Gloria Cheng’s Fingers Dance Along Keyboard

There was no dancing in the aisles, but it wouldn’t have been inappropriate when Gloria Cheng opened a sixth season of Piano Spheres in Pasadena on Tuesday. A large audience in the Neighborhood Church enthusiastically greeted Cheng’s engrossing program, “A Century of Piano Dances,” which she played with her usual astuteness, rhythmic acuity and musical sensibility.

This was no mere survey. Twenty-three short items written by as many composers between 1902 and 1999 had been put into apprehensible groups. Each had character and individuality, which Cheng brought out resourcefully. The total gave great pleasure through rediscovery, revelation and juxtaposition. The listener had a jolly time.

The only nod to familiarity proved to be Debussy’s “Golliwog’s Cakewalk” and a brief excerpt from Ravel’s “Valses nobles et sentimentales.” Otherwise, all these dances, mainstream repertory for the most part, were unhackneyed.

The opening set, introducing seductively played tangos by Per Norgard, Stravinsky and Barber with Joan Huang’s handsomely exuberant “Red Ribbon Dance,” set a high artistic tone. Cheng brought stylish contrasts and myriad details to all of them.

Equally engaging, the following group offered Martinu’s conventional Polka in E and a substantial Bartok piece, a Romanian Dance from Opus 8a, both of them sandwiching Gyorgy Ligeti’s relentless, proto-Magyar “Hungarian Rock.”

Before intermission, Cheng kept lively interest through music by Leo Ornstein, Scriabin, Poulenc and Ravel. Immediately after, three Americans--George Antheil, Philip Glass and Henry Cowell--reminded us of their gifts; Glass’ “Modern Love Waltz” (1977) was particularly irresistible.

William Albright’s “Sleepwalker’s Shuffle” from “Dream Rags” briefly stole the show in the next grouping, which also included pieces by Debussy, Samuel Adler and Hindemith. Prokofiev’s Rigaudon from Opus 12 proved, as Cheng had promised, a palette-cleanser.

The final set, during which the pianist showed no signs of fatigue, offered an excerpt from Mompou’s “Cancons i Dansas”; another from Ginastera’s “Danzas Criollas”; Don Davis’ amusing mambo, “Illicit Felicity”; and Miguel del Aguila’s rousing showpiece, “Conga,” which Cheng played to perfection.