Pianist Ivan Moravec's recital at Orchestra Hall Sunday could not be called adventurous. It started with a familiar Debussy prelude and ended with a Chopin sonata (the "Funeral March") that is even more so.

But in the circumstances this was not a failing. Moravec is such a thoroughly satisfying pianist that his choices leave no room for complaint; he seems to play everything - well, almost everything - the way you always wanted to hear it.

All this was clear from the opening chords of Debussy's "The Engulfed Cathedral," where the blurred, echoing octaves and fifths irresistibly call up distant bells and watery depths.

A slightly slower tempo would have given more size and massive dignity to Debussy's tone-picture. Still the piece spotlighted one of Moravec's great strengths: his ability to play octaves and chords with absolute precision, every note sounding at the same nanosecond.

The rest of the program - eight more of the 24 Debussy preludes, Cesar Franck's "Prelude, Chorale and Fugue," and the Chopin B-flat Minor sonata - showed more strengths: beautifully textured playing, deep understanding of each work, and a portraitist's ability to draw a subject's profile.

Those talents are all needed for Debussy's vivid miniatures. Moravec made especially memorable snapshots of "The Interrupted Serenade," where everything goes wrong for the soulful suitor, "La Puerta del Vino," with its bitonal, Moorish-Spanish exoticism; and the spitting, sizzling "Fireworks."

To today's listeners, the Franck piece is like Victorian furniture; the materials and workmanship are fine but the effect is fussy and overdecorated. Moravec had the answer to this: he toned down the pianistic flounces and ribbons and brought out the fine bones of the piece.

The sonata has another danger peculiar to romantic music: It's easy to play badly. For Chopin its emotional content is unusually dose to the surface, and the least bit of exaggeration can make it sound mawkish.

Moravec played it straight, letting the piece speak for itself. This was admirable in the funeral march, with its rather sugary "consolation" melody: His clear, unaffected performance made it more convincing than any amount of expressiveness could do.

He gave the same shapely line and high polish to three encores: the tiny Prelude in A Major and a Nocturne in C-sharp Minor of Chopin, and a simple-minded, utterly charming Polka by Smetana.