Monday 12 September 2011

Schubert - 8 Impromptus [Perahia]

Here the are again, my most favourite work in the whole of the Classical repertoire, if i had to choose one work and be banished to a desert island, then this is the work i would take with me [though not this performance], this recording was originally brought out on the CBS label, which i believe Sony bought or owned, and many CBS recordings were re-issued as Sony recordings, and so it is with this one, with the added bonus of three Schubert Lieder transcriptions by Liszt. 

Murray Perahia is American, he's now 64, and lives in London, the booklet cover is inspired [photo by Mel Curtis], of a clearing in a wood, with a park bench, shot i believe with infra-red black and white photography, the image has a wonderful serenity, and a secret favourite spot about it, i can just imaging sitting on that bench listening to this disc, and the world just melts away as i'm transported into another world for an hour, such are the Impromptus of Schubert. 

The three impromptus which sent me to heaven were 1, 3 & 5, and of the three it's the most gentle and sublime of them that i feel Perahia transported me heavenward the best, namely the Third Impromptu, there's a soothingness about it, 

Here's Murray Perahia playing the Third Impromptu [D899 / 3] on YouTube.