Perahia Plays Brahms & Schubert

Sony Classical is pleased to announce an exceptional new batch of reissues from the CBS/Sony and RCA Victor/BMG back catalogues. This latest instalment of the popular series showcases two of the most fascinating and provocative conductors of the last half century, as well as two legendary string quartets and some remarkable pianists playing treasures of Viennese Classicism.

The solo piano repertoire is represented by two of today's acknowledged masters. The Schubert and Brahms recordings by Murray Perahia are now collected on 8 CDs.

His versions of the three late Schubert sonatas released in 2003 were the top choice for these works in BBC Radio 3's Building a Library. Gramophone likened his playing here to "a tree just opening from bud in the radiance of spring ... Perahia's limpid delicacy constantly reminding us of his dedication to Mozart".

In solo Brahms - the F minor Sonata, Handel Variations and late piano pieces - Gramophone lauded Perahia's "superfine musical intelligence and technique". Murray Perahia the collaborative pianist is showcased in Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau's 1990 recording (his seventh) of Schubert's Winterreise ("A gripping performance of mature reflection, aided by Perahia's positive, interactive playing" - BBC Music Magazine); Brahms's "Haydn Variations" for piano four hands partnered in 1987 by Sir Georg Solti ("... so communicative, so warmly sympathetic, so alive and spontaneous" - Gramophone); and the Brahms G minor Piano Quartet from 1986 with the Amadeus Quartet ("Wild and urgent ... brims with energy and immediacy ... Perahia emerges as a powerful, passionate Brahmsian" - Gramophone).