Murray Peraiha, who is heading for his 70th birthday in 2017, is one of the few remaining pianists of "old school". These are the relics of a dying-out fraternity of keyboarders, which had the happiness of the early birth, whose career took place at a time when it came to let the pianist ripe for his art, rather than nowadays, throwing one pianist after the other as early as possible between the greedy jaws of the concert audience as a piano-playing technique miracle regardless of his artistic development - short-term expiration date included. Or do you know of a young pianist who is taken note of only ten years later? Or who like Murray Peraiha, undoubtedly retains his place in the firmament of master pianists because of his calmly matured art, after more than 50 years of concert activity? His mastery is documented on numerous recordings and CD recordings and nowadays on downloads, among other things with a yield of 67 CDs, which have been over forty years of CBS / Sony, and which are still all available.

Johann Sebastian Bach has recently become one of the composers who takes a prominent place in Murray Peraiha's discography. It is not surprising that the London-based American pianist celebrates his new partnership with the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft with a new recording of the six French Suites of the Eisenach-based composer, written between 1722 and 1724 for the harpsichord or clavichord.

Recordings of these works of Bach exist for the historical keyboard instruments as well as for the modern grand piano. The controversy of the scholars, which in the past has been quite violent, which instrument is best suited to rendering the works, has come to an end in that there is the consensus that each of the instruments has its justification. Murray Peraiha, as well as recently Angela Hewitt or former Glenn Gould plays the piano card. In contrast to the extreme interpretation of the Bach rebel Glenn Gould, who has close to jazz a cool view of things, Peraiha prefers a warm, emotionally charged view of Bach's French Suites as the outflow of a sophisticated pianistic touch that is his hallmark. Instead of Gould's swing approach, which sometimes brings the Suites closer to jazz, Murray Peraiha ensures that the special grace of the Baroque dance form Allemand, Courante, Sarabande and Minuet is preserved. Overall, his rather conservative view of the Suites is characterized by fascinating elegance. The pedal is used discreetly as a means of fine coloring. The fact that repetitions are done each time in different ways makes for variety and tension. Last but not least, Murray Peraiha once again proves to be a master in fully exploiting the grand piano palette and dynamic span, which are clearly superior in these musically decisive disciplines to the considerably reduced possibilities of the cembalo and clavichord.

More musical and balanced as Murray Peraiha, one can hardly mediate Bach's French Suites. The aesthetic pleasure that the pianist presents to the listener is reflected in the recording quality of the download, which puts the piano faithfully into the room and always leaves it unhindered to breathe freely. This is a real treat.

Murray Perahia, piano