Schubert - 8 Impromptus [Perahia]
It was so good to listen to this disc today, it increases my appreciation of these works, i learnt some new things about the works, plus i learnt some things about Perahia too, this is one of about eleven sets i have, certainly Perahia is good, but not as revelatory as Brendel, it's also good to have the extra Schubert / Liszt items, this got in my Blog three and a half years ago [12th september 2011].
Murray Perahia is American, he's now 68, he recorded these Impromptus in 1980 & 1982, this is a re-issue of an earlier disc, the picture shows a park bench woodland scene, shot in infr-red, making it look like a snowy scene, a solid red bar at the right with the lettering on, the back insert is really well laid out, i like it a lot.
On this listening, Impromptus 1, 3-4 & 8 were the best, and it was this last Impromptu i really enjoyed the most from Perahia, and here's a synopsis of my thoughts,
Impromptu 8 [6:32] - in F Minor, straight away i notice how staccato Perahia is in this piece, plus how stabbing he is of keys, there's meant to be a certain jerky twitch to the whole thing, an unsure stammer surely, i also notice the sound / recording isn't great either, there isn't that warmth there should be, a bit of a dry boxy recording, and Perahia's playing actually goes against the recorded sound, and also Perahia seems to play it a little fast as well, and yet there's a thrillingness there, there's sense to the way he plays it, it really should be rather schizophrenic, the manic treble trills are are thrilling [0:40-0:48 & 1:13-1:19], at the other end of the scale, it's wonderful to hear running down in the bass end of the keyboard [2:40-2:55], the opening returns [4:14+], and after a sort of staggering winding down, there's a real loud bass thud to end the work with [6:28].
Murray Perahia is American, he's now 68, he recorded these Impromptus in 1980 & 1982, this is a re-issue of an earlier disc, the picture shows a park bench woodland scene, shot in infr-red, making it look like a snowy scene, a solid red bar at the right with the lettering on, the back insert is really well laid out, i like it a lot.
On this listening, Impromptus 1, 3-4 & 8 were the best, and it was this last Impromptu i really enjoyed the most from Perahia, and here's a synopsis of my thoughts,
Impromptu 8 [6:32] - in F Minor, straight away i notice how staccato Perahia is in this piece, plus how stabbing he is of keys, there's meant to be a certain jerky twitch to the whole thing, an unsure stammer surely, i also notice the sound / recording isn't great either, there isn't that warmth there should be, a bit of a dry boxy recording, and Perahia's playing actually goes against the recorded sound, and also Perahia seems to play it a little fast as well, and yet there's a thrillingness there, there's sense to the way he plays it, it really should be rather schizophrenic, the manic treble trills are are thrilling [0:40-0:48 & 1:13-1:19], at the other end of the scale, it's wonderful to hear running down in the bass end of the keyboard [2:40-2:55], the opening returns [4:14+], and after a sort of staggering winding down, there's a real loud bass thud to end the work with [6:28].
