Pianist Jim Stopher

LARGE COLLEGE OF MARIN AUDIENCE GREETS STOPHER ARTISTRY

Music department faculty recitals are a rare commodity on the North Coast, and over many years one looked in vain for artist performances at Santa Rosa JC, Dominican University, Mendocino College, Sonoma State University, Napa College and Pacific Union College.

No so at College of Marin, where faculty pianists Paul Smith and Jim Stopher appear regularly in multiple Marin area performance sites, the latest being Mr. Stopher’s April 5 recital in COM’s James Dunn Hall. Clearly it’s not surprising that an audience of 400 packed the auditorium to experience his pianistic interpretations, many in hall his students and associates during a decade long COM tenure.

Though there were no interpretative surprises in the recital, among the highlights were Haydn’s virtuosic E-Flat Sonata from 1794 with many hand crossings, double thirds and lovely sound in the lyric Adagio. Bach’s first Partita (B Flat) followed, the six sections (two minuets) artistically phrased with mostly judicious tempos. The two voice Corrente was played vivaciously. Mr. Stopher’s Bach is heavily pedaled, a not unwelcome approach compared with the dry style of Andreas Schiff’s Bach.

I was unable to hear the rest of the program, two Brahms works and four Rachmaninoff pieces, two from the Op. 33 Etudes-Tableaux. Despite a roaring concert-ending ovation, there was no encore.