{TABLE} Sonata Op 1 ..................................... Berg Nocturne in C sharp minor, Op 27 No 2 ........... Chopin Nocturne in D flat, Op 27 No 2 .................. Chopin Papillons ....................................... Schumann Le Baiser de l'Enfant Jesus Messiaen Barcarolle . Chopin {/TABLE} A PASSIONATE intelligence and ambition were evident in Maria McGarsy's piano playing at the John Field Room on Monday night. Intelligence was in her understanding of texture, shape and pacing, and in scaling things for that venue and instrument. It was ambitious for a 19 year old to begin with Berg's Sonata. More impressive, however, was her interpretative ambition, her striving to explore each piece in a distinctive, profound way. And all this was passionate, not in her displays of temperament, which were notably absent, but in her rapt intensity and in her conviction about how each piece should go.

Early burn out in crescendos was a weakness. The complex textures of Berg's Sonata Op. 1 were clear and linear, but the many successive crescendos were not sufficiently graded to accumulate tension.

McGarsy's beautiful tone was a special asset in Chopin - the Nocturnes in C sharp minor and D flat, Op. 27, Nos. 1 and 2, plus the Barcarotle - and in Messiaen's mesmeric "Le Baiser de l'Enfant Jesus", from Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant Jesus. Interpretation was at its most ambitious in Schumann's Papillons. Her defined, poised rubato and dropped phrase endings aimed to emphasise just how calculated this episodic work is. She didn't quite pull it off; but, as In all the pieces played, the intention was clear.