Customer Reviews

Sviatoslav Richter Plays Chopin, Debussy, Beethoven

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Oh, to have been there! The first thing that struck me about this recording is the sheer beauty of the sound. Never having heard Richter in concert, it is fantastic to have a document like this. Richter's playing is subjected to close scrutiny and he wins every laurel imagineable.

Chopin first. The scherzo is vintage Richter. Everything is exactly in its place. Its a piece that Richter played regularly and it shows. The waltzes are also delectably played, thoroughly and richly characterised, played with impeccable finesse and in great style. The Barcarolle is the finest performance I have heard since Lipatti. Very grand in concept, Richter manages to present the complex structure with a sense of absolute control and coherence. Some of the lyrical playing is absolutely ravishing and the climax is, for once, just that. The whole performance has been heading towards that moment and the sense of elation is absolute. Richter rounds off the piece with a wonderful sense of inevitability where many cannot avoid losing the plot somehow.

This would be the performance of the disc for me if it weren't for the Debussy and particularly the Suite Bergamasque. The four pieces together constitute one of the most perfect suites known to man (or woman). Richter plays them all utterly perfectly and the atmosphere of repose he brings to the famed Claire de Lune is unique. Here I think is a perfect example of one of the most interesting and baffling facets of Richter's art.

He takes the piece, Claire de Lune that is, extremely slowly. Lesser mortals such as I, who do play the suite reasonably successfully acccording to some, cannot help but wonder how Richter more than anyone had the ability to sustain huge structures at very intensely slow tempi. His Schubert is notorious for it. Some listeners do not react well but I find it simply mesmeric.

The other Debussy, Estampes, a suite in three pieces, is subjected to a very personal interpretation that is remarkably consistent with a famous reading he recorded for DGG years ago. It will not be everyone's cup of tea, but I love it as I loved the earlier version.

Then to the first piece in the recital. Beethoven's Andante Favori was the composer's first thoughts as the slow movemnet for the Waldstein Sonata. I can't imagine for a moment what he was thinking initially. The Andante is a fine piece but what ended up as the slow introduction to that finale of the Waldstein is so perfect, I cannot imagine this in there at all. Presumably the finale would have changed too!! Incidentally, the Chillean pianist Claudio Arrau apparently preferred Beethoven's first thoughts, beats me!

Richter's way with this piece is again superb in every way. Wonderfully preportioned and articulated, I don't need another, although I probably already have 10 versions. This reading actually persuades you that this is Beethoven at his best middle period, which it probably isn't really, it just sounds it here.

These days, I can really only imagine one pianist playing who can remind us of what it must have been like hearing the great Soviet giants of the past like Richter and Gilels. He is Grigory Sokolov who, typically, is notoriously averse to recording. He plays in concert with a concentration and intensity allied to massive technique and range that are overwhelming. There is no justice!!

Anyway, buy this disc - it is pure gold.

Unlike many pianists, Richter, a Russian-German from around the Ukraine who was famous for being his own worst critic, would not perform a piece unless he felt he could add something to the way it had been interpreted by others. This CD is an outstanding example of just how much Richter could add. He opens so many new windows onto these compositions that even if you have heard them for many years, you will find new insights and ways to hear, understand and enjoy this music. These are exquisite performances. It is almost as if Richter demands that he be able to justify each note as an intrusion on silence, and hews to a sort of baseline of calm, departing from it only when the music requires it, or perhaps examining each work from the ground up. There is no "wallpaper" here. I could not take any of these selections for granted. Richter has this effect in many cases, his Appassionata sonata, Rachmininoff 2d concerto and Tchaikowsky 1st being only the first examples I encountered as an adolescent. Over the ensuing years I have grown to understand how this man came to be lionized by so many. Though some pieces seem simple, Richter, through his unmatched capacity for reflection and interpretation, draws from them their inherent beauty, power and passion. The music on this recording enriches one's emotional and intellectual life. It is the opposite of New Age.

if you search for 'richter' and see the cornucopia of >= 4 stars that appear, it gives the uninitiated an inkling. if you're a new-to-richter person: this is a wonderful introduction. the barcarolle is the only interpretation i've come across that can stand with sofronitsky's- not even horowitz's 'phantasmagoria' or argerich's flights of fancy , or rubinstein, others, none approach the completeness of this captured moment. The lilting beginning you get from the sample (above) is misleading, seems earthbound. it's a ruse that takes you in and through until the end, when you realize you were really just sitting there listening to music all the while, as the (belated, shocked)applause erupts. and the rest of the cd? my best friend recently found they were having a baby, and i'm in another country-so i sent my contribution to the new life's musical background.
i sent this cd taped (minus the scherzo, where richter shows some too-sharp claws)out of my whole 'classical' collection-now at some 840 discs.

