MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Songs Without Words - piano music

"At its best, Perahia's playing on this disc offers an utterly breathtaking combination of meticulousness and spirit - such artistry is rare indeed. If here and there, the molten expressive core cools to become 'merely' extremely tasteful, this disc nevertheless is surely among the finest in Perahia's distinguished recording career." (reviewed March 2000)
- David Breckbill BBC Music Magazine

Grammy Award-winning artist Murray Perahia returns to the romantic keyboard music which originally won him acclaim. In the wake of his overwhelming critical success of the music of Bach, Handel and Scarlatti, he now makes the piano sing with Liszt's transcriptions of Schubert's haunting lieder, Busoni's revisiting of Bach, and a selection of pieces by Mendelssohn from the work which inspired this album.

The release of Songs Without Words comes on the heels of Perahia's award-winning foray into the keyboard music of J.S. Bach with his recordings of the composer's English Suites. Perahia's recording of the English Suites Nos.1, 3 and 6 (SK 60276) won a 1998 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Performance as well as Classic CD magazine's award for Best Instrumental Disc of 1998. The remaining English Suites Nos. 2, 4 and 5 (SK 60277) were released in January 1999.

In addition to the Mendelssohn Songs Without Words, Perahia also plays four solo transcriptions by Mendelssohn's contemporary Franz Liszt of well-known lieder by Franz Schubert: "Auf dem Wasser zu singen", "Erlkonig", and from the collection known as Schwanengesang, "In der Ferne" and "Standchen".

* * * * 5 Stars (Pick of the Month) - BBC Music Magazine (March 2000)

"Several of Murray Perahia's recordings have become instant classics, and this one - with its natural yet meticulous, fluid yet urgent playing - deserves a similar fate. Mendelssohn's Songs without Words are especially wonderful in Perahia's hands. Perahia's playing remains a model of its kind."
- Editor's Choice - Gramophone Magazine (March 2000)