THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
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“Thursday. March 26,2009,
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A CULTURAL CONVERSATION | With Murray Perahia
The Pianist’s Passions:
Constant, Recent and Renewed
By Davi Menvztsraim —_terioasy dsappecred from the
were repertory but waich he plays
‘Berkeley, Cali with both apdary precision and
johear the panist urray supple virtuosity
Perakiainrectalistocome “I love how with the fewest
rniune with ane of musics notes, Brahms has the greatest
igh pests So audiences typi- effect Mt. Persia sald over
cally savor his legendary con- reaMfast the moming afer his
fentration and nassalable Zellerbach performance. "Ey
{echrique in husheé form— ery note speaks to him ikea
fvanting bin a agree of te World [find ths fassnating Re
Spect ot allways. afforded gardless ofthe fashion, he sil
other, equally famous, artists. goes bach tothe verties of hr.
‘Cextanly that was the ease mony and counterpoint and
last week at Zellerbach Wall finds a. deep expressiveness,
here, when Mic Perabiabeganan Which Means alot to me"
‘Amerian tor that contin
tues in Kalarazoo, Mich,
right and Boston om Sunday
Defore concluding at New
York's Avery Fisher Hall on
‘Tuesday. The appearances
snark the pianists triumph
lover arecurring finger pr
Ternthat ast spring seated
‘tour with the Academy of
‘St Martin in the Fels
‘Mr, Pera, age 6 is shar-
ing the spotlight with no one
this time save Bach, Beethover,
‘Brahms and toast, composers
especially dea to im.
"Mozart has lone been ess
ated ith his pianists recor
Ings of the complete piano eon-
certs have been much prized
Since their debut in the 1980s,
Brains s another ali rend, and
‘MePrahiaconeues alive con=
certsonthe present tour witatie
‘composer’ demanding "Handel
‘aritions”aworkthat has mys
‘love how with the fewest
notes, Brahms has the
This comment brings us to
Bach, a more recent passion
Raving boon taught to regard
‘the composer's keyoourd warks
asthe provinee of harpsichord
{sts Mi Perahin wos loaf
perform them publicly. But an
specially bad flare-up of that
ighe-humb allment in the
‘cry 3990s caused him t seek
‘out Bach's musie es therapy
Ie he convaleseed.
“mhemusieIneededto study
atthat imme was Bach” Mz Pra
hiasai, “mina quite sureway,
Teas source of spiritual re
greatest effect. Bvery note
speaks to him like a world?
lease that needed: 0) boeauselt
asa difieat pe
fuse ach sustains one. And 1
‘when got better, fee wanted
tw share that ith the publi
Butt wasa challenge for me to
said, “and thought should play
‘them I'snot just ascholaste a
ity. studied the sketches. 1s
4 great privilege co study the
‘way Beethoven thought, andthe
Sketches give youn insight He
yan bbe
findaway‘oplayBachoathept- thought in very long stretches.
anothatwasconvineing When! All four movements of the
‘asgrowingupinthelss0sand ‘Funeral Mare Sonata, for ox
19605, people didn play Bsch
fon the plano. And If It was
played of the piano, there was
Somethingof dle machine about
it "There was slo the danger
‘ha youould makelt Homantic
and spoil the counterpoia”
"He solved the problem in
‘time, but noe unl afer he
spent 1s years learning the
Ierpsichord as a way af bet
terunderstanding how te p-
anoshould relay such scores
‘The rsuls ean be heard on
his recordings of he ~Cold
bore Varatons”"hesixne
Tish sultes and theo ofthe
six Partita (the other tee wil
Derecorded next month), aswell
as the complete keyboard con
erns sllof whieh he peysith
Dronoineced musiealty anda
t
ossamer touch
‘Whats new is Mr, Peraha’s
return to Beethoven His atest
{CD of four sonatas is his fst
Beethoven dise in nearly 15
years. He desribes tas an ou
Srowtofhisworkeiting anew
faition ofthe 22 sonata forthe
‘German music publisher Heal,
"The sonatas on the record
are the ones Tmt editing,” he
nip, were an insprstion that
‘enmeat one morment. But Tink
inal the sonatas be saw the
‘whole picture. 1s the sane in
Beethoven as with Mozart, mu
‘se came ina flash though i
took longer in Beethovers case,
find it var harder t0 get that
‘ash worked out”
Me Perak, who was born in
the Brom but bas lived in Lan
donsince the mid-870s, credits
Several great' musiclans~in
eluding Pablo Casals and the
‘Murray Perahia
(Chenery Auditorium,
‘Kalamazoo, Mich.
Tonighe et pm.
Information about other vemes
‘ar wwwsmurrayperaha.cam
‘Engish pianist Ciftord Curzon—
‘with helping him become the
artist he Is today. But there is
Special affection, even ave, re-
Served for Viadiir Horow,
‘with wtions Mi, Pera studied
Inthe mid to late 19808,
“Horowitz broughtto methe
seerets ofthe plan,” Mi Pera
bia sn. “He introduced me to
‘colors and took me ta level of
playing 1 would never have
known otherwise, The ground:
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Page 1 of2THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
Thurs. Moreh 26, 2009
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work of our relationship is
something T've quoted many
times, He said, Ifyou want to be
‘more than a virtuoso, then first
bea virtuoso,’ So he introduced
me to the virtuoso repertoire—
Rachmaninoff, Liszt, Franck
and others, including certain
pieces of Chopin. He helped me
enjoy the piano and get more
‘ut of it through expression.”
One thing Mr. Perahia seems
not to have absorbed from
Horowitz is the latter's legend-
ary stage fright. Though he ac-
knowledges that nerves are “a
very hard aspect of the profes
sion,” they do not keep him
from performing.
“Te doesn’t paralyze me, like
it does some colleagues,” he
said. “It probably has to do with
afear that you might failinsome
significant way. But t'snot some-
thing T've spent a lot of time
thinking about, beeause you just
hhave todo it. find the really in-
tense nerves go after about five
10 minutes, and after a while,
one can really quite relax."
‘Audiences may find the
word “relax” an odd choice, for
Mr. Perahia doesn’t exactly ex-
ude easualness on stage, In-
deed, he Is so focused on the
taskat hand that audiences may
wonder if he is even aware of
their presence.
Yet Mr. Perahia insists that
he cherisheshispublie—indeed,
that they are vital to his music
‘making. “It'snot just something
you can do in your studio," he
sald. “Communication is a very
strong part of art. And to get it,
‘one needs to playit, toliveit. So
1 do enjoy performing, though
its difficult and takes @ lot out
cof you. But its a great luxury to
play the musie you love.”
‘Mr. Mormelstein writes for
the Journal on classical music
‘and film.
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