Perahia on Beethoven

Murray Perahia initially found Beethoven hard to understand: “I was always working on Beethoven, but I couldn’t feel close to him.  For nearly ten years I didn’t altogether like his music because I felt it showed an aggressive, up-front personality.”  But after studying, performing, and recording Beethoven (Appasionata,op. 2, op. 101 and the Piano Concertos), he remarks: “The more I studied Beethoven, the more I found his style is necessarily frank, open and human.  I have become completely won over by him.”

Source: Nick Shave, “Mull Over Beethoven”, BBC Music, July 2009, p.25.

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