Concertos pour piano, Volume 1

Description

The pianist Murray Perahia likes to tell that when he saw his career jeopardized in the 90s by a thumb problem, he found comfort in immersing himself in the works of Bach. This has resulted in some beautiful records dedicated to the "Goldberg Variations" and the "English Suites." He repeats this here by tackling three concertos by the Master, which he conducts from the keyboard at the head of the Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields.
Those who would expect a routine Bach steeped in devotion and, to be honest, sulpician will be quite surprised. From the allegro of concerto number one, Murray Perahia indeed adopts tempos of an uncommon dramatic energy that remind us of Bach's influence on Beethoven and Mozart, the future masters of the piano concerto. The same inner urgency is found in the adagio of the same concerto where under his fingers the repetition of the refrain becomes obsessive and almost unsettling. There is no question here of dozing off in a blissful adoration of the Kantor of Leipzig.
Besides his well-known talents as a soloist, the pianist reveals other, more unexpected, conducting skills, combining dynamism and precision with delightful refinements of direction, as in the sicilienne of the fourth concerto where he composes a mosaic in an impressionistic spirit perfectly conveying the tranquil poetry that emanates from this movement.
This is only volume one of Bach's piano concertos; we eagerly await the next installment…