Sony’s sonic refurbishing of Murray Perahia’s Schubert Impromptus leads me to wonder if the different venues and microphone placements color my perception of the pianist’s interpretations. The D. 899 group stems from 1982 sessions held at New York’s Vanguard Studios. The performances feature uncommonly refined and sensitive fingerwork that seems a shade square, dynamically restricted, and emotionally reserved in comparison to, say, Radu Lupu’s riper textures and inner drama. No. 4 in A-flat is an exception, where Perahia’s brisk tempo and sharp articulation of the cascading right-hand arpeggios make this piece sound more interesting than it actually is.
By contrast, close miking imparts a gaunt edge to Perahia’s beautiful sound in the D. 935 group (recorded in 1980 at CBS’s legendary 30th Street studio in New York City). As a result, the pianist’s nuances make a more vivid and virile impression, notably in the first F minor Impromptu, the A-flat’s middle section, and the B-flat’s minor variation. Despite the remarkable poise and clarity of Perahia’s scales in the final F minor Impromptu, greater rhythmic drive and nervous energy would have been welcome. However, bolder and broader pianism characterizes the Schubert/Liszt song transcriptions, recorded in 1998. Perahia keeps Erlkönig’s passionate melodic trajectory, bass-register rejoinders, and relentless repeated notes in breathtaking perspective, while wielding equal mastery in the more lyrical Auf dem Wasser zu singen. And Perahia’s eloquently proportioned yet intense Ständchen is a lovely piece of work, even if the aged Horowitz’s more yielding, ravishingly tinted DG interpretation remains in its own special class.
