American composer and pianist James Adler has a knack for assembling imaginative, diverse, and interesting programs. This disc is a perfect example of that ability.

Noted composer, pianist, and teacher James Adler was at the Yamaha for Sergei Rachmaninoff’s explosive and emotional Piano Concerto Number Two in C minor, Opus 18 (1901), and tugged at our heartstrings from the first Moderato movement onward. Adler’s playing in the opening was so vehement that it left him with a bleeding finger and the piano with bloodied keys. After a brief, necessary pause, he and QUO resumed, to give a moving, nocturne-liked Adagio sostenuto, punctuated with the soloist’s virtuoso account of the Più animato cadenza, and compellingly conveyed the sweep and yearning of its best-known theme, in the Allegro scherzando finale.

James Adler, beloved composer, performing pianist, and teacher, brought his art midtown to the Yamaha Piano Salon on November 9, playing for a small and appreciative live audience, the event intended for broadcast later on.

Mr. Adler also gave fine, bracing performances of Debussy’s popular “Deux Arabesques.”