20th Century Works Fare Best at Piano Spheres Recital by Stein

Venerable pianist, teacher and all-around music-maker Leonard Stein is clearly one of the local treasures of Los Angeles, as a direct link to the legacy of Arnold Schoenberg and an inveterate supporter of music hereabout. In that capacity, he launched the Piano Spheres series at Pasadena’s Neighborhood Church, a showcase for worthy, contemporary-minded pianists in an intimate room.

Stein himself offered a recital there last Tuesday, and, for the main event, dared to take on the daunting challenge of Beethoven’s mightiest piano sonata, the “Hammerklavier.” In the first two movements, details weren’t all in place but a bounding spirit moved the music inexorably forward, and the Stein reading reached an expressive apex in the adagio, capturing an essential dreaminess. In the final movement, fingers entangled, and the piece unraveled before our ears. Still, it was a valiant effort.

At his Spheres recital last spring, Stein fared less well with Bach than with the modern Roger Sessions. Here, again, the 20th century works of the recital’s first half fared the best. Stein gave expert witness to the strengths of Variations and Double Fugue on a Theme by Arnold Schoenberg, by Viktor Ullman, who studied with Schoenberg in the ‘20s and died in a concentration camp in 1943.

Another striking rendition, Betsy Jolas’ 1980 “Piece Pour Saint Germain,” has a quixotic way of dealing with atonal materials, savoring the silences, which act as insulation around the pianistic utterances.