Mastery, Romantic Excess From Leonid Kuzmin in Irvine

Leonid Kuzmin showcased a style harking back to an earlier era, Sunday afternoon in a recital at the Irvine Barclay Theatre.

Judging by the program, Kuzmin seeks comparison with Vladimir Horowitz. Employing romantic excesses that are rarely encountered now, Kuzmin offered three concert standards, from Beethoven (“Appasionata”), Mozart (Sonata in C, K. 330) and Liszt (Sonata in B-minor)--all recorded by Horowitz. Three Horowitz-type encores--Liszt’s transcriptions of Schubert’s “Ave Maria” and “Der Muller und der Bach,” and the pianist’s own arrangement of “Stars and Stripes Forever,” by Sousa--followed.

The penchant for programming crowd-pleasers, the willingness to take great liberties with pacing, the exaggerated contrast between fireworks and contemplation and the endless energy and showmanship all bear witness to an unbroken tradition. But Kuzmin--who was born in Byelorussia and who began formal studies at the Minsk State Conservatory of Music--is no reincarnation of Horowitz. He conveys the logic of the score, but he doesn’t re-create it as if it were profoundly his own. His liberties--especially in Beethoven’s “Appassionata,” on this occasion--border on mannered. At times his technical wizardry subsumes the music.

Nevertheless, he presents much to admire. In Mozart’s Sonata in C, he meshed a free sense of tempo with obvious respect for the transparent texture, to which he applied multifaceted shading and a warm, appealing sound. While much of his “Appassionata” seemed odd--and little seemed subtle--he did give it a tense and powerful performance.

Kuzmin’s approach proved most successful with Liszt’s Sonata in B-minor, where he could reasonably argue for juggling louder-than-loud sections with softer-than-soft, or for occasionally pounding out a climactic chordal passage. He brought intelligence, strength and composure to his playing and, while he may have sometimes been infuriating, he was never dull.