After Murray Perahia's much lauded solo performances of Bach's English Suites and Goldberg Variations, Sony offers his first recording of keyboard concertos with orchestral accompaniment. As with his cycle of Mozart concertos, Perahia conducts from the keyboard, allowing him complete artistic control--and it works wonderfully here, arguably better than it did in the Mozart. You'll be struck by Perahia's ability to heighten the drama, nobility, and sheer joy of Bach's music through the unity he elicits between soloist and ensemble.

A particularly telling example of this occurs early on in the final movement of the Concerto No. 1 BWV 1052, where Perahia and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields' continuous interweaving figures vividly animate the music. Never shy when it comes to embellishment, Perahia seizes every opportunity. In harmonious juxtaposition, the ASMF accents each of his final downbeats with what seems to be just the right response. Never is there any sense of disparity (as with Gould/Bernstein or Rousset/Hogwood) or worse, excessive homogenity (Schiff/COE).


In this sense, the only other recording of these pieces that compares would be the Trevor Pinnock cycle with The English Concert. Regardless of the piano-harpsichord/original-instrument-modern-instrument differences between the two, both Pinnock and Perahia bring a similar unified dash, fluidity, and integration to their respective readings. Sony's sound is very good. Perahia's Steinway is somewhat up-front, but not overly so. The handsome, well designed booklet includes informative, trilingual notes by George Stauffer. Perahia fans need not hesitate. Others, particularly those who enjoyed Perahia's brilliant take on Bach's Goldberg Variations, would do well to take a chance on this recording as well. Highly recommended!
--John Greene, ClassicsToday.com