Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2 / Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 23

Johannes Brahms (Composer), Ludwig van Beethoven (Composer), Erich Leinsdorf (Conductor), Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra), Sviatoslav Richter (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Sviatoslav Richter
• Orchestra: Chicago Symphony Orchestra
• Conductor: Erich Leinsdorf
• Composer: Johannes Brahms, Ludwig van Beethoven
• Audio CD (January 12, 1993)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: RCA / BMG
• ASIN: B000003EUL
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,626 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #28 in Music > Classical > Chamber Music > By Period > Romantic (c.1820-1910)
  • #30 in Music > Classical > Forms & Genres > Sonatas > Sonatinas
  • #45 in Music > Classical > Instruments > Keyboard > Piano

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the better Brahms concertos - and a nice dessert, July 11, 2004

By 

hjonkers (The Netherlands) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2 / Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 23 (Audio CD)

In his notebooks, Richter himself tells repeatedly how strongly he disliked this performance of the Brahms Second. Most significantly, he blames Leinsdorf for pushing the tempo all the time. For the rest we have to guess for what his motives could be. After all, it is quite strange that the pianist in what is perhaps the best-loved of all Brahms B flat's doesn't like it himself. What could Richter have had in mind? Perhaps he had even greater ideas for this piece - but as it is here, I cannot possibly imagine. Richter gives probably the pianistically most perfect rendition of the concerto ever made, coupled with a musical insight that most of his colleagues could hardly dream of. And considering Leinsdorf: his accompaniment is very correct and I don't hear him pushing at any time - actually, Richter's playing is so dominant that it is the piano which seems to take the lead in the piece, not the orchestra. And that's fine with me.

I like it better than the also much-revered Gilels/Jochum recording: Gilels takes his time and is philosophizing around, but in the end he almost drowns in his own ideas. Richter's playing on the other hand is full of richness too, but never makes the piece excessively ponderous and storms right at the gates with utmost certainty. Similarly, Richter possesses all the power of a Serkin but avoids the latter's sometimes ugly neuroticism and his patronizing focus on rhythms. He takes about as many risks as Schnabel, but is pianistically more reliable. This all is not to say that we have the perfect recording of the Brahms here: pianists like Schnabel, Fleisher, Fischer, Anda, Curzon, Solomon, Brendel et al. show many insights for which Richter has no space. In fact, I'd perhaps take Solomon and Edwin Fischer over Richter in the end, but that's really splitting hairs.

There are many unforgettable moments here: the piano solo before the first orchestral tutti in the first movement blazes with fire and excitement - and complete technical mastery. I've never heard it played as good as here. And then the following piano entry after 3 minutes - Richter's fantastic, illuminating tone and sonorous basses shine through so well here. And then, in the following minutes, we get a demonstration of how to connect phrases almost effortlessly (perhaps this is what the editorial reviewer refers to, although he has come up with his usual nonsense as well). The marcato after 7 minutes once again demonstrates his technical skills, but also an incredible feeling for rhythm and excitement. The tender scenes are just that - and a look forward to the great slow movement. The second Allegro I'd say has the same fury as in Serkin's recording, but Richter is far more flexible and less dogmatic. Richter's approach to the Andante is rock-solid and unfussy; it is wonderful to hear how he is able to play without any mannerisms and yet generate the highest level of expression. In the Allegretto, Richter's sweet but powerful tone again does small wonders; he seems to shape many small and lively episodes within this movement that is sometimes treated as a perfunctory and dull conclusion. Not here; the Allegretto makes the ideal end for this hugely impressive recording.

