those tunes (Thalberg treats the lilting Come' e gentil in rather blustery fashion, for some reason). Although Sheppard could have added more rhythmic and tonal nuance in places, he had the music singing engagingly and, other than a slightly cloudy coda, he met the virtuosic demands impressively.

Wild's overly generous Fantasy on Gershwin's 'Porgy and Bess' is quite the tour de force, the sort of thing only a great pianist could write. It also manages to conjure up something of the flavor of Gershwin's own electric playing. Sheppard seemed thoroughly comfortable with both the bravura demands and the stylistic idiom; the music was given an expressive surge.

The recitalist also showed off his own skills in the transcription department, performing highly effective arrangements of three songs by Samuel Barber. Time was when pianists routinely arranged vocal or orchestral pieces for themselves. Sheppard's clearly got the knack for it.

I enjoyed, too, one of his original compositions, Invitation to Travel, which sounds like a potential soundtrack just waiting for the right moody indie film to come along. The initial theme (it seems to hint at the intergalactic tune from Close Encounters of the Third Kind) is put through imaginative paces in a tonal, pop-flavored, directly communicative style. The performance, of course, was authoritative.

The long program also had room for a crisply articulated Haydn Sonata and two Barcarolles -- the well-known one by Chopin (the playing need just a little more eloquence) and a recent, very moody and slightly over-extended one by Peter Klatzow (delivered with abundant sensitivity).

PHOTO BY CHRISTIAN COLBERG COURTESY OF MONUMENT PIANO TRIO