|  | | | Customer Reviews: | | | Average Customer Review:
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Brilliant parts don't add up to a whole -- this is tame Chopin May 09, 2009
I don't know if this CD is a test of how British you are, but it could be. Thirty years ago I fell in love with the young Perahia's Second and Third Sonatas and could barely bring myself to stop playing them. So his undernourished, unadventurous account of the Chopin Ballades came as a deep disappointment. I didn't know the British critics had gone bonkers over them, but they love reticent pianism and "good taste," so it's not entirely a surprise.
The flat, foursquare beginning of the First Ballade is almost a shock -- does Perahia really hear the music this way? - but there re heartening moments of grand sweep later on, aided by Sony's excellent piano sound, which is neither pingy nor clattery. but my heart fell as Perahia tiptoed around the Second and third Ballades, fussing with the rubato and and restraining any impulse to simply let go. If you live his Chopin, I guess this passes for nuance; to me it was mincing. the Fourth Ballade also lacks strength, but like the first it has enough variety for Perahia to get in some good licks.
Other reviewers hear better in the extensive fillers, but where? The Grande Valse Brillante has rarely been so cautious, the following waltz resolutely refuses to take wing. There are nice things here and there; after all, Perahia is a major pianist. But the chorus of cheers doesn't obliterate the suspicious smell of a fake "classic."
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 A Nice Set of Ballades Mar 17, 2009
I'm not a great fan of Murray Perahia. I've never been able to quite put my finger on why, though. He seems to be sensitive to what the composer wishes and he is technically brilliant, but he (in most cases) just doesn't seem to be able to draw me in. That being said, I think this is one of his better efforts, and the sound is very good. I would rate the Ballades about equal to Earl Wild's set, but below Arrau's. Of course, nobody can touch Rubinstein on these works. I will add that the smaller works that fill out the disc are very well played. All in all a nice intro to Chopin, but you would be better off spending the ridiculously low price of about $30 and get Rubinstein's box set.
1 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 A poetic and masterful Chopin recital Mar 17, 2009
Murray Perahia is one of those pianists you can "hear" smiling throughout a performance. The enjoyment he finds in these pieces and in his art is obvious and contagious to say the least.
The 4 ballades have been blessed in the catalog with many superb recordings and while some may be more mercurial or intoxicating, none are nearly as poetic and refined as Perahia's. His technique, it goes without saying, is flawless and yet, while listening to him play, rarely did I actually care! All technical demands and concerns about virtuosity have obviously been overcome years ago and what Perahia offers here is on a different level; smartly-felt rubato, imaginative narrative, and, above all, an irresistible love for the music. With this approach, the third ballade, less somber and more lyrical in character, shimmers and emerges as a truly underestimated masterpiece.
The rest of the program is tastefully selected; lighter pieces that complement the 4 masterworks very well. The Mazurka no. 4 from op. 17 is especially charming with an honest and charmingly rendered polish folk song in the middle section. The Étude "triste" is just as poetic and, in Perahia's hands, almost sounds like a Nocturne. A true testament to how self-effacing his phenomenal technique really is. With just over 60 minutes of music, this is a truly unique and refreshing statement about some of the most recorded music of the piano repertoire.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
(+) Not for the Ballades, but for the Filler Recital Jan 01, 2009
INTRODUCTION: 'One has to go back to Hofmann, recorded in 1937, to find a more searching or poetic account of the G minor Ballade than Murray Perahia's.' 'This is surely the greatest, certainly the richest, of Perhia's many exemplary recordings. Once again his performances are graced with rare and classic attributes and now, to supreme clarity, tonal elegance and musical perspective, he adds an even stronger poetic profile, a surer sense of the inflammatory rhetoric underpinning Chopin's surface equilibrium.' Reading these raving Penguin Guide and Gramophone quotes, respectively, one is destined to believe we are faced with the perfect account of the four Chopin Ballades--something that in itself would be quite spectacular to say the least as they make up the most perfect condensate of musical and pianistic refinement in the entire piano oeuvre.
REFERENCES: Demidenko (Chopin: Ballades; Third Sonata); Ohlsson (Garrick Ohlsson - The Complete Chopin Piano Works Vol. 3 - Ballades)
In addition to the above quotes, this disc was awarded a Penguin Guide Rosette, a Gramophone Award, and even an inclusion in Gramophone Magazine's 100 Greatest Recordings. Allow me to break it to you right away: the collective professional British reviewers have been wrong before, and this time they are to completely talking through their hat when it comes to the Ballades. The 'filler recital' is indeed a keeper--especially the two Waltzes (Opp 18 & 42), where Perahia's effortlessly brilliant but somewhat superficial playing feels just right for the music, but also the three bouncing Mazurkas. However, in the main attractions, the four Ballades, Perahia too seldom reaches beyond the face value of the notes.
His First Ballade may well be both 'poetic' and 'elegant'; it is though not nearly as dramatic as Demidenko's or as profound as Ohlsson's. The Second is rushed and largely robbed of its vast contrasts between its disparately nocturnal and etudeian sections. The Third is well paced and jolly enough, thus most apt of the four to the lightness of Perahia's pianism. The Fourth Ballade, whose inward elegiac beauty makes it one of the supreme piano masterpieces, most evidently exposes Perahia's shortcomings.
Even if the recorded sound cannot be faulted, so can the alleged perfection of Perahia's Ballades traversal--which I would rank firmly behind not only the above-stated references but also those of Kissin, Zimerman and Moravec. As a matter of fact, the very perfection is what lets Perahia's Ballades down, quite simply being too nice, buoyant and pleasing to penetrate the depths of these bottomless masterpieces.
TIMINGS: Ballades--8:49, 6:39, 6:54, 9:46; Waltzes (Opp 18 & 42)--5:02, 3:37; etc
3 of 5 found the following review helpful:
a masterwork Oct 20, 2006
This disc has everything going for it. First of all it is simply not possible to hear too much Chopin in one's lifetime. He was amongst the very best melodists in all of music history; his harmonizations are gorgeous, complex, and highly chromatic; and in terms of pianism qua pianism his music is perfectly idiomatic. As for Perahia's performances, they are masterworks. They won't be everyone's favorites (they are not amongst the most rhapsodic and romantic of readings), but they are conceived and realized with immense skill and sophistication.
Furthermore the programming here presents a very good cross-section of Chopin's pieces, from the ballads to the waltzes, mazurkas, nocturne, and etudes. Each of these genres has its own distinct character, making this an excellent introductory Chopin disc; an interesting essay in the liner notes describes the different poetic effects each of these genres seeks to realize. Buy one without delay.
|
| |
|
![Firefly: The Complete Series [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51734pRq2%2BL._SL75_.jpg "Firefly: The Complete Series [Blu-ray]")
![Gattaca [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51VfE5rU9OL._SL75_.jpg "Gattaca [Blu-ray]")
![Resident Evil [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51m8P3lO%2BnL._SL75_.jpg "Resident Evil [Blu-ray]")
![Run Lola Run [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51gTXpHYF7L._SL75_.jpg "Run Lola Run [Blu-ray]")
