Wilson, Kong Team for a Pleasing Outing

Cellist James Wilson may be best known as the lower quarter of the notable Shanghai Quartet, but, as he demonstrated at Pepperdine University’s accommodating Raitt Recital Hall on Sunday afternoon, he’s also a recitalist with something to say and a commanding way of saying it. Wilson was joined by pianist Joanne Kong, who, like Wilson, teaches in Virginia, and the pair seem to enjoy an infectious empathy.

For the most part, the afternoon’s operative stylistic mode was Romantic, from many angles. The impassioned Wilson exerted songful intensity on Manuel de Falla’s colorful seven-part “Suite Populaire Espagnole,” with its variations on bittersweet melodicism, all tied up in a tidy package. The Cello Sonata No. 3 of Bohuslav Martinu shows the undersung Bohemian composer’s affinity for Slavic folk songs, here folded into a wistful brand of neo-romantic writing that looks back more to the previous century than ahead to the next.

After intermission, Wilson settled into the comfier corners of 19th century repertory. Brahms’ Sonata in F, Opus 99, is a somewhat bombastic showpiece on which Wilson lavished both thick, growling tones and feathery ones, to suit. Chopin’s Polonaise Brillante in C, Opus 3, is a pleasantry that floats into one ear and out the other, leaving a fleeting trace of emotional ardency.

For an encore, Wilson brought out the Largo movement of Chopin’s cello sonata, a meatier and more poignant way to exit.