Murray Perahia
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Murray Perahia (born April 19, 1947) is a distinguished American concert pianist. He is also a respected conductor. His recordings are characterized by a consistent quality of sound, technique/interpretation and a careful attention to dynamic and stylistic details.
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[edit] Career
[edit] Early career
Perahia was born in New York City of Sephardic Jewish origin, and began playing the piano at four but he didn't start practising seriously until the age of 15. At the age of seventeen, he attended Mannes College, where he studied keyboard, conducting, and composition with his teacher and mentor Mieczysław Horszowski. During the summer, he also attended Marlboro, where he studied with Rudolf Serkin, and Pablo Casals, amongst others.
In 1972, he won the fourth Leeds Piano Competition, helping to cement its reputation for advancing the careers of young pianistic talent. Dr. Fanny Waterman recalls anecdotally (in Wendy Thompson's book Piano Competition: The Story of the Leeds) that Horszowski had phoned her prior to the competition, announcing that he would enter the winner. Other American contestants had apparently withdrawn their applications upon hearing that Perahia would be competing.
In 1973 he worked with Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears at the Aldeburgh Festival. He became co-artistic director in 1981, stepping down in 1989.
Perahia famously held a close acquaintance with an elder Vladimir Horowitz, who had a defining influence on his pianism.
His first major recording project was the complete piano concertos by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, conducted from the keyboard with the English Chamber Orchestra. In the 1980s, he also recorded the complete Beethoven piano concertos, with Bernard Haitink and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
[edit] Injury and later career
In 1992, his career was threatened by a bone abnormality in one of his hands that had to be operated on. A bone spur on his thumb was causing inflammation, and he had to spend several years away from the keyboard, enduring a series of operations. During that time, he reportedly listened to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. After being given the all-clear, he produced in the late nineties a series of award-winning recordings of Bach's keyboard works, most notably a cornerstone rendition of the Goldberg variations. This has caused him to be regarded as a latter-day Bach specialist.
He has since made recordings of Frédéric Chopin's etudes, and of Franz Schubert's late piano sonatas. He is currently editing a new Urtext edition of Beethoven's piano sonatas. He is regarded as one of the most popular pianists on record today.
Besides his solo career, he is active in chamber music and appears regularly with the Guarneri and Budapest Quartets. He is also Principal Guest Conductor of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields orchestra, with which he records and performs.
He lives in London. On March 8, 2004, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom made him an honorary Knight Commander of the British Empire.
In early 2006, Perahia's hand problem recurred, prompting him to withdraw from the concert stage on the advice of his doctors. He cancelled several appearances at London's Barbican as well as a ten-city national tour in the United States, but has returned in fine form with recitals in German cities, including one in Hamburg on October 18 2006.
[edit] Awards and Recognitions
Claudio Arrau Memorial Medal of The Robert Schumann Society:
- Awarded in 2000 during the 7th International Schumann Festival
Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance:
- David Corkhill, Evelyn Glennie, Murray Perahia & Georg Solti for Bartók: Sonata for Two Pianos & Percussion (1989)
Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without orchestra):
- Andreas Neubronner (producer & engineer) & Murray Perahia for Chopin: Études, Op. 10 & Op. 25 (2003)
- Murray Perahia for Bach: English Suites Nos. 1, 3 And 6 (1999)
[edit] Discography
[edit] 1980s
- Schubert: Wanderer Fantasie; Schumann: Fantasie in C Major (1986)
- Mozart, Beethoven: Quintets for piano and Winds (1986)
- Mozart: Sonata (K. 448); Schubert: Piano sonata for four hands (1986) — with Radu Lupu
- Beethoven: Piano concertos nos. 3 and 4 (1986)
- Brahms: Piano quartet (1987)
- Beethoven: Piano sonatas nos. 17, 18 and 26 (1987)
- Beethoven: Piano concerto no. 5 (Emperor) (1987)
- A Portrait of Murray Perahia (1987)
- Mendelssohn: Piano concertos nos. 1 and 2 (CD 1987, but recorded in 1974 and originally issued on LP) — with Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
- Mozart: Piano concertos nos. 11, 12 and 14 (1987)
- Mozart: Piano concertos nos. 22 and 24 (1987)
- Chopin: Piano concerto no. 1, Barcarolle, etc. (1987)
- Beethoven: Piano concertos nos. 1 and 2 (1987)
- Mozart: Piano concertos nos. 9 and 21 (1987)
- Schumann: Symphonic études, posthumous études, Papillons; Chopin: Piano sonatas nos. 2 and 3 (1988)
- Schumann: Davidsbündlertänze; Fantasiestücke (1988)
- Beethoven: The five piano concertos (1988) — with Bernard Haitink and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
- Schumann: Piano sonata, (op. 22), Schubert: piano sonata (D. 959) (1988)
- Bartók: Sonata for 2 pianos and percussion; Brahms: Variations on a theme by Haydn (1988)
- Schumann, Grieg: Piano concertos (1989)
[edit] 1990s
- Chopin: Piano concertos nos. 1 and 2 (1990)
- Murray Perahia in Performance (1991)
- Murray Perahia Plays Franck and Liszt (1991)
- Brahms: Sonata no. 3, Rhapsodies, etc. (1991)
- Mozart: Concertos for 2 and 3 pianos, Andante and variations for piano four hands (1991) with Radu Lupu
- Mozart: Piano concertos nos. 21 and 27 (1991)
- The Aldeburgh Recital (1991)
- Mozart: Piano sonatas (K. 310, 333, and 533) (1992)
- Bach: Harpsichord concertos (1993)
- Immortal Beloved Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1994)
- Greatest Hits: Grieg (1994)
- Chopin: Ballades, Waltzes, Mazurkas, etc. (1995)
- Beethoven: Piano sonatas (op. 2, nos. 1–3) (1995)
- Murray Perahia: 25th Anniversary Edition (1997)
- Schumann: Kreisleriana, Piano sonata no. 1 (1997)
- Schumann: Complete works for piano and orchestra (1997) — with Claudio Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
- Murray Perahia Plays Handel and Scarlatti (1997)
- Bach: English suites nos. 1, 3 and 6 (1998)
- Songs Without Words: Bach/Busoni, Mendelssohn and Schubert–Liszt (1999)
- Mozart: Piano concertos nos. 20 and 27 (1999)
- Glenn Gould at the Movies (1999)
- Bach: English suites nos. 2, 4 and 5 (1999)
[edit] 2000 and later
- Bach: Goldberg Variations (2000)
- Bach: Keyboard concertos volume 1, nos. 1, 2 and 4 (2001)
- Bach: Keyboard concertos nos. 3, 5, 6, 7 (2002)
- Schubert: Late piano sonatas (2003)
- Murray Perahia Plays Bach (2003)
- Beethoven: String Quartet, Op. 127; Piano Sonata, Op. 101 (2004) (The string quartet, op. 127 is transcribed for full string orchestra and conducted by Murray Perahia)
[edit] Videography
- Mozart: Piano concertos nos. 21 and 27 in rehearsal and performance (1992)
