Murray Perahia Plays at Avery Fisher Hall Admirers of the pianist Murray Perahia in the New York area owe him thanks for sticking around the city during the difficult days after Hurricane Sandy. His recital at Carnegie Hall scheduled for last Friday night was canceled because of the dangling crane boom on the construction site of a new high-rise on West 57th Street, which forced Carnegie Hall to relocate, reschedule or simply cancel its offerings. Murray Perahia was scheduled to perform at Carnegie Hall, but it was closed because of a crane boom left dangling by Hurricane Sandy. Instead, Mr. Perahia played on Sunday in Avery Fisher Hall, at Lincoln Center. With the cooperation of Lincoln Center, Mr. Perahia's recital was moved to Sunday evening at Avery Fisher Hall, where he was greeted by warm applause when he appeared onstage. Mr. Perahia has long been a reliably exquisite and probing pianist. Perhaps the disruption in his schedule and the shift of locales, understandably, had some effect on him. He played works by Haydn, Schubert, Schumann and Chopin beautifully. But a measure of ease and inspiration was lacking on this occasion. The highlight was Mr. Perahia's bracing account of Schumann's "Faschingsschwank aus Wien" ("Carnival Jest From Vienna"), completed in 1840, after the composer visited Vienna. The pianist Clara Wieck, soon to marry Schumann, had asked him to write her something dazzling and accessible to win over audiences in Paris. She specifically requested that the music not be programmatic, perhaps the reason this piece seems less inspired than other Schumann piano works of the period. He was at his most imaginative when depicting fantastical scenes and stories, evoking butterflies and prophet birds and doing musical portraits of colleagues and friends. Though he mischievously tucked a quotation from the "Marseillaise" into the opening Allegro, the "Carnival Jest From Vienna" is a straightforward five-movement suite. But Mr. Perahia's performance revealed that much more is going on in this music. In that Allegro he dispatched the waltzing theme in crisp, bright chords and played the whole movement with lithe energy and daring, bringing out surprising contrapuntal intricacies and creeping chromatic inner voices. The finale was a revelation, performed with a spiraling fervor that captured something crazed in this seemingly exuberant music. The program opened with a sparkling account of Haydn's Sonata in D (Hob. In Schubert's "Moments Musicaux," I found Mr. Perahia's playing of the more subdued and lyrical of the six pieces uncharacteristically restrained. He was at his best in the dancing movements, especially the Moderato in C sharp minor, which came across like a grim, insistent march. He ended the first half with Beethoven's "Moonlight" Sonata, though his refined playing, even in the onrushing final movement, brought nothing particularly fresh to this staple. His account of Chopin's Impromptu in F sharp (Op. 36) was somewhat labored, though it conveyed the mood swings of this extraordinary work. But Mr. Perahia was inspired for the final work, Chopin's Scherzo No. 1 in B minor (Op. 20), played with dash, fire and poetry. Responding to an ardent ovation, Mr. Perahia offered two encores: Schubert's Impromptu in A flat and Chopin's Nocturne in F. There were beauties galore in both performances but, to me, a degree of curious detachment.