Kirill Gerstein is a big personality with big technique, as suited as any in the first rank of pianists to set Carnegie Hall on fire. This time, though, he will strike his sparks not on the mainstage, Stern Auditorium, but underground at Zankel Hall, where the subway rumbles. Gerstein’s unconventional program juxtaposes surefire Schubert, Liszt, and Brahms with a heavy dose of non-box-office rarities by Busoni, Adès, and Kurtág. A Hungarian theme runs through the performance, most pungently in Bartók’s bracing, bristling Piano Sonata, which despite its folk-music substrate can be rough on tender ears. —M.G.