I haven't spilled a word yet about the Appassionata on this disc, and it should not be left unnoticed that this, too, is a masterful performance. The first movement is boldly shaped, with lots of contrasts in tempi dynamics. However, it perfectly adds up in the end and it betrays that SR had a strong sense of architecture as well. The slow movement is done solemnly and with beautiful tone-coloring. And there's the famous last movement that runs at incredible pace - and still Richter never loses control. Yet good as this one may be, it is completely outshined by a live performance by Richter in Prague from one year earlier - there he drops all his caution and you'll get more passion in the opening, more life in the slow movement and a final that is about the most exciting piano recording made, period. But enthusiastic as I am about even that live performance, the greatest Appassionata on record I believe is by Claudio Arrau (Philips), who is more faithful to the original text and responds best of all to the complex characteristics of this marvelous sonata. So, the recording included here is a nice dessert, but the main thing is definitely that wonderful Brahms which you just cannot afford to pass by. Certainly one of the finest documents of Richter's playing.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beyond Definitive: Supernal., August 9, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2 / Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 23 (Audio CD)

Unlike David Bryson, most mortals who have been fortunate enough to hear his concerts or recordings revel in the technical and interpretive brilliance of Richter's pianism. There is simply never an inauthentic note. Unlike many virtuosi, Richter would simply refuse to play a piece if he felt he could not add something new to the way it was being played. By contrast with the pedestrian and banal interpretations of the Appassionata by Brendel and Serkin, for example, Richter's simply glows from within. To have heard it is to have one's conceptions about the piece transformed. His intelligence and sincerity allow it to be heard as never before. (I cannot conceive how anyone would think this interpretation is "wrong," much less quote that great music critic Margaret Thatcher, unless he has some weird bias against beauty!) The Brahms concerto, moreover, is not only unified, as some reviewers have it, but lifted conceptually and aesthetically to a new level, above any other performance. Richter's ability to lose himself to the music makes him a remarkable interpreter of every composer he has ever played, regardless of age or style - whether Bach, Prokofiev, Chopin, Beethoven, Liszt, Schumann, Brahms, Moussorgsky, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky or Mozart. Unlike Horowitz (of whom Richter aptly remarked that he had a great talent and a trivial mind), Richter does not infuse the music with his own romantic sensibilities, but brings out its immanent greatness and originality so that its potential is fully realized. This is the opposite of egotism, and the key to Richter's genius. The Richter/Leinsdorf Brahms Second and the Appassionata have no peer for sheer emotional power, intelligence, technical brilliance, structure and scope. The sound is also quite good, especially by comparison with many Richter recordings. Brahms would have loved this recording.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Old Favorite that Continues to Delight, May 21, 2003

By 

J Scott Morrison (Middlebury VT, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2 / Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 23 (Audio CD)

I had loved this recording from its appearance back in the 1960s. It was recorded during Richter's first tour of the US at a time when he wasn't very well known here. His tour changed that. I remember the buzz that ran through American music circles like an electric current at that time. I bought the recording then and immediately put it up there with my old Rubinstein and Schnabel recordings, and later the Gilels and Fleischer recordings. But when the change to CDs came (and I owned my first CD player in 1980, if you can imagine) I put it and my other LPs away and set about rebuilding my collection in the new format. Somehow I forgot about the Richter, never replacing it with a CD copy.

Only recently have I become reacquainted with this performance of the Brahms Second Concerto and I've fallen in love with it all over again. It's hard to describe how Richter mesmerizes with his playing, but he does - not always, but often enough that it begins to seem almost like a supernatural talent he has. One thing you always know is that every note is considered in context; there is never anything routine about his playing. And I'm convinced that he had a monumental musical intellect to go with his fantastic technique.

In this recording Leinsdorf is a very sensitive accompanist and the Chicago Symphony give him everything he asks for, especially Robert La Marchina, the superb cello soloist in the third movement; not long after this he left the CSO and became conductor of the Honolulu Symphony. Leinsdorf could be a maddening conductor, unduly fussy at times and at other times rather mechanical. I never quite figured him out, although occasionally his recordings soared. And this is one of those.

I was not familiar with Richter's Appassionata until this CD. It is certainly brilliant, even titanic, but just a bit mannered for my taste. I still prefer the classic Rubinstein recording, although I also like Goode, Kuerti, Gilels and others.

I would not hesitate to recommend this remastering. The sound if just fine. And that Brahms - oh my!

Scott Morrison