Pianist applies big technique to Mussorgsky

Mikhail Pletnev, who has played concertos and has conducted here in previous seasons, returned Monday night for a solo piano recital in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. A large, friendly audience greeted him vociferously, and he played up to their expectations -- mostly.

The Russian pianist closed his daunting program with the greatly demanding original version of Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition,” and found many of the work’s charms suitable for his big technique and strong imagination.

“The Great Gate of Kiev” vignette defeated him -- as it has many others -- because it requires more power and dynamic resources than most pianists have. Pletnev’s ear for details in contrast and phrasing paid off in “Il Vecchio Castello” and “Catacombs.”

The total performance succeeded; still, others have played it more compellingly.

Because Pletnev’s otherwise solid technique does not include many tone colors, the first half of this program, devoted to three works by Tchaikovsky -- “Rustic Russian Scene,” “Dumka” and the imposing Sonata in G (“Grand Sonata”) -- fell short of its possibilities.

Many of the melancholy beauties in “Dumka” were realized but within strict parameters of color. What emerged was a straightforward, understated reading.

The virtuosic finger work demands of the First Sonata were met, but its many emotional specifics, its characteristic temperamental rhetoric, were barely indicated. The notes were there, but the pianist’s imagination seemed to be working undertime.

The 45-year-old pianist offered two encores, both by Tchaikovsky: “Chant elegiaque” and “Scene Dansant.”