PIANIST GIMPEL

Jakob Gimpel, who has graced Los Angeles with his presence for four decades, remains one of its musical treasures. No matter that a pianistic colossus here and there may pass through town. It is this Polish-born artist who keeps lifting our sights to a clearer and longer view.

And age shall have no dominion.

For his Chopin recital Sunday at Ambassador Auditorium, Gimpel played with the same integration of technical prowess, deep insight and poetic conviction that nearly always has characterized his performances. At 80, however, his gait is decidedly slower. All the more to marvel--as a capacity audience did--that his head and hands heed not the passing of time.

If anything, the Gimpelian profile becomes more distinct. And that means interpretations shorn of excess: no affectations, no easy heroism, no vulgar flash, no precious prettifications, no disingenuous sentiment, no sappy simpering or superficial sighing.

Gimpel’s Chopin, almost idiosyncratic but never a violation, is virile, often terse and, to the uninitiated, dry. But in the process--which Sunday involved the Variations Brillantes, Opus 12, the 24 Preludes, Opus 28, and the B-minor Sonata, Opus 58--one could hear the composer as an introvert of acute sensibility, a philosopher whose vision embraces both moribund revelation and a perfect, airy innocence that is sublime.

The pianist’s secret lies partly in his sense of silent space and the myriad dimensions he imposes upon it. Thus the D-flat Prelude (No. 15) became a whole novel; the Sonata a repository for quiet, infinitely graded nostalgia that contrasts with an immediate and spirited resolve. It was Chopin to cherish.