Levitsky, Friends Flex Their Muscles at Barclay

The Newport Beach Recital Series, headed by artistic director Leonid Levitsky, presented “Paris in Springtime” Saturday night at the Irvine Barclay Theatre. The link to France seemed tenuous, however.

Levitsky’s longtime friend, violinist Alexander Brussilovsky--with whom he played often during their years in Ukraine and Moscow--brought his 3-year-old string group, the Ensemble Ricercata de Paris, for the concert of works by J. S. Bach, Sergei Taneyev, Shostakovich and Chausson. The nine-member Ricercata lists an international roster and, judging by this program, functions as a polished support for the strengths of Brussilovsky, just as the Newport Series appears to exist largely to showcase the pianistic talents of Levitsky.

The strengths are considerable; Both use impressive techniques for evocative, larger-than-life interpretations. Here, the two sought power everywhere. As soloist in Bach’s D-minor Harpsichord Concerto, Levitsky brought a highly Romantic use of multifaceted dynamics and a generous application of pedal to a performance bursting with energy and conviction, and partnered by the rhythmically persuasive Ricercata.

Brussilovsky headed an authoritative reading of Latvian-born Ilmar Lapinsch’s arrangement of 10 of Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes, Opus 34, which transforms these inward-looking miniatures into angst-laden showpieces for violin and strings. Then Chausson’s Concerto for Piano, Violin and String Quartet received an extra dose of muscle--and a heady shift in balance between forces--by assigning the quartet part to all nine Ricercata players. Still, with weighty playing by the soloists, the waves of climactic crescendos and meaty harmonies held their own.

Amid the display of might and emotive indulgence, the subtle appointments of clarinetist Gary Gray’s long lines in Taneyev’s Canzona provided poignant respite.