Antonio Pompa-Baldi, former guest faculty member at Oberlin Conservatory, opened the 124th season of the Artist Recital Series last Thursday. The 27-year old pianist, winner of the silver medal at the 11th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2001, brought a lengthy and eclectic program of works by Mozart, Chopin and the 20th-century Argentinian composer Alberto Ginastera.

Pompa-Baldi’s performance of Mozart’s "Sonata in F major K 332" was tasteful and exciting. It seems like the majority of Mozart interpretations recently have been neither of these. Performers are either too concerned with being expressive or too concerned with being authentic or tasteful. The result is a performance that is either indulgent or boring. Thankfully, Pompa-Baldi was neither of these things. He played with an extremely light touch and subtle dynamic control, and his rhythmic poise, tempo and interpretive decisions were well prepared, logical and musical. The second movement – "Adagio" – was especially gorgeous.

Pompa-Baldi’s second piece, Chopin’s "Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 35," was equally beautiful but entirely different. He took more liberties with tempo and expression but only those that fit the nature of the piece and the period it was written. The incredibly overplayed third movement – "Funeral March" – sounded fresh, new and never sensationalized, and all of the melodies were highlighted and clear. It was almost as though Pompa-Baldi was both performing and explaining at the same time: a mark of an inspired performer. Parts of the fourth movement of the Chopin and the Mozart were a little muddy, probably due to the vast space of Finney Chapel, but whatever articulation he lost he made up for in dynamic inflection and phrasing.
Pompa-Baldi returned from the break to perform Chopin’s "Barcarolle, Op. 60." This piece and the following piece, Grieg’s “Holberg Suite Op. 40,” originally composed for string orchestra, were refreshing and relatively light. The lilting rhythms of the Chopin piece were perfect and the Holberg interpretation made any performance of the well-known string orchestra version look like a waste of time.
However, the really interesting part of the second half came after both of these pieces when Pompa-Baldi performed Alberto Ginastera’s "Sonata No. 1 in a minor, Op. 22." Ginastera wrote this sonata in 1952, the first in a series of three. As the program notes stated, this piece represented a duality of classical form and contemporary content. The piece shared some connections with the Chopin sonata earlier in the program, namely a slow third movement and a movement dominated by fast soft runs. The first and last movements were loud and exciting, but the rhythms and harmonies occasionally bordered on cheesy. At times the writing sounded like some new-age jazz with obvious, annoying syncopations. Pompa-Baldi’s playing was of course fantastic so if the piece had anything to offer, this would be the performance to get it. His stylistic and interpretive decisions shined lights on all sorts of little interesting parts especially on the more successful second and third movements. The slow movement was especially nice. The writing was much deeper even though the movement was structurally quite simple; most of the phrases outlined chords. The sudden tonalities that emerged from the dissonances and then disappear again were intriguing.

Anyone interested in classical piano music and inspired by tasteful, subtle playing should see Antonio Pompa-Baldi perform. In a time when interpretation is increasingly repetitive and dry, his playing is guaranteed to bring out ideas never heard before both in repertoire and ideas.