Leila Josefowicz at the Perelman

Most of the people who attended Leila Josefowicz's recital for the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society probably took it in because they wanted to hear one of the top violinists on the Curtis Institute's graduate roster. I agree with that sentiment, but I went mostly because Josefowicz had scheduled an unusual program for a violin recital, with pieces by de Falla, Shostakovich, Messaien and John Adams.

The two pieces I was most interested in were the works of Shostakovich and Messaien, two of my favorite composers. So naturally I ended up getting my biggest satisfactions from the other items on the program.

The Shostakovich sonata is repetitive and less inventive than his best work. Despite its weaknesses, it reaches you because it possesses one of the major attractions of Shostakovich's music: You can't hear it without feeling you're peeking into the composer's soul.

Messiaen's Theme and Variations, on the other hand, is an enjoyable youthful exercise in music making, but it never communicates the cosmic mysticism that runs through most of his work and puts you in touch with the center of his soul.

Josefowicz sandwiched these two pieces between Manuel de Falla's Suite populaire espagnole and John Adams's 1995 work, Road Movies.

The de Falla suite was a particularly well-chosen opener. It's a light piece that makes few big demands on the audience, but its six Spanish dances flit across a range of moods and include a rousing opportunity for the violinist to take off at top speed and generate supercharged excitement.

Love affair with cars

John Adams first appeared on orchestral programs some 20 years ago with a four-minute item called Short Ride on a Fast Machine. It was indeed short; audiences could relate to its subject; and orchestras could schedule it as an introductory piece and feel they had fulfilled their obligations to living composers.

Road Movies puts Adams's audiences back in the driver's seat and expands on his musical evocation of America's fascination with the automobile and its transcontinental road network. The work covers a wider range of moods than Fast Ride and does it with the limited resources of a violin and piano.

The opening movement, "Relaxed Groove," rests on a nervous, rollicking, basically cheerful rhythm. The violinist avoids monotony and keeps it interesting, mostly by skillful, careful shading with the bow.

The middle movement is a slow, bluesy interlude that feels like a stop for a Coke and a refill at a backcountry gas station. The third movement jumps back in the car and pushes toward the goal.

Conventional, and satisfying

Following that bit of Americana, Josefowicz finished the afternoon with Schumann's 1851 Violin Sonata in A Minor. It was the most conventional piece on the program— the one piece drawn from the standard repertoire for chamber music and recital programs— and it turned out to be the most satisfying.

Not without good reason do composers like Schumann become permanent residents of the pantheon. This particular example of his work received the ministrations of two musicians in full command of their instruments and the score. There's nothing more hypnotic than the sight of a top violinist working at the peak of her form with a master accompanist supporting her at the piano.