MUSIC REVIEW : Svrcek in Satisfying Recital of Two Large-Scale Works

The world of piano is a continuum: The ghosts of Liszt and Chopin, Czerny and Pischna, Rosina Lhevinne and Adele Marcus, among thousands of others, hover over any ambitious recital, anywhere.

Those ghosts should have been pleased Tuesday night when Susan Svrcek continued the repertory-expanding Piano Spheres series at Neighborhood Church in Pasadena with two large-scale works written in the past quarter-century.

Both Donald Martino’s “Fantasies and Impromptus” (1978) and Frederic Rzewski’s 36 Variations on “The People United Will Never Be Defeated” (1975) are important, if not groundbreaking, suites; each is worthy of close scrutiny by succeeding generations of pianists.

Svrcek, a model of technical impeccability as well as stamina, played both pieces in this generous program with great authority and colorfulness, and made each sound as substantial as it is.

She did this by finding and projecting all the moods in Martino’s tightly characterized,40-minute musical canvas: whimsical, pensive, violent, Chopinesque, hard-hearted--the gamut from thoughtfulness to brutality. She did similar digging in Rzewski’s emotionally more limited--and sprawling--variations, and almost justified their length, on this occasion more than 75 minutes.

The musical compression, as well as the demanded virtuosity, in “Fantasies and Impromptus” make them almost dizzying, certainly engrossing. Finally, this listener appreciated Svrcek’s dedication of the evening to one of her distinguished teachers, the late Aube Tzerko, who died in September and also was solidly part of the pianistic continuum.