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Murray Perahia

Brahms' Handel Variations

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Murray Perahia Handel Variations wins 2011 Gramophone Award
Perahia The Artist
Murray Perahia Masterclass
Bach: French Suite No 4 - Murray Perahia
1 Handel Variations, Op. 24  
2 Rhapsodie in B Minor, Op. 79, No. 1  
3 Rhapsodie in B Minor, Op. 79, No. 2  
4 Six Piano Pieces, Op. 118; Intermezzo in A Minor/1  
5 Six Piano Pieces, Op. 118; Intermezzo in A Major/2  
6 Six Piano Pieces, Op. 118; Ballade in G Minor  
7 Six Piano Pieces, Op. 118; Intermezzo in F Minor/4  
8 Six Piano Pieces, Op. 118; Romance in F Major  
9 Six Piano Pieces, Op. 118; Intermezzo in Eb min/6  
10 Four Piano Pieces, Op. 119; Intermezzo in B Minor  
11 Four Piano Pieces, Op. 119; Intermezzo in E Minor  
12 Four Piano Pieces, Op. 119; Intermezzo in C Major  
13 Four Piano Pieces, Op. 119; Rhapsodie in Eb Major  
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After a long and successful period devoted to J. S. Bach, Grammy winning pianist Murray Perahia shifts his attention back to Brahms for the first time in twenty years. The new Sony Classical recording finds a perfect link between the music of Bach and the Romantic period in Brahms's Handel Variations. This early work manages to span the two eras, with a theme that is solidly Baroque but treated in a deeply Romantic style.

 

  • Murray Perahia makes ASMF return to celebrate Marriner's centenary with Schumann Piano Quintet / The Guardian
    Posted At: April 18, 2024 12:00 AM
    In the more than 40 years he has been performing on the concert stage, American pianist Murray Perahia has become one of the most sought-after and cherished pianists of our time, performing in all of the major international music centers and with every leading orchestra. He is the Principal Guest Conductor of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, with whom he has toured as conductor and pianist throughou...
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  • Murray Perahia - Beethoven Sonatas is 90.1WRTI: Classical Album of the Week
    Posted At: April 9, 2018 12:00 AM

    A new release featuring pianist Murray Perahia connects the consummate artist to two Beethoven sonatas that have yet to be included in his studio repertoire. The Grammy-winning pianist has finally recorded the "Hammerklavier" and "Moonlight" sonatas, and they are definitely worth hearing. Listen to his Deutsche Grammophon album Beethoven–Piano Sonatas–Murray Perahia. Over the past four decade...
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  • Vivid recording and piano playing of distinction, on Murray Perahia's new Beethoven sonatas / Otago Daily Times
    Posted At: April 2, 2018 12:00 AM

    What Murray Perahia sees as "two of the most radically ground-breaking of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas" are new studio recordings by this American performer. It is the first time he has recorded these two famous sonatas. The pianist always displays a wonderful touch producing a beautiful sound, with a technique that never strays from a perfect classical structure. Beethoven sonatas are a field where...
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  • Poet of the keyboard - Murray Perahia set for Hodgson Hall / UGA TODAY
    Posted At: March 21, 2018 12:00 AM

    Award-winning pianist Murray Perahia will perform April 12 at 8 p.m. in Hodgson Concert Hall. Over the course of his four-decade career, Perahia has become one of the world's most respected musicians, hailed by the New York Times as the poet of the keyboard. "I love to play the piano," Perahia says. "I love the instrument. I think it has a series of secrets that we have to find out from it." Perahia...
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  • Murray Perahia - Beethoven Piano Sonatas jumps up 20 places on CLASSIC fM chart
    Posted At: March 18, 2018 12:00 AM

    This week in the Classic FM Chart, 'The Glorious Garden' has managed to hold onto its No. 1 spot from last week - and Murray Perahia jumps up 20 places with his Beethoven Piano Sonatas! The Classic FM Chart sees Alan Titchmarsh and Debbie Wiseman holding the No. 1 spot, with their brand-new album of original poetry and symphonic music. And it's good news for Andre Rieu with his album Amor...
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  • Fire, urgency, and a deep-toned introspection of Beethoven's Piano Sonatas by Murray Perahia / Financial Times
    Posted At: March 16, 2018 12:00 AM

    It has taken Murray Perahia 40 years to feel he is ready to record Beethoven's "Hammerklavier" Piano Sonata, Op.106. Toying with the sonata in his mid-20s apparently convinced him it needed greater maturity. Having now turned 70, he has certainly allowed it that. Perhaps inevitably, this majestic performance feels like something of an artistic summation. It is cast on an opulent scale. When Beethoven...
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  • Murray Perahia - Beethoven Piano Sonatas is WFMT: Featured New Release
    Posted At: March 15, 2018 12:00 AM

