Perahia applies aristocratic touch to Bach and Chopin
Pianist demonstrates thrilling balance of reserve and vitality
MURRAY PERAHIA 2012 Presented by Vancouver Recital Society When: Thursday night Where: Orpheum Theatre
Vancouver loves pianists: the list of younger virtuosi who have performed here is especially impressive. Much, much rarer is a visit by an artist of the stature of Murray Perahia. Perahia’s performance for the Vancouver Recital Society on Thursday focused on his trademark repertoire and provided an object lesson in patrician taste and musical values.
Any Perahia program is well defined, an intricate and very deliberate set of choices. This recital opened with the ebullient French Suite in G major of J. S. Bach, delivered with immaculate clarity and great sensitivity. Perahia never sentimentalizes his material, yet his interpretation sparkled with nuanced details. Beethoven’s Sonata in E minor, Op 90 followed, an unusual work with a decidedly proto-Romantic scope. Perahia stressed the wealth of contrasts, emphasizing the improvisatory aspects of the first movement, then the singing lyricism of the second.
Brahms’s exquisite Opus 119 Kla-vierstücke rounded out the program’s first half. This is a composition of extraordinary thoughtfulness and intricacy; Perahia’s interpretation managed to fuse the clarity and flashes of exuberance of his Bach with the sense of restrained emotion of his Beethoven. The result was an exemplary performance of Brahms at his very best.
Schubert’s Sonata in A major, D. 664 launched the second half, a lyrical work of very considerable surface charm and, this being Schubert, deep, dark undercurrents. The program concluded with a Chopin group, ending with the great Scherzo in C sharp minor. These Chopin works ( plus encores by Chopin and Schubert) were the closest thing to conventional virtuoso repertoire on the program, yet they were delivered with the same precision and consummate refinement.
Perahia is a true aristocrat of our musical era. His unassailable status is accompanied by a certain reticence or slightly shy intensity— the mark of an artist striving to make his performances about music, not about piano playing. Here was a recital in which the showy ambience of the concert hall seemed to vanish, erased by a master musician’s concentration and his emotional and intellectual commitment to music of the highest possible quality.