Murray Perahia plays Handel and Scarlatti CD

Murray Perahia plays Handel and Scarlatti  

Murray Perahia plays Handel and Scarlatti  

Murray Perahia plays Handel and Scarlatti The elegant and clean lyricism of Murray Perahia's playing fits this program of piano songs without words to a tee. Perahia has always had a wonderful knack for teasing out singing contrapuntal lines that other pianists ignore. Far from sounding willful, such interpretative playing seems to reveal music that one should have been hearing all along. Consequently, Perahia lends all music that falls under his hands a decidedly polyphonic cast. It is therefore not surprising that Perahia renders the richly textured Bach-Busoni chorale transcription, "Nun freut euch, lieben Christen," with unstudied charm. Similarly, in Mendelssohn's 'Songs without Words,' Perahia projects more that composers championing of Bach than his Romantic pioneering. Perahia's playing of Liszt's transcriptions of Schubert songs is virtuosic without being showy. Even in the tour-de-force final strophe of "Auf dem Wasser zu singen," Perahia stresses the singing of individual lines over theatrical dazzle. Personnel: Murray Perahia (piano).

Murray Perahia plays Handel and Scarlatti This recording was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for "Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without Orchestra)." During the 1720s, Bach grouped his harpsichord suites into two sets of six each and assembled a third, that was newly composed. These compositions have survived as the English Suites, French Suites and Partitas. Only the Partitas were published in Bach's lifetime. The English Suites are the earliest of these keyboard works and three of them are the focus of this recording by pianist Murray Perahia. There is nothing especially "English" about these works and their misleading title is one that was never known by Bach. Dubious titles notwithstanding, the works are marvels of invention that marry intellectually challenging contrapuntal lines to sublime melodies. Perahia wisely says the suites are "heart and mind connected." Perahia dazzles in this music. He excels in the twisting contrapuntal complexities of each suite: particularly the Prelude of the Second Suite and the Gigue of the Fourth. Perahia also revels in the melodic splendor of the elegiac slower movements, his playing of the Allemande of the Fifth Suite a high point of the disc. Perahia's Bach is ...

Murray Perahia plays Handel and Scarlatti  

Murray Perahia plays Handel and Scarlatti