Murray Perahia - Schubert, Schumann: Piano Sonatas (1988)

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Murray Perahia - Schubert, Schumann: Piano Sonatas (1988)

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I was amazed to discover this wonderful performance of Schubert's D.959, by a pianist who I usually consider a bad Schubertist (in the Impromptus and last sonata, for example). In this work, however, he seems to get the very essence of the music. I've listened to many good and bad recordings of the work, notably Uchida, Eschenbach, Bolet (good performances) as well as Serkin, Brendel (worse, to my taste) and many others. The only good rival of this performance is another surprise: the romantic Liszt expert Jorge Bolet (Decca, not released on CD).
Perahia seems to understand Schubert magnificently in this sonata. The second and fourth movements are not too fast, as is often the case. Schubert's original structure is wonderfully brought out, with his intense lyricism, clymaxing in the "development" middle sections of the first and last movements. The only thing which troubles me with Perahia's performance here, is his occasional (and very rare) disregard for Schubert's instructions, usually concerning dynamic marks. A pianist's decision to overlook a great composer's instructions is, to my taste, an unforgiveable crime. But yes, I do forgive Perahia in this case, simply because so few other pianists have managed to understand this music so well. The one site which really disturbs me in this respect, is the end of the second theme in the first movement, in both exposition and recapitulation. Schubert writes here a diminuendo after which comes an explosive forte, which Perahia clearly disobeys. Schubert's obvious intention here was to articulate the ending of the ternary-form lyric second theme, with the sudden shift of mood to the intensely chromatic and disturbed closing section. Perhaia prefers here a gradual buildup of the tension within the closing theme, what was certainly not Schubert's intention! I ask myself, had this been Beethoven, the everlasting indisputable master, would Perahia have allowed himself to ignore such a clear performance instruction?
As regards Schumann's sonata, I clearly think this is NOT the best performance available. Perahia again disobeys what seems to be a clear performace instruction - Schumann indicates the first movemnet's tempo as "so rasch wie moglich" - as fast as possible - which Perahia slows down, probably in order to be able to accelerate further in the Coda, when Schumann writes "scheneller" and "noch schneller". The agitated character of the music, with its even flow of semiquavers and staccato syncopations, seems to demand the always fast tempo. I would recommend Askenazy's performance (Decca), which I think is no longer available new, but I'm sure there are still other better performances than Perahaia's. Nevertheless, the Schubert performance is masterly enough for me to give this album a five star rating, and declare it a must for all Schubert lovers.

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Murray Perahia - Schubert, Schumann: Piano Sonatas (1988)

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