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Barbican Hall, London
This was, in many ways, a typical Murray Perahia programme: works by five of the keyboard's greatest composers, plus an encore by a sixth, all knitting together to form a satisfying whole, yet containing only one real showpiece. Lesser or less secure pianists might feel the need to remind us of their technical mastery, but not Perahia.
Nor did his intellectual approach ever clamour for our attention, for all that it was ever-present. The Bach with which he opened – a dreamy account of the French Suite No 5, its flow stalled only by one or two slightly fudged moments in the Bourrée – was a case in point. It takes quite some forethought to make this music sound so spontaneous.
The two movements of Beethoven's Sonata No 27, Op 90 seemed two sides of the same coin, the first stormy yet contained, the second smooth and optimistic. Brahms's Four Piano Pieces, Op 119 closed a pensive first half, the first Intermezzo full of descending steps sliding like rain down a window, the closing Rhapsodie playful but still dark in mood.
The 13 miniatures of Schumann's Kinderszenen were the programme's highlight, dispatched with childish seriousness and with an artlessness as deceptive as the composer's. After such transparency, Perahia's three Chopin numbers could sound almost impressionistic, especially the F sharp minor Prelude, Op 28 No 8, whose melody was wrapped in blurring cascades.
The showpiece was Chopin's Scherzo No 3 in C sharp minor, and though this brought out a muscular edge to Perahia's playing, he never lost sight of the melodic line. There was only one encore, but it was a treat – Schubert's Impromptu Op 90 No 2, unfolding in a series of gracefully scampering arcs.