    Grammy-winning pianist Murray Perahia stands in the tradition of the great keyboard artists, armed with consummate technical skills and boundless imagination. After years of studying the original manuscripts, working sketches, and editions published during Beethoven's lifetime, and having edited the new Henle Urtext edition of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas, Perahia records two sonatas for the firs...
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  • One of the greatest interpreters of Mozart and Bach, takes on other great love - Beethoven / The Daily Telegraph
    Posted At: March 9, 2018 12:00 AM

    Over a 45-year recording career which takes in almost 100 albums and three major labels, American pianist Murray Perahia has carved out a unique niche in the world of classical music. Mentored by such luminaries as Rudolph Serkin and Vladimir Horowitz - a friend who he would visit and play to in the great maestro's final years - Perahia's rise through the ranks has been meteoric until he is now considere...
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  • New Beethoven Piano Sonatas by Murray Perahia, featured on CLASSIC fM
    Posted At: March 7, 2018 12:00 AM

    David Mellor picks out his three favourite new releases and re-releases every week - including his own Album of the Week and a Bargain Boxset - bringing you lots of new recordings to explore. David's Album of the Week, FOR THIS WEEK IS,  Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Opus 27/2 & 106, by Murray Perahia on Deutsche Grammophon. Looking at his Beethoven recordings, since he began in New York in 1978 ...
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  • Murray Perahia's elegant lyricism in a Bach Concerto / WCRB: Boston
    Posted At: January 14, 2018 12:00 AM

    Murray Perahia is featured on WCRB: Boston - The Bach Hour for Sunday Jan 14, 2018 in the Keyboard Concerto No. 3 in D, BWV 1054 - as pianist and conductor with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. In the more than 40 years he has been performing on the concert stage, Mr. Perahia has become one of the most sought-after and cherished pianists of our time, performing in all of the major internation...
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  • The Savannah Music Festival gets even bigger in 2018 with a robust selection of music / Charleston Post Courier
    Posted At: November 14, 2017 12:00 AM

    The Savannah Music Festival, already one of the largest and most influential in the U.S., is getting even bigger in 2018 with the addition of two new venues, specially commissioned works and an all-day festival finale. The festival, which runs March 29 through April 14, features robust selections of classical, jazz, international, Americana and folk music. Among the Americana and roots music stars sh...
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  • Murray Perahia hits all the right notes at Orchestra Hall / Chicago Tribune
    Posted At: May 8, 2017 12:00 AM

    The program was characteristically conservative: Bach, Schubert and Beethoven. The playing was responsive to every marking in the scores. The interpretations were as finely reasoned as that of any great artist who has reached the age of 70. If there was any falling short - the admiring audience apparently heard none - it was owing to the nature of the piece that closed the afternoon, an unruly monument s...
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  • Murray Perahia - Bach 'French Suites' / ArtsHub review
    Posted At: January 9, 2017 12:00 AM

    American pianist Murray Perahia turns 70 in April.  After 43 years recording with Sony, where his Chopin, Schubert, Beethoven and Mozart are particularly renowned, his first recording for Deutsche Grammophon is a double CD of Bach's French Suites (BWV 812-817).  That these works have been with Perahia throughout his life is demonstrated here in the lucidity and eloquence of the perfor...
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  • Murray Perahia in Tokyo - on Performance Today
    Posted At: January 6, 2017 12:00 AM

    Friday's Performance Today, goes to Tokyo to hear legendary pianist Murray Perahia and the London Symphony Orchestra give a thrilling performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4. Perahia's move to Deutsche Grammophon and release of Bach's French Suites allows the pianist to explore his great affinity with the music of Bach. Having played this music since childhood and b...
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  • Murray Perahia - Bach 'French Suites' makes WCRB: CD of the Week... of the Year!
    Posted At: December 28, 2016 12:00 AM

    Each week, we highlight a new release from the classical world - see which albums from 2016 each member of the WCRB: Boston team loved the most! Brian McCreath: Murray Perahia: Bach: The French Suites. Excellent recordings of Bach's keyboard works are not hard to come by. Some feature harpsichordists who draw unexpectedly stunning colors from ancient instruments, like Mahan Esfahani and Andreas Staie...
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  • Murray Perahia - Bach: French Suites makes 'Boston Globe Top 10 Classical Albums for 2016'
    Posted At: December 23, 2016 12:00 AM

    Deutsche Grammophon is proud to announce that Murray Perahia, one of the great musicians of our time, has signed to the yellow label. His move to Deutsche Grammophon follows an exclusive association with Sony Classical and its predecessor Columbia Masterworks that began in 1973. This significant new partnership, destined to deliver interpretations of the highest artistic calibre to the DG catalogue,...
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  • Murray Perahia begins Beethoven cycle with ASMF at the Barbican / theguardian
    Posted At: November 29, 2016 12:00 AM

