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 uninhibited form. His Sunday afternoon recital at Strathmore, presented by Washington Performing Arts, was no exception, revealing a more impulsive, showy and daring side to his artistry.
Perahia's reading of Brahms's G minor Ballade, Op. 118, No. 3, which led off a richly sonorous set of late Brahms pieces, was a case in point. Compared with his straitjacketed studio recording, his concert performance was more freely expressive, with greater liberties of tempo and more pronounced thematic contrasts. The reprise of the opening melody felt impetuous, as if Perahia were pursuing a heady rush of nostalgic feeling — making the concluding echo of the lyrical middle theme, now in a minor key, sound even more haunted and ghostly.
Mozart's Piano Sonata in A minor, K. 310, likewise, was given a more dramatic and urgent performance than in Perahia's classic recording, but without sacrificing any subtleties of light and shade. The concert opener, Haydn's Variations in F minor, was limpid and gorgeously colored, with playful flourishes that led to an explosive coda.
Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” sonata served as the recital’s colossal main event. Perahia did not attempt the composer’s controversially fast metronome markings, but the opening movement was nonetheless propulsive and virile. The scherzo was played a little too straight, but the slow movement was revelatory: Taken at a refreshingly flowing tempo, it felt improvisatory and rhapsodic and left a sense of having completed an epic journey. While relying heavily on the sustain pedal, Perahia went for broke in the devilishly challenging fugal finale, with ferocious playing of white-hot intensity. He very nearly came to grief, impulsively speeding up before the final chords, but mercifully managed to stick the landing. It was a wild ride.
