…[O]utstanding…with Perahia's playing wonderfully refreshing in the Andante and a superb response from the four wind soloists… Clearly all the players are enjoying this rewarding music.

These two works form a perfect, contrasting pairing of the two most sublime piano compositions for four hands in existence: the Mozart ineffably sunny yet majestic, in a brilliant D major, the Schubert Fantasia achingly melancholy and beautiful, played by two musicians who are characterised by expressive understatement. In my experience, Lupu has since, in later years, become inclined to give detached, almost indifferent performances which verge on the remote, whereas here he and Perahia play with both strength and delicacy without ever giving in to excessive rubato or cheap, overt emotionalism.

During the 1720s, Bach grouped his harpsichord suites into two sets of six each and assembled a third, that was newly composed. These compositions have survived as the English Suites, French Suites and Partitas. Only the Partitas were published in Bach's lifetime. The English Suites are the earliest of these keyboard works and three of them are the focus of this recording by pianist Murray Perahia. There is nothing especially "English" about these works and their misleading title is one that was never known by Bach. Dubious titles notwithstanding, the works are marvels of invention that marry intellectually challenging contrapuntal lines to sublime melodies. Perahia wisely says the suites are "heart and mind connected."

These six suites are English in name only, conforming largely to the accepted form and order of a suite of dances, providing Bach with a template for his unrivalled contrapuntal skill in which he was utterly at home. The result is a set of pieces with wonderful rhythmic variation and delightful fluency of lines, and these are among Bach's finest keyboard works, in my view. They are inventive, endlessly rewarding and, above all, hugely enjoyable to listen to.

This is the best recording of both Schumann's and Schubert's fantasies. Perahia plays Schubert Fantasy with such clarity, delicacy and sophistication that Pollini's Wanderer Fantasy sounds flat and bland. (well, all the recordings by early Pollini are super flat without any depth anyways). Richter's Schubert Fantasy is one of the best around, yet Perahia does it with extra flair and depth. Perahia sounds even better with Schumann as his Schumann always sounds impeccable. Perahia gives so much air to the fantasy and the music flows just so naturally. Richter's Schumann sounds a bit too self-indulgent to me.

Radu Lupu and Murray Perahia should have recorded all of Mozart's piano music for four hands, which includes several neglected masterpieces. This disc reflects their ideal partnership, two artists of great sensitivity collaborating in performances that feature constant interplay of parts, alertness to each other's work, and superb playing as individuals. The Concerto for Two Pianos ripples along without a care in the world, just as it should, and the English Chamber Orchestra doesn't seem to care that nobody is conducting it. The pieces without orchestra are a bit less significant (as is the Concerto for Three Pianos), but the playing is so beautiful you won't care.

S’il fallait donner une définition au romantisme du début du XIXe siècle, la simple écoute de ce disque rendrait toutes autres explications superflues. Tout ce qui caractérise ce célèbre mouvement de pensée artistique et intellectuel est présent au sein de ces chef-d'œuvres du plus imprégné de ses compositeurs. On y trouve intimement mêlés la passion et l’amour mais aussi le doute et l’espoir sans oublier la poésie, puissante inspiratrice de l’œuvre de Schumann. Murray Perahia y brille de tout feux et ce n’est pas la prise de son qui me démentira. Le piano est d’une richesse harmonique qui nous laisse pantois. Des graves profonds et charpentés aux aiguës aériens et cristallins, l’instrument est restitué dans ses vraies dimensions. Ce disque est un condensé de ce qui se fait de mieux en la matière.

I was amazed to discover this wonderful performance of Schubert's D.959, by a pianist who I usually consider a bad Schubertist (in the Impromptus and last sonata, for example). In this work, however, he seems to get the very essence of the music. I've listened to many good and bad recordings of the work, notably Uchida, Eschenbach, Bolet (good performances) as well as Serkin, Brendel (worse, to my taste) and many others. The only good rival of this performance is another surprise: the romantic Liszt expert Jorge Bolet (Decca, not released on CD). Perahia seems to understand Schubert magnificently in this sonata.

I continue to find the whole of Perahia's recording stimulating and fresh. I said in my first review that the freshness of a still quite youthful player is there. With never a hint of gratuitous agitation, the sense of an invigorating energy being released in the act of performance comes across strongly; and I'm sure Beethoven would have loved it. As Perahia with the wind his sails carries you along—in the finale of the Appassionata above all—his virtuosity is special, electrifying in effect, transcendental, brilliantly illuminating.

Few pianists in our lifetime demonstrate the kind of depth and musicality Perahia has done in the last 3 decades. His virtuosity and expressiveness are 'classical' in every sense - reserved and stylistically sophisticated. The Grieg Concerto is just superb and this recording shows Perahia's more passionate side of his personality. Highly recommended.

Perahia’s immaculate technique, stylistic surety, and classical symmetry are remarkably consistent. While his tone is always singing and rounded, lyrical melodies and decorative passages alike convey a slight diamond-like edge to the peak of crescendos or an emphatic accent. This helps achieve an attractive fusion of unruffled poise and dramatic tension. You hear this quite readily in the B-flat K. 456 concerto ‘s first movement, or in the carefully pedaled trills and restatement of the main theme in K. 595’s heavenly Larghetto, also sampled here. Perahia’s symbiotic musical rapport with Radu Lupu in the two-piano concerto and the two-piano version of the concerto for three pianos should not go unmentioned.

– Jed Distler

Recorded over 13 years between 1975 and 1988, Murray Perahia's cycle of the complete piano concertos of Mozart, including the concert rondos and double concertos, remains perhaps the most enduring monument to his art. What is it about Perahia's art, some skeptics might ask, that is worth enduring? For one thing, as this 12-disc set amply demonstrates, there is his incredible tone.