UCLAlive Presents:

MURRAY PERAHIA, piano
Royce Hall, UCLA

his was pianist Murray Perahia's second visit to So Cal in six months.  A recital at UCLA's Royce Hall means the instrumentalist will have to work extra hard to register an impact, compared to the vocalist, who has much flattering acoustics to work with. 

Certainly, the serious program of Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms required that nothing be left to chance.  Every phrasing and dynamic marking were scrupulously observed, every musical vignette vividly brought to life.  In the Op. 12 Fantasiestücke, we heard highly impassioned playing ("In der Nacht") alternating with gossamer-textured filigreed passagework ("Fabel") -- it was a musical poet's vision of heaven on earth.

The Beethoven G-major sonata (Op. 31 No. 1) was similarly plunged into a passionate frenzy from the outset -- firmly planting Beethoven in the Romantic period -- in the process losing much of the work's mercurial lightness and Haydnesque humor as a result.  The second movement is brimming with comedic and buffa elements (e.g., the tip-toeing passages and tripping descending scales) and would have benefited from a lighter treatment by Mr. Perahia.

After the intermission, we were treated to Brahms' dazzling variations & fugue on a Handel theme (Op. 24).  The playing was absolutely brilliant, of course, but the emotions were surprisingly reined in, as if the pianist found it uncomfortable straddling one foot in the Baroque period and one foot in the Romantic.

At this stage of his career, Mr. Perahia is clearly above reproach in his choice of repertoire and interpretation.  One can always expect from this superb artist the sheer joy and immense inner wisdom in every work he performs.  In the encore, Schubert's Impromptu (Op.90 No.4), Mr. Perahia combined an easy elegance with utmost poetic sophistication that firmly placed him among the greatest pianists of our time.

Truman C. Wang is editor of Classical Voice, whose articles have appeared in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, the Pasadena Star-News and other Southern California publications. 

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