Murray Perahia – Beethoven: Piano Sonatas (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 55:40 minutes | 848 MB | Genre: Classical, Piano
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
Oh no, no, no: this is absolutely not a re-release of one of the many recordings which Murray Perahia made of Beethoven over the decades. This here is something completely new, made in 2016 and 2017, of two radically contrasting sonatas: the Fourteenth of 1801, which Rellstab nicknamed “Clair de lune” in 1832, while Beethoven merely dubbed it Quasi una fantasia, and the Twenty Ninth of 1819, Große Sonate für das Hammerklavier, written after several barren years. Perhaps, consciously or not, Perahia has coupled two works, one “before” and the other “after” – after all, he himself has known his fair share of fallow years, following a hand injury which removed him from the stage from 1990 to 2005. Whether or not it’s true, it’s certainly tempting to imagine. Either way, like Beethoven, Perahia made a storming return, as shown in this recent performance, in which vigour alternates with moments of intense introspection, always impeccably phrased and articulated, and deeply musical. Clearly all those years in which he concentrated almost exclusively on the works of Bach as a training regime while he waited for recovery seem to have in fact been immensely fruitful.
Read more
Murray Perahia – Johann Sebastian Bach: The French Suites (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:31:34 minutes | 1,52 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
One of the world’s best-loved artists, and a longtime proponent of Bach on the modern piano, Murray Perahia has been hailed as one of the composer’s “most rewarding interpreters both live and on disc.” For his debut recording on Deutsche Grammophon, Perahia turns to the six French Suites – works that are at once delicate, profound, tender and joyful, and all suffused with the rhythmic vitality of the dance. Perahia produced a series of award-winning recordings of Bach’s keyboard works in the late 1990s and since then Bach has become his bench mark. Bach’s French Suites are new to his recording catalogue. It is his first release in the past 5 years and first release for DG.
Read more
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Murray Perahia – Bach: Keyboard Concertos Nos. 3, 5-7 (2002)
SACD ISO (Stereo): 2,16 GB | 24B/88,2kHz Stereo FLAC: 917 MB | Artwork
Label/Cat#: Sony Classical # SS 89690 | Country/Year: Europe 2002 | 5% Recovery Info
Genre: Classical | Style: Baroque
Perahia doing Bach, as Perahia does Bach: very clean and very smooth. Very un-Gould. If Gould uses the piano to try and emulate the detached sound of a harpsichord (always sans pedal), Perahia is almost the opposite. Having said so, the sound Perahia achieves in the second movement (largo) of Concerto No. 5 (BWV 1056) is simply fabulous … one of my favourite piano sounds on SACD (after the Tchetuev Schnittke SACD on Caro Mitis). Beautifully recorded.
I may be wrong, but it does sound to my ear as though the piano has been tuned below A = 440 Hz. The sound is slightly flat to my ear, though not to the extent that one would find in an authentic instrument recording. There is no mention in the programme notes to this effect.
Perahia’s Goldberg variations on SACD is now almost impossible to find, and this SACD seems to be heading the same way, so grab it while you can. Highly recommended.
End-notes:
1.The so-called Concerto No. 6 is derived from the harpsichord continuo part in Brandenburg No.4 … and I think it is the first time I have actually heard this played on the piano rather than the harpsichord. In this instance alone, I am not sure that the transition to pianoforte is successful. ~SA-CD.net
Murray Perahia – Brahms: Piano Works, Opp. 24, 79, 118 & 119 (Original Edition) (2010/2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:17:51 minutes | 1022 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sony Classical
Murray Perahias neue Aufnahme präsentiert Werke aus drei Schaffensphasen von Johannes Brahms. Mit den Händel-Variationen gelingt es dem Pianisten, eine perfekte Verbindung zwischen Bach und der Musik der Romantik zu schaffen. Diese frühe Komposition spannt einen Bogen über beide Epochen – ihr Thema ist durch und durch barock, ihre Variationen hingegen sind geprägt von tief romantischem Gestus. Perahia entdeckt in den Händel-Variationen deutliche Parallelen zu Bachs Goldberg-Variationen: Beides sind umfangreiche Werke, die von der enormen Geisteskraft ihrer Schöpfer zeugen. Darüber hinaus sind Brahms’ Händel-Variationen – obwohl unverkennbar romantisch – eng am Themenmaterial und dem paarweisen Aufbau orientiert, der auch für Bachs Variationen typisch ist. Weiterhin finden sich auf diesem Album Klavierwerke aus Brahms’ mittlerem und spätem Schaffen, die zwei Rhapsodien op. 79 und die in sich gekehrten Klavierstücke op. 118 und op. 119 aus seinen späten Jahren.
Read more
Murray Perahia – Bach: Goldberg Variations (2000)
Murray Perahia plays the Goldberg Variations of Johann Sebastian Bach, in a recording which has received much critical acclaim.
With all the fuss that is currently and justifiably being made about the late Glenn Gould’s two historically important readings of the Goldberg Variations—it was Gould who rescued the work from the museum—it is easy to forget that other pianists can breathe life into them. Since his recovery from a hand injury, Murray Perahia has been exploring Bach’s keyboard works, to critical and commercial acclaim. No, this set of 30 imaginative variations on the “Fundamental Bass” of the Aria that bookends them was not written for the piano, but Perahia’s delicacy of touch, subtle use of dynamic shadings, clarity of line in the canons and Fughetta, and effortless virtuosity demonstrate that the anachronistic instrument doesn’t have to overpower the music within the notes. The sound is close, with the sound of Perahia’s fingernails on the Steinway’s keys occasionally clatteringly clear, but the music is not the worse for it. The SACD, which appears to be mastered from a 24-bit original, sounds simply better. ~~ From 2003 Records to Die For at Stereophile
Read more
Murray Perahia – Chopin: Etudes (2002)
Classical | SACD ISO: DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 00:55:56 | 2,24 GB
Label: Sony Classical | Release Year: 2002
In a field in which each season heralds the arrival of new “talents” who are soon forgotten, pianist Murray Perahia has remained a reliable and immensely gifted presence on the international scene for more than four decades, despite long breaks away from performing. Perahia studied with Jeanette Haien, from the age of five until well into his teens. In 1964 he entered the Mannes College of Music in New York, studying composition and conducting; though both endeavors remained secondary to his career as a pianist, the latter proved particularly useful when, decades later, Perahia conducted and recorded a complete cycle of Mozart’s piano concerti from the keyboard. Perahia pursued further piano studies with Artur Balsam and Mieczyslaw Horszowski. He also attended the Marlboro Festival in Vermont, collaborating with such artists as Rudolf Serkin, Pablo Casals, and the Budapest Quartet.
Read more![Murray Perahia - Brahms: Händel Variations (2010) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/09/10/0884977771930_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Murray Perahia – Brahms: Händel Variations (2010)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:17:51 minutes | 1021 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Sony Classical
This release sees Murray Perahia returning to Brahms after a significant series of excellent Bach recordings for Sony Classical. His 1991 Sony recording of the Sonata No.3 has an assortment of Intermezzos and Rhapsodies as a filler, but this new disc sees Perahia taking the later opus numbers head-on, working up to them chronologically via the Handel Variations and Rhapsodies Op.79 which, as Katrin Eich says in her booklet notes, each represent an ‘end point’ at certain stages in Brahms’ compositional output.
(more…)