I have little to add to what the other excellent reviewers have said about this recital. I just want to draw your attention to the performance of the Chopin Barcarolle which is by far the greatest I have ever heard. Richter plays a painful wrong note about 60 seconds into the piece (audible in the Amazon exceerpt) - it acts as a moment of liberation that throws all inhibition aside, after which he plays as a man possessed. The final climax and coda of the piece are nothing short of awesome - I have never heard any pianist (certainly not Lipatti, for whom I have high regard) come close to unleashing the extraordinary passion, mixed with anxiety, of those pages. Had Richter left us with no legacy other than this one performance, his reputation among the piano greats would be guaranteed. Incidentally, I have heard many other performances of the Barcarolle by Richter, both live and on CD; none comes close to this.

For those already familiar with the genius of Sviatoslav Richter, this disc would make an excellent addition to an already extensive library. There is not a single weak track here; each piece has its own finely nuanced character, and is treated to perfection by Richter's sensitive and exciting (but never over-indulgent or sentimentalized) playing.

Newcomers would also be well-advised to purchase this recording. The selection of music, especially the Chopin and Beethoven and Debussy's Claire de Lune, is particularly accessible and beautiful. In that respect, it makes a better starting point than, say, Prokofiev or Mussorgsky, if one has not yet become familiarized with the brilliance of Richter's intrepretations.

The only drawbacks I can think of are in terms of recording quality. All of the songs were recorded live at the end of the 1977 Salzburg festival, so there is some hiss and audience noise in the background when the music is turned up enough to be well heard. I find, however, that if listened to with headphones, distractions are considerably reduced, and the excitement factor associated with live recordings increases dramatically. Claire de Lune is the best example of this. Being a very well known and widely recorded piece, it can be difficult for some to adjust to new and different interpretations. Richter takes it very slowly, slower than most would dare, and yet this tempo provides for a tenfold increase in energy. The space between notes is filled with anticipation; I have not found a more satisfying version of Debussy's lyric masperpiece.

All things considered, I give this album my highest recommendations. It perfectly represents the rich and sensitive beauty for which Richter was so justifiably famed. Buy it.

When finally the great living legend at that moment, decided to play in Salzburg Festival, a crowd of enthusiastic people assisted to watch him. Richter accustomed to make his recitals in small Concert Halls, so the chance could not be missed.

In this program Richter chose to play an unusual repertoire, combing Beethoven with an atmospheric Chopin and an superb Debussy.

Chopin' s Richter sound in this opportunity with aristocratic elegance and sumptuous lyricism. His Debussy was loaded of ethereal and incorporeal rapture. I must confess that, since the times of Walter Gieseking, I had not heard such peerless éclat, filled of ecstatic poetry, dressy earnestness and delirious lyricism. He literally reinvented the Bergamasque Suite, embellished of expressive profundity and gratifying phrasing.

Thanks to Orpheus label' s efforts, we will always be able to remind this unforgettable recital, one of the most amazing artistic experiences for all those fortunate people who could presence it.

This recital must be a must-acquire for you, because of the fact this decade was specially loaded of interpretative effervescence. Try by all your means to get the famous Varsaw Recital of 1972 best known as All Scriabin and you will owe two golden living recods of this majuscule pianist: the supreme Richer.

I will disclose that I generally like Sviatoslav Richer's work, particularly his deep tones and weightiness of his playing. Thus, while I may not completely impartial to reviewing this CD, it is a spectacular example of Richter. There are little sounds of the audience, like coughs, since this is a recital recording, but I think it's very much like a concert. I enjoyed this CD very much, and I would recommend it for a good evening to relax with.

Richter is surely one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century.

This performance of Clair de lune is simply magnificent.

This CD is a must, strongly suggested.