    Murray Perahia's delicate touch paired beautifully with the Academy of St Martin in the Field's aerated tone, bringing wit and poise to an all-Beethoven chamber programme Barbican, London. There were moments in this first instalment of Perahia's Beethoven concerto cycle with the ASMF when the pianist's hands slid seamlessly from the keyboard to the orchestra. The orchestra had little need of such gesture...
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  • Murray Perahia - Bach 'French Suites' / WCRB: CD Of the Week
    Posted At: November 28, 2016 12:00 AM

    The American pianist joins the renowned Deutsche Grammophon record label, embarking on a set of works formative to his decorated career. Well into the fifth decade of his illustrious career, pianist Murray Perahia joins the esteemed Deutsche Grammophon record label, beginning with a vivacious performance of Bach's six French Suites. Having shaped a large part of his musical upbringing, Perahia finds...
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  • Murray Perahia - Bach: French Suites / Financial Times review
    Posted At: November 4, 2016 12:00 AM

    A handsome two-disc set of Bach's French Suites is a fine way for Murray Perahia to inaugurate his new recording contract with DG. He says it took him a long time to find his own way of playing Bach on the piano, but all except diehard loyalists to the period sound of the harpsichord will find his Bach wholly natural. These French Suites exhibit all the buoyancy and spirituality that ...
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  • Murray Perahia - Bach: The French Suites / Buffalo News review
    Posted At: October 31, 2016 12:00 AM

    The question with Murray Perahia's Bach was answered triumphantly long ago. To wit, what happens when a pianist acknowledged to be among the world's premiere Mozart performers turns to Bach? Reverse the question, after all, and the results could be legendarily dismaying e.g. Bach master Glenn Gould's anarchic Mozart. In Murray Perahia's case, the answer has long been this: the music i...
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  • Murray Perahia - Bach 'French Suites' / WFMT: Featured Release
    Posted At: October 17, 2016 12:00 AM

    A longtime proponent of Bach on the modern piano, Murray Perahia has been hailed as one of the composer's "most rewarding interpreters both live and on disc" (New York Times). For his debut recording on Deutsche Grammophon, Perahia turns to the six French Suites – works that are at once delicate, profound, tender and joyful, and all suffused with the rhythmic vitality of the dance. Bach: French Sui...
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  • Murray Perahia signs to DG after 43 years with CBS and Sony / Rhinegold Publishing
    Posted At: September 9, 2016 12:00 AM

    Murray Perahia has signed a recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon, thus ending a 43-year partnership with with CBS and its later incarnation, Sony Classical. Sony's Berlin headquarters declined to comment on the move but it triggered a fresh storm of criticism on social media of Bogdan Roscic, the label's president. Born in New York in 1947, Perahia was a prodigious talent who gained the suppor...
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  • A more spontaneous and uninhibited Murray Perahia at Strathmore concert / Washington Post
    Posted At: May 3, 2016 12:00 AM

    In the recording studio, Murray Perahia embodies the archetype of the modern American pianist. With an unassailable technique and a commanding sense of structure, he offers uncontroversial, authoritative performances elevated by his tonal mastery and poetic sensitivity. His recordings command respect but rarely surprise. But recent live performances have found Perahia in much more spontaneous and uninhib...
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  • Massive Hammerklavier performance by Murray Perahia / Los Angeles Times
    Posted At: April 29, 2016 12:00 AM

    Beethoven's massive, daunting, imposing, terrifying, exhilarating, breathtaking "Hammerklavier" Sonata is not Everest. It just seems that way as one compiles a list of roaring adjectives capable of rising sky high. Still, Beethoven's towering sonata is often treated that way, the mountain to be conquered by alpha-male and alpha-female pianists with the bravura techniques and stamina able to threa...
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  • Murray Perahia plays Beethoven with clarity and command for La Jolla Music Society / San Diego Union - Tribune
    Posted At: April 26, 2016 12:00 AM

    In concert, Pianist Murray Perahia displays extreme control and composure. The phrase "authoritative performance" is overused, but when it comes to Beethoven piano sonatas, not many musicians have the credentials for that designation. Perahia is currently editing the new Henle Urtext edition of Beethoven's sonatas. Thousands of professional pianists rely on this edition to provide a score that best repre...
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  • Murray Perahia plays UW's Meany Hall / Seattle Times review
    Posted At: April 22, 2016 12:00 AM

