Pianist Alexander Schimpf: thoughtful, intense but hard to follow

Alexander Schimpf is a thoughtful, intense player. At his Phillips Collection recital Sunday, the pianist hewed to the central canon from his native Germany -- Beethoven and Brahms (and a Bach encore) -- with only a brief excursion to Russia (Scriabin's Sonata No. 7). The musical ideas came fast and thick, at times in a jumble.