Bach: Keyboard Concertos Nos. 3, 5, 6, 7
Listening to Murray Perahia's second volume of Bach Keyboard Concertos is akin to viewing favorite paintings that have been restored with subtle care. The music's surface remains familiar to the casual ear, yet myriad details of phrasing, color, and dynamics are aligned and calibrated anew, helped by Sony's gorgeous, vibrant sonics. Notice the pinpointed unanimity of phrasing with which the pianist and chamber orchestra imbue the main theme in the D Major concerto's third movement, and follow Perahia's cannily varied articulation of chords both here and in the G Minor concerto's outer movements. A robust and dramatic F Minor concerto features tasty embellishments from the theorbo, and Perahia's energetic, winged trills and whirling passagework galvanize the F Major (transcribed from the G Major FourthBrandenburgConcerto) into joyful submission. In sum, Perahia and company stand as reference versions for those who desire these works on the concert grand.--Jed Distler