Pianist Svrcek Finds the Best in Dahl, Huang

Endlessly fascinating, wide and deep, the repertory for solo piano regularly entertains and provokes. Its breadth was on display again this week, in the unhackneyed, ear-opening program Susan Svrcek played in the Piano Spheres series at the Neighborhood Church in Pasadena.

Ingolf Dahl’s 43-year-old, practically unknown Sonata Seria and a brand-new, programmatic suite by Joan Huang competed for interest on this agenda. The result: A tie.

Dahl’s stylistically engrossing, big-boned work from 1953 remains an important artifact in the late West Coast composer’s short but compelling list of works. Emotionally it touches many bases, endures contrapuntal complexities and self-torture and finally achieves what annotator Charles Fierro calls “a sublime reconciliation.” At no point in its nearly 40-minute length does it let down.

Svrcek’s performance uncovered the piece’s many complications without compounding them, producing a narrative flow from start to finish that never revealed the labor it must have taken to make this reading convincing.

The pianist brought to Huang’s “Reflections After a Rainbow,” a seven-movement compendium of pianistic colors, all the little details and sweeping virtuosity clearly demanded in this kaleidoscopic display piece. Its brilliance defines its communicativeness, and it must not be attempted by the faint of technique. The composer attended the Tuesday night performance and shared in the bows with Svrcek.

First-rate and contrasting works delightfully surrounded the featured pieces. They were William Douglas’ “Celebration,” Two Poems by Scriabin, John Cage’s “In a Landscape” and George Crumb’s “A Little Suite for Christmas, A.D. 1979.”