A young pianist’s state of wonder

The quirks, or mannerisms, call to mind another Bach pianist: the legendary Glenn Gould. Like Gould, Fray - who performs tonight with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood - has made his reputation mainly on Bach, and at a relatively early age. (Fray is 28.) And while the lustrous refinement of his tone is a few worlds away from Gould’s dry staccato, the two share an uncanny ability to create a sense of ecstatic solitude - a sense that Gould famously called “a state of wonder and serenity.’’

The visual observations come from a documentary called “Swing, Sing & Think’’ by filmmaker Bruno Monsaingeon, who has also made films about Gould and Sviatoslav Richter, among others. It captures Fray recording three Bach concertos for keyboard and strings with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, which he conducts from the keyboard. A DVD of the film and a CD of the concertos were both released earlier this year (Virgin Classics).

The film interweaves shots of Fray and the orchestra rehearsing and recording with interviews of the pianist discussing the music at the piano. The solo interviews, in French, open up some of Fray’s surprising interpretive choices. “Many pianists, no doubt quite rightly, would play that straightforwardly,’’ he explains of one bouncy passage in Bach’s A-major Concerto. “I’d rather play it like a succession of waves.’’ His version sounds both odd and absorbing.

It’s fascinating to see him try to get across his ideas to the musicians, whom he addresses, interestingly, in English. (The sight of a French pianist asking a German orchestra for “resistance’’ in one passage is highly, if ironically, amusing.) Telling the musicians to play with a lighter touch, he says, “It’s a little bit like . . .’’ while running his hands over an imaginary beer gut. “It’s not so Germany,’’ he adds, to laughter and mock booing.

In a more serious mood, when asking the players to separate two phrases, he tells them: “I have to hear you breathe - not just the instruments but you, as persons. It’s very important to me.’’ Of another critical moment he simply tells them, “You have to pray with me here.’’ His conducting is more a matter of feeling than method. Often he guides the musicians with his eyes, and I could swear that at one point he cues a downbeat by opening and closing his mouth.

All this might come off as precocious and affected, were it not for the highly impressive results that the pair achieves. The Kammerphilharmonie players alternately appear bemused by or wary of their highly theatrical soloist, but when they get to recording each concerto, everyone is clearly on the same page, and the readings that result are both communicative and dramatic. If the drama occasionally shades into melodrama, nothing ever sounds routine.

When Fray steps onto the Tanglewood stage tonight, he’ll be playing not Bach but Mozart - the Concerto No. 25 in C major. His next recording, slated for the fall, will be of music by Schubert. Neither are composers in which Gould excelled - he recorded virtually no Schubert and gave a famous lecture called “How Mozart Became a Bad Composer.’’ Fray’s deepening involvement with both should help fill out the picture of an intriguing, very talented artist who is both contending with and separating himself from a past master.

www.bso.org

Boston Musica Viva’s 41st season opens on Sept. 25 with “American Grooves,’’ a typically eclectic lineup of works by Michael Gandolfi, John Harbison, Elliott Carter, and a world premiere by Richard Cornell. Another of the four world premieres is a chamber opera by Shirish Korde, a composer of Indian descent whose music has been widely performed by Boston ensembles. His “Phoolan Devi: The Bandit Queen,’’ based on the story of a controversial Indian lawmaker, will be heard on April 23 and 24. BMV will also perform three concerts in March at London’s new King’s Place concert hall.

www.cantatasingers.org; www.bmv.org