{TABLE} Four impromptus, D899 ........... Schubert Waldszenen, 0p 82 ............... Schumann 3 Impromptus, Ops 29, 36, 51 .... Chopin Ballade in F minor, op 52 ....... Chopin Three Mazurkas, Op 63 ........... Chopin Scherzo No 4 in E, op 54 ........ Chopin {/TABLE} SOME pianists, after, many years of music making acquire regrettable mannerisms, but Fou Ts'ong showed in last Thursday's recital at the NCH that clean, straightforward and unmannered playing is the quickest way to the heart of the music; he resisted the temptation to soup up the romanticism of Schubert, Schumann and Chopin with that exaggerated expression that owes more to the performer than to the composer.

It seemed to me that the bigger the work the better the pianist played it; Schumann's short pieces in Waldszenen rely a lot on a sort of fey charm which is not Fou Ts'ong's metier so, although they were a pleasure to listen to, they did not have the appeal of Schubert Impromptus. And these, in their turn, paled beside what one might call the epic narration of Chopin's Ballade in F minor. In this Ballade and the Scherzo in E, Op. 54, Fou Ts'ong had all the elbow room he needed to create towering and impressive structures, and to form a context in which both moments of charm and forceful climaxes could take their rightful place. That he had the technical and intellectual powers demanded by this, music goes without saying.