Brahms: Handel Variations; Rhapsodies Op 79; Piano Pieces Opp 118 & 119

It is apparently almost 20 years since Murray Perahia last recorded any Brahms – the F minor sonata and an assortment of later piano pieces – and Brahms has never been a composer with whom he has been particularly associated. This new collection, though, is a revelation, not only in the introspective late pieces of Opp 118, and especially 119, where one might have expected Perahia's deeply personal vein of lyricism to come to the fore, but in the more extrovert Handel Variations, too. The virtuoso challenges of that set are met without ever drawing attention to their brilliance, and the way in which Perahia almost imperceptibly ratchets up the tension is exemplary. There's never a feeling of beefy muscularity in his playing – it's too aristocratic for that – but equally, there is weight when it's needed. The Op 79 Rhapsodies balance power and poetry perfectly, the two sets of late pieces colonise their subtly different worlds with effortless ease. All hugely impressive.