When the great contralto Ewa Podles replaced mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli on short notice for a University Musical Society recital some seasons back, she said in an interview that it was hard to step in for a singer so breathlessly awaited. But Podles was then relatively unknown in the United States, and Bartoli was a star with a huge following.

The situation is different when the well-known pianist Vladimir Feltsman steps in for colleague Murray Perahia Wednesday at Hill Auditorium, where Perahia was to have played a much-anticipated recital. Perahia canceled his fall tour due to a hand injury. Being the “replacement” doesn’t faze Feltsman, who also stepped in for ailing pianist Jeffrey Kahane in a concert with the Takács Quartet here last month. Ann Arbor also benefited back in 1990, when he also stepped in at the last minute for Maurizio Pollini, who was to make a UMS debut.

“It doesn’t matter to me. A concert is a concert,” he said just before the Takács gig, in a conversation from his home in upper New York State, where he is a distinguished professor at SUNY-New Paltz. He also teaches at Mannes College of Music in New York.

Being the “who you gonna call?” guy is a badge to wear proudly, but Feltsman’s reputation, of course, isn’t built solely on saving the day. In addition to appearances here with Michael Tilson Thomas and the Pittsburgh Symphony and Valery Gergiev and the Kirov Orchestra, he is a regular at prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center and with orchestras and at festivals around the globe.

His first U.S. recital was at the White House, when he arrived in the United States from the Soviet Union in 1979 after eight years of artistic suppression following his decision to seek an exit visa. That same year, his Carnegie Hall debut established him as a major pianist on the American and international scene.

The program he plays here — the Mozart D Minor Fantasy; the four Schubert Impromptus, Op. 90; and the four Chopin Ballades — is one of three he is offering this season. After Ann Arbor, he plays the program next in a Cliburn Foundation recital before heading back to the Midwest for a series of Chicago Symphony Orchestra concerts.

With the Mozart as prelude from the Classical era — a fine opener from a pianist known for his Mozart — Feltsman’s program focuses on the 19th century and the development of Romanticism. The Schubert impromptus and the Chopin Ballades, among the most beloved pieces of the solo piano repertoire, offer two different examples of early Romantic music.

“They are chronologically close, but stylistically worlds apart,” Feltsman noted. And they make a program that while not overly long is “intense and rich,” he added.

The Schubert Op. 90 impromptus were written in 1827. The Chopin ballades date from 1835-42.

The Romanticism of the Chopin is “full-blown,” as Feltsman put it, the Schubert’s far less so.

“In the Schubert the structure is more clear and obvious,” he said. “The Chopin is more sophisticated and complicated. The models are very different.”

And yet, each of the eight pieces is a one-movement work, composed with the idea of improvisation in the background. And Feltsman considers them both to be cycles. “I’ll ask people not to applaud until the last one in each set,” he said.

Asked if his in-depth exploration of Bach’s works over the years influences his Chopin, with all the counterpoint, Feltsman gives a broad-reaching answer: “Bach influences everything. It opens all other doors to you. Once you know a little bit about Bach, you know about all the rest of the music.”

Susan Isaacs Nisbett is a free-lance writer who covers classical music and dance for AnnArbor.com. Listen to Vladimir Feltsman playing Chopin's Mazurka Op. 24, No. 4 (MP3).