A few weeks ago, I took my girlfriend to Walt Disney Concert Hall to see a recital given by American pianist Murray Perahia. He has always been a favorite of hers, so I knew that this birthday surprise would be a success. As it turned out, it was a present for the both of us.
By simply looking at the program he had prepared for the evening, it was evident that Perahia is different from most classical pianists today. It seems that most concert-goers today aspire to see artists with flair and great virtuosity - pianists such as Evgeny Kissin or Martha Argerich, who possess note-perfect and physically imposing techniques at the piano. But for Mr. Perahia, perhaps this is all second hand. His virtuosity doesn't lie in deftness and agility of the fingers, but rather in his unique ability to shape and mold each musical phrase, to present music not as an impressive and demanding art but rather as a profoundly introspective thought.
Mr. Perahia opened the evening with a dramatic performance of the Bach Partita #6 in e minor (excerpt). Normally Bach doesn't captivate the audience the way Beethoven, Chopin or Liszt might, but with Perahia's performance, there was a certain palpable energy to his playing. Watching him play made me understand that he put thought and consideration into every note of the Bach. His arm weight and articulation of the fingers were all very meticulously sorted out to create a wide variety of tone and musical gesture. There was something about his playing that was so vital and energetic, yet reserved and personal... but it took me a good while to pinpoint what exactly made his playing so innately captivating.
He followed up the Bach with the Beethoven Op. 109 piano sonata in E Major (excerpt). This sonata made me hesitate a little... Perahia's choice of tempo and attack at the piano lessened my initial feelings of awe and amazement. At first, I felt dragged along as a listener, almost as though the musical lines were being forced upon me. The last movement began too slow and angular, but I began to realize that his articulation and tempo worked in a strange way. Once he had ended the Beethoven, I felt that despite my complaints about his playing, something felt cohesive about it. Maybe his ideas as individual musical identities didn't appeal to me, but as a whole, his presentation of the Beethoven sonata inexplicably made sense.
Mr. Perahia is what I would call an excellent 'crafter' at the piano. I began to realize this after intermission when he opened with Schumann's Kinderszenen (Scenes From Childhood) Op. 15. The Kinderszenen is a set of small and intimate character pieces, each a warm reflection on the innocence and joy of childhood. Mr. Perahia shaped each melody with distinct tenderness and affection. He used his hands purposefully and never wasted motion extraneously at the keyboard. I felt as though he was conveying musical ideas through very subtle motion of the hands... he was shaping the music just as one would mold clay or carefully stroke a brush across a canvas. He was crafting polished musical ideas from raw material.
He ended the program with an etude, three mazurkas, and a scherzo by Chopin. This finalized my opinion that Perahia is the consummate musical craftsman. His performances of the Chopin in particular were far from note-perfect, but they were charming in the personal intimacy they conveyed. I didn't particularly care for the wrong notes... in fact, strangely, they felt like they belonged there. Mr. Perahia's natural sense of charm shone through the best in the Chopin - the long lines in the etude flowed with ease and agility, and the quick runs in the scherzo were perfectly whimsical and full of excitement.
I can't say Mr. Perahia's recital was a life changing experience, nor can I say that it was the best recital I have ever attended in my lifetime. But I can easily say I heard an evening of wonderful music, and came to realize that there ARE musicians out there who seek to impress not through sheer virtuosity, but through an apparent deepness of thought and intimate, even spiritual, connection with the music.
Here are a few samples of his playing:
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