Customer Reviews

Rachmaninov: Études-Tableaux from Opp. 33 & 39; Preludes from Opp. 23 & 32 (Volume 7)

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Richter gives these Etudes and Preludes a performance that is so impeccable, so luminous, that it fills me with astonishment every time I listen to it. It's as if he has made the music a living thing, one that inspires and fills the soul with beauty.
With dazzling technique, the Ukranian master plays these difficult pieces with effortless fluidity. Anyone interested in Rachmaninov, Russian music, or piano music, should put this CD high on the "must have" list.

Regarded as one of the finest Russian pianists of the 20th century, he had a wide range in his repertoire, from Bach to Bartok. He passed on in '97, and I'm sad to admit that I never heard him in concert...I'm sure it would have been a treasured experience.
The simple booklet insert has short explanations of the music, and a mini-bio of Richter. The Preludes were recorded in '71, the Etudes in '83, and the sound is good. Total time for the CD is 74'30.

There aren't too many words one can use to describe this CD. It's a supreme accomplishment from an artist gifted by the gods...one can fancy the world becoming a better place every time this is played...as Dostoevsky said, "beauty will save the world".

If you're a Richter fan (and you should be, since he's the greatest Classical pianist of the 20th century), this CD simply has to be in your collection. It's definitely among the top 5 Richter CDs. The Etudes-Tableaux are so rarely heard, it's a joy to hear them played by the best. Richter has played these pieces on many different albums, but this one has the finest performances overall.

This is as good as it gets. Richter is unequalled in these works. He never recorded the complete preludes, but those he did record and perform are so compelling that I cannot recommend any "complete" sets...I always defer to these, even though they do not represent all of the preludes. The Etudes-Tableaux are equally astounding. The other reviewers on this site are right when they say Richter had no peer here, except perhaps Rachmaninoff himself (who ironically recorded even fewer than Richter). Not Horowitz, not Weisenberg, certainly not Ashkenazy, can touch Richter in this music. This is a must-own for anyone who loves classical piano music, and heck, it's even great "candle-light dinner music" for a nice, moody, romantic evening for two! Or, if you saw the video "Richter the Enigma" and were blown away by some of the virtuoso piano playing, here is much of it on CD!

This disc is an absolute must for everyone who likes Richter, or who likes the piano music or Rachmaninov, and even for those who don't. I have searched for this cd for months (before I was connected to the internet of course) and I am glad I found it, because this disc contains beatiful music played by a Richter in top form. And be honest, Richter at his best is virtually unequalled, for he was one of the greatest of all times. What a pity Richter never recorded the complete preludes and etudes-tableaux, because he plays these pieces fabulously good. Richter recorded these pieces several times, and you'll find on various discs various other recordings of pieces that are also on this disc, and some of them might even be better than these versions, but the great advantage of this disc is that it contains virtually all of them. A must !

The legendary pianist Maria Yudina once said "This man (Richter) was born to play Rachmaninov". It's enough to know how good is this CD. Comparing to other famous Rachmaninov-playing pianists (like E. Gilels, A. Gavrilov, I. Zhukov, M. Pletnev...), Richter played more dramatic and more powerful. I think just one pianist can play Rachmaninov like Richter was Rachmaninov.

Strongly recommend !

Sviatoslav Richter - the Glory of Zhitomir, Ukrania - was possibly the most ambitious pianist ever born in the last Century. And I do not mean the amplitude of his repertoire but the superb expressiveness and notable empathy every time he decided to perform. The affinity with Rachmaninov is so close that you may well think in a similar affinity between Beethoven and Schnabel. The sound he produced was the perfect blend of Romanticism, enrooted with the Russian spirit: a very original approach in which chasteness, contemplation, rapture, lyricism, temperament and introspection molded an inimitable sound hardly achieved by any other pianist. Having born in Russia no one like him could express the sense of the Russian nostalgia like he did; the particular and essential immigrant sadness plus those obligated memories in a new land is easy to understand but hard to feel unless you have not experienced something similar. In this sense I would name to Cziffra for instance playing Liszt and Rudolf Schwarz conducting Mahler, that existential anguish and unbearable tension is not written in the score but sometimes permeates the performing: you have to play the work with Dionysian lenses and not only with Apollonian glasses.
Go for this album. Indeed this document record finds to Richter in the peak of his maturity. The first nine tracks are from 1983, (with Richter in his 65) and constitute the autumnal and more introspective vision. The rest of the tracks are if you want more effusive and declamatory with Richter (in his 56).
I have to acknowledge that with the only two glorious exceptions of Simon Barere and William Kapell I had not ever listened such ravishing pieces of the Op. 29.(Listen carefully his phrasing in the Second Prelude in B flat major Op. 29 , tension with expression; in the Fourth we have natural sensibility from the inside to the outside; that's s commitment. And finally the most enraptured and mesmerizing of this Op. the Fifth in G minor played with robustness and verve with the martial spirit of Chopin 's Polonaise.
A personal triumph for Richter ( March 20 1915-August 1 1997) and a true legacy for the rest of us.

This excellent CD has been re-released under the label "Alto." Looks like the old Olympia release is just about run out--and Alto was cheaper too. Alto's CD liner says it's produced under license from Olympia. Quality was fine: nothing fancy; the CD notes are pretty basic but they're better than nothing.

As for the music itself, I concur with the thrust of the reviews of the Olympia CD. This disk's not for those who are anal about getting complete sets of everything; Richter only plays the pieces he likes best (and also alters their order). But oh does he play them! A couple of these tracks were signature pieces for Horowitz--yet in my opinion Richter plays them even better. Sound falls well short of state-of-the-art, but compared to Richter's Soviet recordings it's wonderful!