Murray Perahia

Ever since he skyrocketed to fame in 1972 with a sensational victory in the prestigious Leeds International Competition, the born-and-bred New Yorker (but now longtime Londoner) Murray Perahia has held a special place in the pantheon of the world’s greatest pianists. A pupil of Mieczyslaw Horszowski, he coached with Vladimir Horowitz and collaborated with Rudolf Serkin and Pablo Casals at Marlboro, with Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears at Aldeburgh and with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. He has been called “a prince amongst pianists” (Financial Times), but he could as easily be dubbed a Romantic tone-painter or a lyricist. Perahia is an artist whose astonishing virtuosity is consistently matched by his gift for finding the poetry in everything he plays. His 1987 Schubert Club program included Mozart and Beethoven, both of whose complete piano concertos he recorded in that decade, his Mozart conducted from the keyboard. In this Berlin concert film from the same period, he plays and conducts the Chamber Orchestra of Europe in the popular Concerto No. 21 in C major, K. 467:

Here is Perahia more recently, working his wizardry on Bach, the Partita No. 6 in E minor:

as well as on Beethoven, the “Appassionata” Sonata in F minor:

and the late Sonata in E major, Op. 109:

Also included is another film from the 1980s, even though the picture and sound are pretty wretched. Try to listen through the clangy piano tone to appreciate Murray Perahia’s special poetry in Chopin’s Fourth Ballade, which he played at his Schubert Club recital in 1987:

https://youtu.be/-Y5yiRRrk-A