ladder,” Book 7, which, in its West Coast premiere--with the composer present--was the high point of the post-intermission.

Riley’s suite, in an eclectic, mid-century style, utilized Cheng’s brilliant technical resources while sprawling all over a loose half-hour. It is highly attractive, but it’s also lightweight.

Salonen’s brief, bright, light and super-difficult piece, reveals dry but irresistible humor and a wonderful palette of pianistic effects.