now playing
start of Chopin: 12 Études, Op. 10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUeflxPjeZc&list=OLAK5uy_nI4KgSWmsIC5yF9-JoxN41JA1Z--CfS4Y&index=28
start of Chopin: 12 Études, Op. 25
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvqhZjFMm40&list=OLAK5uy_nI4KgSWmsIC5yF9-JoxN41JA1Z--CfS4Y&index=40
start of Chopin: 24 Preludes, Op. 28
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOF9JUMOHtM&list=OLAK5uy_nI4KgSWmsIC5yF9-JoxN41JA1Z--CfS4Y&index=51
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nI4KgSWmsIC5yF9-JoxN41JA1Z--CfS4Y
>Through channeling his intelligent virtuosity toward musical ends, Murray Perahia reveals the distinctive voice of each Chopin Étude, rather than imposing a "one style fits all" aesthetic upon the music. His easy mastery of the right-hand double-note challenges of Op. 10 No. 7 and Op. 25 Nos. 6 & 8 and the taxing rotary patterns of the famous "Black Key" and "Winter Wind" études enable him to clarify their significant left-hand component. Note, too, the "Octave" étude's long-lined ebb and flow, or a sharper, more aggressive C-sharp Minor, Op. 10 No. 4, than the one Perahia recorded in the early 1990s. But his unusually brisk take on the E-flat minor (Op. 10 No. 6) trivializes the music's aching harmonic tension, and the two C Minor Études (including the "Revolutionary") are a shade inhibited compared with the unbridled bravura of the versions by György Cziffra (Philips) and Juana Zayas (Music & Arts). These quibbles, however, should not prevent piano lovers from experiencing Perahia's well-considered and superbly engineered interpretations of the oft-recorded masterpieces. --Jed Distler