Eloquent feats from Schepkin

The St. Petersburg-born pianist Sergey Schepkin -- now living in Boston -- left no doubt as to his ample technical and intellectual gifts Wednesday night at the L.A. County Museum of Art’s Bing Theatre. Not only did he conquer with J.S. Bach -- a Partita No. 5 loaded with subtle, fluid, dynamic changes and topped off by a brilliant Gigue, its concluding dance movement -- and works by three other composers, he also contributed an insightful set of program notes.

LACMA’s season brochure promised a performance of Elliott Carter’s powerful Piano Sonata, but Schepkin swapped the Carter for Beethoven’s Sonata No. 7 -- done in a classical, direct, robust manner with even cleaner articulation than the Bach. After intermission came Chopin’s Berceuse, which Schepkin played with a clearly cut, unsentimental eloquence, where the thirds and rapid figurations shone like gems.

Yet another Mussorgsky “Pictures at an Exhibition” -- the second in 48 hours in the L.A. area -- followed, but this one was a more explosive, more tightly knit performance than Konstantin Lifschitz’s rendition Monday night in Cerritos. In his program note, Schepkin sees “Pictures” as a single mighty arch -- and he plays it that way, with every blunt, stabbing octave and sharp characterization fitting within the overall structure.