POP MUSIC REVIEWS : PIANIST GEORGE WINSTON LIVES UP TO EXPECTATIONS

Pianist/composer George Winston walks on stage with all the aggressiveness of a musical Mister Rogers. Self-effacing in the extreme, whimsically humorous and obviously most comfortable when he is playing the role of educator, Winston comes across as the very model of the modern PBS performer.

But the overflow crowd Thursday for the first of his two concerts at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium attested to the fact that Winston is also an exceptional commercial draw--the performer most people associate with the phrase “new age music.”

Winston delivered everything his audience expected, and then added a little more. The best works were the impressionistic nature suites that are the core of his recorded music--”Thanksgiving,” with its warm, circular chord pattern; the descriptively programmatic “Woods,” “Rain,” “Blossoms and Meadows” and the new “Hummingbird.”

Visually suggestive and emotionally soothing, the music also revealed the slowly unfolding, almost organically changing sectionalization that is the most fascinating aspect of Winston’s music.

The down side is that these changes take place at a snail’s pace. Ironically, Winston’s rhythms are so metronomic, and his harmonies so pastel-colored that his not infrequent mistakes provided welcome, if unintentional jabs of bright primary color.

Winston’s forays into stride and New Orleans pianowere more admirable for the effort than for the results.