The concert’s theme of “brilliance” found an apt exponent in piano soloist Reed Tetzloff, who dispatched Prokofiev’s scurrying scales and interlocking-hands pyrotechnics with unflappable cool. In fact, some sort of affect would have been welcome, be it pleasure in athleticism or sparks of wit, to humanize the whole business—unless a 1920s age-of-machines aesthetic was what the pianist was after. In any case, his digital prowess was definitely a wow. And to be fair, he did project the first movement’s lyrical theme nicely when he had a chance.

The cozy confines of Merkin Hall, while not conducive to a big, blended symphonic sound, perfectly suited some of the neoclassical aspects of Prokofiev’s concerto, particularly the almost chamber-music scoring of the second movement, a theme and variations on a gavotte-like tune. Soloist Tetzloff and orchestra sections combined to create colorful miniatures ranging from a thumping march to a nebulous nocturne to a bit of cocktail piano.

“And they’re off!” again in the Allegro con fuoco finale, as the sixteenth-notes went flying with Tetzloff and Pegasus neck-and-neck in the back stretch. But this being a Russian concerto, everything had to stop for a grotesque little hopping tune and then a love theme that just kept soaring higher and higher. Pianist, conductor and orchestra did full justice to all these elements before getting back to the business at hand: brilliance and motion, to the max, to the end.

For an encore, Tetzloff played an arrangement of music from an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau, revealing some fine voicing and luminous tone that the motoric concerto hadn’t called for.

The Chopin Society had to change course recently when Canadian pianist Charles Richard-Hamelin, scheduled to play a sold-out concert at Mairs Concert Hall on Sunday, couldn’t perform because his visa petition was denied, despite multiple submissions.

The good news was that a pianist the organization knows well, Reed Tetzloff...