SONATA RECITAL : LYNN HARRELL AND FIRKUSNY AT PAVILION

Still the odd couple of cello and piano teams, Lynn Harrell and Rudolf Firkusny brought their fire/ice, young/veteran duo to the Pavilion of the Music Center on Monday; as an ensemble, Harrell/Firkusny had first appeared locally at Ambassador Auditorium in November, 1985.

As is their wont, individually and together, Harrell and Firkusny triumphed. They played impeccably, with their accustomed musical point and virtuosity. They brought clear and cool perspectives and a sense of accumulated logic to a program of sonatas by Martinu, Schubert and Chopin. They produced with each score a well-wrought, integrated performance.

Yet, something seemed to be missing.

Despite gentlemanly, careful ensemble and irreproachable balances, these two players arrive at their strong unity without any obvious personal connection. They actually achieve that pinnacle of ensemble feats: They never look at each other.

And they operate at a distance, Firkusny toiling elegantly at a keyboard several feet away from Harrell’s position, seated on a cushioned bench, further downstage. Visually, it all seems unmeshed.

The large, open spaces at the Pavilion added to the impression of distancing Monday night, even though the size of the audience was respectable. With minimal stage-dressing--a few flower pots huddled at the east and west corners of the reduced playing area--the team looked almost small and forlorn on that broad stretch of stage.

And the playing--thorough, conscientious, stylish and informed--also did not send thrills or strong feelings into that audience. It spoke, but it did not really sing.

Firkusny’s coolness can be both reassuring and chilling; its self-effacement sometimes borders on the anonymous. Harrell, who has earned his reputation as a musical firebrand, on this occasion seemed degrees lower in temperature than usual.

The Brahmsian rhetoric of Martinu’s Second Sonata emerged well-articulated if dispassionate. The melancholy undertow of Schubert’s “Arpeggione” Sonata kept that delicate and understated work at a lower-than-usual energy level. And Chopin’s outgoing G-minor Sonata, dedicated by the artists to the memory of Gregor Piatigorsky, lacked strong projection of its outward nature.