Bach: Keyboard Concertos Nos. 3, 5, 6, 7

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Music reviews of Bach: Keyboard Concertos Nos. 3, 5, 6, 7

Music Review: Murray Perahia's Bach
Rating: 5 Stars

Both as piano soloist and conductor, Perahia deals elegantly with issues of balance that inevitably arise when performing early music on modern instruments. Concertos written for harpsichord take on a very different texture when played on a modern concert grand; the ringing tone and sheer volume of the piano can easily dominate the strings in ways not envisioned by the composer. But in these performances the relationship of strings to keyboard solo has been deftly re-calibrated. The piano and orchestra become equal partners, parts of an integrated whole, woven together as seamlessly as if this were chamber music.

As well, Perahia has edited the score with subtlety and wit. The moment that knocks me off my chair arrives in the finale of the Concerto No. 5 in F minor when the propulsive opening phrase, scored for keyboard and the full compliment of strings, is answered by a two note descending figure in the strings alone. Ordinarily these two notes are bowed, but on this disc they are played with a robust pizzicato, standing out in sharp relief against a momentary background of silence. The sound is so startling, so fresh and unexpected, one's ears are put on full alert. This device is used to great effect throughout the movement; many of the normally bowed phrasings are rendered as pizzicato, making the rhythms and texture of the piece sound newly minted. After repeated hearings, I began to wonder if this might not be a sly nod to the absent harpsichord, an instrument whose strings are plucked as the keys are depressed. Here, in a textural turn-about, the orchestra's plucked strings serve as counterpoint to the full, round, sustained tones of the Steinway concert grand.

Another suggestion of the harpsichord's coloration can be heard in the addition of a theorbo, a kind of 16th century bass lute, to the orchestra. At strategic moments its gentle, harpsichord-like twang provides a delicate crease at the edges of the tonal fabric that I haven't heard on any other recording of this music.

I like this disc even better than Perahia's pervious, and highly praised recording of Bach's keyboard concertos Nos. 1, 2, and 4 with the same orchestra. As good as that recording is, I find the playing on the new disc is freer and more invigorating. The collaboration between soloist and orchestra sounds here even more assured, more intimate, almost as if they had merged into one instrument. The sound on this recording is also more immediate, more alive.

The gold standard for these concertos - as played on a modern piano - has for decades been Glenn Gould's groundbreaking recordings of the late 1950's. Gould's Bach performances were a revelation. He blew the dust off scores nearly a quarter of a millennium old and made them sound - well - sexy. For the generation of listeners who cut their teeth on his recordings, Gould's iconoclastic interpretations, to say nothing of his personal eccentricities, raised him to the level of a cult hero whose mystique has barely diminished.

But Perahia has upped the ante. His performances have all the clarity of line, all the visceral excitement of Gould's, but with an added dimension of warmth and nuance. Gould's recordings are highly cerebral. With Perahia, we get not just the brain, but the whole body.

It is difficult to adequately praise Murray Perahia's piano playing. That he is currently hailed as the most important American pianist of his generation only begins to do him justice. His playing is at once lyrical and precise. Every note is perfectly weighted. Each detail has been thought through with great care, but the details never distract from the sweep of the music; embellishments are elegant and executed with great beauty - and always supportive of the broader musical ideas. Perahia draws us into the heart of the music with phrasing as natural as breathing, and a warmth of tone that wraps us in a cashmere blanket of sound.

Description of Bach: Keyboard Concertos Nos. 3, 5, 6, 7

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