    Murray Perahia, a pianist's pianist, played an inspiring evening of masterpieces - including Beethoven, Haydn and Brahms - at Meany Hall Wednesday night April 20. Perahia has been an occasional but always sought-after visitor to Seattle for more than three decades, establishing himself as an extraordinarily imaginative and intelligent pianist who connects deeply with music lovers. His Wednesday recital a...
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  • Murray Perahia delivers transcendent recital at Stanford / San Jose Mercury News
    Posted At: April 15, 2016 12:00 AM

    In 1778, Mozart combed through Paris in the hopes of finding commissions and employment. He would return to his native Salzburg an outcast, even as he tailored his works to the au courant style. During this period, he would write his first tragic sonata, not for money, but for musical fulfillment. Forty years later, Beethoven, also dealing with poverty and strife, would pen the "Hammerklavier" sonata for...
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  • Murray Perahia plays Orchestra Hall / Chicago Classical Review
    Posted At: March 24, 2015 12:00 AM

    As pianists go, Murray Perahia is not one to often stray from his comfort zone. Throughout his four-decade career his bread and butter has been the music of Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, and Chopin, with occasionally forays into later 19th century Romanticism. One might even label his recitals predictable, if you expect unerringly perceptive and idiomatic readings of the core repert...
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  • Murray Perahia evokes suspense, sadness and exhilaration at Disney Hall / Los Angeles Times
    Posted At: March 17, 2015 12:00 AM

    A regular visitor to Los Angeles for over four decades, pianist Murray Perahia appeared at Walt Disney Concert Hall last Sunday March 15, blazing through a treacherous program of music by Bach, Haydn, Beethoven, Franck and Chopin. In a gutsy, if occasionally untidy recital, Perahia dominated gnarly technical challenges with close-to-reckless speeds. Once a reserved, methodical musician closer in temperam...
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  • Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts presents Murray Perahia / KBAQ interview
    Posted At: March 12, 2015 12:00 AM

    Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts presents Murray Perahia in recital, Thursday, March 12, 7:30pm.The program includes Bach's French Suite No. 6 in E Major, BWV 817; Haydn's Sonata in A-Flat Major, Hob. XVI:46; Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 26 in E-Flat Major, Op. 81a, "Les Adieux"; Franck's Prelude, Choral et Fugue, Op. 21; and Chopin's Scherzo No. 1 in B minor, Op. 20.  K-Bach's Ster...
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  • Michigan's Gilmore Festival presents Murray Perahia in Piano Masters Series
    Posted At: February 25, 2015 12:00 AM

    The Gilmore International Keyboard Festival will present internationally renowned pianist Murray Perahia in its Piano Masters Series on March 18. Perahia will perform a program of Bach, Haydn, Beethoven, Franck and Chopin at 8 p.m. at Chenery Auditorium. He is performing the same program he will present at Chicago's Orchestra Hall the following week and at Carnegie Hall in New York on April 1. Pe...
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  • Murray Perahia: On Performing the Classics
    Posted At: February 3, 2015 12:00 AM

    To open the 2015 Humanitas Series in Chamber Music, Murray Perahia's illustrated lecture explored the music of composers ranging from Bach to Brahms. Referring to contrapuntal, harmonic, melodic and formal features in select masterpieces, Mr Perahia described how music can achieve profound meaning and emotion through sounds alone. Much of his commentary focused in addition on the reflections of these com...
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  • Murray Perahia: Plays Bach Concertos. There is hardly a note out of place
    Posted At: August 7, 2011 12:00 AM

    "As with all of Murray Perahia's recordings, there is hardly a note out of place: The passagework is clean, the articulation crisp, the tone light and bouncy, the dynamics restrained, and the reverence for the composer always present. In the solo concertos in particular there is some very beautiful playing when the pianist's technical accomplishment is paired with his good taste and musical insight. This...
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  • Murray Perahia conquers 'Brahms' Handel Variations,' an early work that manages to span 2 eras
    Posted At: November 30, 2010 12:00 AM

    After a long and successful period devoted to J. S. Bach, Grammy winning pianist Murray Perahia shifts his attention back to Brahms for the first time in twenty years. The new Sony Classical recording finds a perfect link between the music of Bach and the Romantic period in Brahms's Handel Variations. This early work manages to span the two eras, with a theme that is solidly Baroque bu...
    Bookmark and Share

  • Murray Perahia triumphs in this recording of 'Beethoven Sonatas'
    Posted At: January 25, 2009 12:00 AM

    The illustrious pianist Murray Perahia, long regarded for his peerless interpretations of music by the classic Viennese composers, turns his attention to four Beethoven sonatas in his latest release from Sony Classical. With four-star reviews from The London Times and The Guardian,* Perahia triumphs in this recording through an elegant, engaging sense of Beethoven's musical forms. ...
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