Lower Manhattan, where the rivers run much closer to one another than they do uptown, provides a Technicolor dreamcoat of aesthetic possibilities for the annual River to River Festival. Monday evening, I ventured down to hear music played by 20-year-old pianist Jie Chen as part of the festival’s classical department, which consists of the International Organ Festival at Trinity Church and a series of concerts right down the street at Pace University.Although I was a bit more impressed with the auditorium than the recitalist, it was clear that each possessed limitless potential.

The Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts is a smallish hall with excellent sight lines at every seat. In this case, a large number of those seats remained empty (surprising, considering the price of admission was free). The acoustics are not warm, but they are remarkably clear.To kick off the evening, a member of festival management proclaimed that Ms. Chen can play beautifully without ever needing to play loudly.This turned out to be an apt description, but ultimately illustrated the pianist’s limitations as well as her penchants.

Opening with three Domenico Scarlatti sonatas, K.547, 197, and 201 — these may look like Mozartean catalog numbers but here the initial stands not for Koechel, but rather for the remarkable harpsichord scholar Ralph Kirkpatrick — Ms. Chen indeed offered quiet, tasteful, though not particularly exciting, readings. Her volume level may have been subdued, but this did not necessarily equate to a delicate touch. Rather, her digitizing seemed more of the pedestrian, unwavering variety. She rendered these miniatures accurately, if not profoundly.

Still, you had to feel for Ms. Chen. Launching into one of the most Romantic of all of the piano sonatas, Robert Schumann’s second, she seemed unable to provide either drama or big gestures. In fact, her volume level remained the same mezzo piano as it was during the Scarlatti. Once, she became lost in the first movement but, like a true professional, she played through this messiness, and I seriously doubt many in the crowd noticed. However, the crowd did pick up on another interference: A toddler in the audience who, very secure in his or her dynamic range, yowled a fairly consistent fortissimo throughout the show. This noise engendered several audible conversations on the subject of the rudeness of parents to so disrupt the proceedings, and these dialogues occurred, of course, during the music. Ms. Chen’s hard work in establishing quietude for the slow movement was severely undercut as a result.

There was other unfortunate behavior by the crowd, but it was not really the audience’s fault.There was no intermission in this short program, but after the Schumann, Ms. Chen, as was previously planned and so indicated to the audience, left the stage and did not return for a couple of minutes. At first, the house lights remained low, but after a while they were brought up. This signaled many to arise and head for the lobby, at just the moment Ms. Chen returned. As a result, many missed what would turn out to be the best performance of the evening — an appropriately hushed realization of Benjamin Britten’s Notturno — while others felt free to walk about during the performance. Too bad, as the Britten was a pleasant surprise, filled with birdsong and evening stillness.

Perhaps the real problem with this recital was the choice of repertoire. Ms. Chen opted to conclude with Brahms’s Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Handel, a piece at loggerheads with her mechanical approach. She began quite brilliantly, spinning marvelously complex filigree around the original theme, but she couldn’t hold together the exceptional polyglot of styles and colors that makes this essay so spectacular.These are variations, after all, and cry out for individuality of phrase, something that Ms. Chen seemed determined to strip away. At one point toward the middle of the work, Ms. Chen performed five variants with such identical enunciation that they could only be described as iterations.This was not merely questionable interpretation, but rather, decided disservice to the music.

But her potential is certainly there. Ms. Chen is technically sound, at least in quieter passages. What she needs is an injection of good, old-fashioned Romantic spirit. Fortunately, then, she recently chose to begin study with Jerome Rose at Mannes College. If anyone can teach her how to communicate in large, confident terms, it is he. Let’s make a note to hear Ms. Chen in another two years.