Before the second half of her Saturday recital at Bargemusic, the young pianist Olga Vinokur informed the audience that she had been pleased to play there in the past and wanted to make this event something special. She did so by choosing a program of works solely by Russian masters of the early 20th century.

Some might complain that such a program is too narrow, yet the five composers represented supplied ample variety, and hearing them juxtaposed with their compatriots shed interesting light on their individual achievements. Ms. Vinokur, born in Russia, trained in Israel, and a winner of several important competitions, demonstrated ample technique and musical aptitude for the task.

As in other areas of music, such as the symphony, where Russians persevered in a tradition Westerners had moved away from, so too did they keep alive the phenomenon of the composer-virtuoso embodied in a single person. Liszt and Chopin are the models here, but the Russians brought enough of their own character to their music, with its rich textures and soulful expression, to set it distinctly apart.

Which is not to say that you can't hear traces of the earlier composers. If Liszt set a general standard for virtuosity, elements of Chopin's style tend to be reflected more specifically, as in Scriabin's preludes. A selection from the preludes, Op. 11, was prefaced by the astonishing C-sharp minor Prelude for the left hand, Op. 9 No. 1, a piece that must be seen (in performance) to be believed, so diverse are its entwined musical voices.

Ms. Vinokur's polished performance had them resounding handsomely. Her secret is judicious use of the pedal, which sustains one note while the hand darts to another keyboard register to pick up another strand. Sustaining a melody is easier when an entire hand is devoted to the task, as in several of the Op. 11 preludes.

Here the ideal, traced back through Chopin, is frequently the bel canto vocal writing of Bellini, to which Ms. Vinokur's singing tone paid due homage, even when she could have weaved a more bewitching spell. The lyricism of the preludes was heard in fine relief, since they were sandwiched between two mighty one-movement sonatas.

Nikolai Medtner's career followed the rough outlines of Rachmaninoff's - including self-imposed exile following the Bolshevik Revolution - but on a less successful scale. Nonetheless, his "Sonata Tragica" in C minor, Op. 39, emerged as a fine work, steeped in the late romantic tradition. Ms. Vinokur responded to its fearsome technical challenges head on, bringing a full-bodied sonority to the highly charged repeated chords at the opening and a breathtaking sweep to what followed, relieved by the gentle lyricism of the contrasting second theme.

Prokofiev, unlike Medtner, could be quite the musical rebel, not least in his juvenilia, which supplied material he later reworked as his Sonata No. 3 in A minor, Op. 28.The opening is especially wild, a moto perpetuo in energetic triplets, which Ms. Vinokur nailed dazzlingly. She appropriately turned graceful when Prokofiev made an appearance in his guise as an alluring melodist and brought wit to a playful, scherzo-like passage heard before the relentless pace of the opening returns.

The second half of the program consisted of Rachmaninoff's six "Moments Musicaux," Op. 16. The title notwithstanding, don't look for allusions to Schubert. The moments in question are filled with content more like Scriabin's preludes, stretched out over time. Ms. Vinokur made the most of the larger canvases, confidently developing the first piece, whose simple melody accrues ever more elaboration, and imparting to the second a growing melodic urgency.

A welcome restraint characterized her playing in the austere third piece, in which chordal sequences lead to a climax prepared by crisp staccato octaves in the bass. The bravura fourth piece drew upon the full power of Ms. Vinokur's strong technique before settling into the beguiling lullaby in the enveloping key of D flat that makes up the fifth piece. The final piece demonstrated Ms. Vinokur's ear for calibrating rich sonorities.

Ms. Vinokur began the program unassumingly but agreeably, with "Three Fantastic Dances," Op. 1, by Shostakovich, the one composer heard who was not also a piano virtuoso. They show the young composer in a witty, but not ironic or sarcastic, vein and more than once brought to mind Schumann's manner of treating the fantastic.

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