Kahane Gives Gift of Sublime Variations

Numerical milestones floated around Jeffrey Kahane’s masterful piano recital at UCLA’s Royce Hall on Sunday afternoon. This was the Los Angeles native’s first recital here in 11 years, although he performs elsewhere in the world, and was a benefit for the 30-year-old Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, which he has conducted since 1996. The program consisted solely of Bach’s towering-yet-intimate work, the “Goldberg” Variations, on the occasion of Bach’s birthday.

All of this boded well for a sense of importance in the house, but once the music began, external factors disappeared. Kahane dived deep into Bach’s musical world, displaying seamless technical bravura and, more important, a lucid vision of how the music works in small and large ways.

The “Goldberg” Variations have become a staple of the virtuosic piano repertoire, thanks in large part to the classic recordings of Glenn Gould. In a sense, Gould’s high standard of fluid expressivity makes for a hard act to follow, but there will always be margin for interpretation.

For pianists taking on the masterpiece, the trick is to nail the notes, first, and to find a through-line in the episodic, modular work. It is built from 30 variations, framed by opening and closing statements of an “aria,” itself living in a perfect state of grace. Inherent parameters built into the structure provide its rich--and, of course, varied--emotional life and sense of unity.

The work lacks neither digital gymnastics nor passages of exquisite melancholy, sometimes back-to-back. The yearning beauty of the melodic adagio phrase in Variation 25 yields to the lithe, sprinting lines of the subsequent Variation, and the almost brash, high-flying spirits of the final Variation is one last dash before the stately, almost eerily calming return of the Aria.

Kahane’s version ran 75 minutes but never dragged. He executed the fleet and scurrying passages with exacting and thrilling clarity, and he articulated the apt, fragile poise in the andante Variation 15. Besides its purely musical depth, the Variations offer a challenging showcase for pianists, a challenge that Kahane easily rose to. The performance was an event, a fine marriage of composer and interpreter, in a sublime homecoming.