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Murray Perahia: 25th Anniversary
Edition

Murray Perahia, piano;
Sony Classical

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Ext. 209

1/23
1998

122

'TN

There are gaggles of technically
proficient pianists who play all the
right notes but who fail to reveal a
musical soul. One remarkable excep-
tion is Perahia, a sensitive poet of the
keyboard if ever there was one. Born
of a Sephardic background in-New
York in 1947, Perahia has always been
a servant to music without making an
affectation of his devotion.
He's represented generously in solo,
chamber and concerto pieces - on this
four-disc compilation, which cele-
brates his quarter-century association
with Sony Classical (known as CBS
Masterworks back when he signed up
as a 25-year-old supernova).
Most of these recordings are reis-
sues, but some are available for the
first time. Perahia isn't known for his
association with 20th-century music,
but he plays Michael Tippett's Sonata
No. 1 (previously unreleased) with
poise and polish, coasting through the
thorny passages with nary a scratch.
Similarly, the pianist is at home with
Alban Berg's moody Sonata for Piano,
also never before released.
Perahia is puckish in Bartok's Out
of Doors and Liszt's Dance of the
Gnomes, and navigates through Schu-

mann's Papillons with breezy freedom.
Two brief sonatas by Domenico Scar-
latti are cleanly articulated and rhyth-
mically vital.
Perahia's most generous critical
praise stems from his Mozart and
Chopin interpretations. He plays
Mozart's Concerto No. 27 with
patrician grace and colors
Chopin's Concerto No. 2 with
soft, chalky pastels, particularly
in the lyrical second movement.
When romantic tenderness is
required, Perahia is the musical
equivalent of John Keats.
When romantic ardor is
required, Perahia is Byronic.
He zips through Rachmani-
noff's taxing Etude No. 6 and
dashes through the finale of
Brahms' Quintet in G Minor
with vim and fire. The pianist
tangles with Chopin's mighty
Ballade in G Minor, but he
doesn't quite grab the tiger
by the tail. This towering, stormy
work has proved the undoing of many
pianists, and although Perahia proves a
worthy interpreter, he can't quite
muster the titanic strength to domi-
nate it.
One could quibble about the
absence of any Schubert and the
paucity of solo Chopin pieces. But
doing so would be like carping that a
diamond isn't bright enough.

— Reviewed by George Bulanda

AMAZING GRACE

You would expect the tiny woman
with frizzy, voluminous white hair to
speak softly. You would be wrong.
Grace Paley has been speaking out
loud and strong for much of this cen-
tury — about being Jewish, feminist
and politically radical.
The first time I saw this petite,
grandmotherly figure, she stood barely
taller than the podium. But the lan-
guage she uses, both on the page and
in conversation, is striking, sometimes
verging on indecent, but always pow-
erful. The messages she sends, in both
venues, are powerful, gripping,
intense. Most people don't think of a
Jewish grandmother protesting war,

racism or indifference.
On Tuesday, Jan. 27, Paley will
read from her original works at the
University of Michigan's Hopwood
Underclassmen Awards Ceremony.
The free reading will take place after
the awards are given to winning
undergraduate writers.
Born in 1922 to Russian immigrants
in the Bronx, N.Y., Paley later attende
Hunter College, New York University
and the Merchants and Bankers Busi-
ness and Secretarial School. Known
mostly for her fiction, she has pub-
lished three collections of poetry and
three volumes of short stories.
Telling and Remembering: A Century
of American Jewish Poetry says of
Paley's work, "Like her fiction, her
poetry, written in clear, prose-like lan-
guage, often concerns her present-day
American Jewish milieu, the memories
of her childhood and the immigrant
culture of her parents."
Paley divides her time between
teaching at Sarah Lawrence College
and City College of the City Universi-
ty of New York.

— Lynne Meredith Cohn