Search - Sviatoslav Richter, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin :: Sviatoslav Richter III (Great Pianists of the 20th Century, Vol. 84)

One of the Very Best Piano Recitals in Existence

johnpiano2 | Pittsburgh, PA USA | 05/31/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"There is no single greatest pianist of the century, but rather a set of artists each with their own particular genius and flaws. Nonetheless, Richter stands out in this set of artists as one of the front runners. Therefore Richter's recordings are some of the very most important in the art of the piano. The present set captures Richter in the repertiore to which he can claim the most sublime and uncontroversial mastery: the late romantic Russian composers Rachmaninov and Scriabin, and the early romantic Schumann. Each piece represented can be considered definitive or near definitive. The second Rachmaninov concerto here is indeed the definitive recording, and the same can be said for the Schumann Waldszehen. Also, the pieces are very important to the piano repertiore in general. For example, Schumann's Fantasy is one of his masterpieces. As far as I am aware, none of these pieces are represented better anywhere else (though Argerich has a very good recording of the fantasy and fantasy pieces, and Scriabin is also represented just as well by Sofronitsky and Horowitz). All these reasons makes the present disks one of my very top choice for a piano recital, I'd say in the top 20 of all the disks I am familiar with (which is a lot). The only reason I see not to buy the present disk is because the particular recordings may be found in more completeness in other Richter disks. For example, the Rachmaninov preludes are all contained in a Richter disk devoted entirely to Rachmaninov, and the Scriabin etudes are also contained on a single disk which also contains more. So the question is whether you want to buy the present collection or buy the same pieces in more completeness individually."

Bravo Richter!

kreislerk | Santiago, Chile | 06/15/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A terrific version of all this works. The Rachmaninoff is obviously very known for Richter. The 2nd Concerto and the preludes are played with very feeling. Scriabin is well dominated. These two composers were not represented a big job for Richter. The special of this CD's is the Schumann pieces. The Toccata version here included is best that I know. Also the Fantasiestücke and the Waldszenen are pure poetry. The Fantasie, the biggest and passionate work for piano of Schumann, looks like performanced by the Composer himself. It's the greatest recording of the work made ever"

MORE FORTE

DAVID BRYSON | Glossop Derbyshire England | 08/05/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Commenting on the way her husband's style of playing changed in his later career, Richter's widow said "Slava used to play more `forte'". In fact the selections contained in this 2-disc set cover the decade 1952-62, and there is some memorable `forte' playing indeed here. The Rachmaninov B flat prelude is simply colossal, the best I ever heard it played, and Richter himself either couldn't or didn't wish to do it like this again. Schumann's toccata is another memorable essay in the forte manner, and it raises some issues regarding Richter's playing in general. I first heard of Richter in c1960, when I saw a review in The Gramophone of this very performance. The somewhat breathless reviewer assured us that Richter was quite the greatest pianist alive, witness this account of the toccata. Agog with curiosity I purchased the record, only to be puzzled as to what the fuss was all about. It is a first-class performance unquestionably - I have never heard better. On the other hand this is not a piece that proves a lot about the player. Schumann thought it particularly difficult, but Schumann was far from being a pianist of the first rank. What it demands is a specialised knack for playing sixths in the right hand, and players of quite modest attainments in other respects sometimes have this knack. As it started so it continued throughout Richter's career - we were led to expect signs and wonders and we accordingly found them at every turn.



My own view of him is not quite like this. Apart from Lipatti, Richter was the only piano player that I ever heard of as being admired by Michelangeli, and what they all have in common is very clear, namely a preoccupation with `quality', particularly with evenness of touch, in their technical execution. Lipatti died tragically young and Michelangeli did not - shall we say - over-exert himself in his performing commitments. Richter probably did exactly that, and the consequences were interesting. In some cases he simply threw over the preoccupation with smoothness, and some of his best and most involving performances are models neither of perfect evenness nor even of exceptional accuracy. Also, his personal comportment became rather eccentric and so, in my own view, did quite a lot of his playing in his later years, notably in some very peculiar choices of tempo at times. However what came increasingly to the fore in the process was what marked his style out as uniquely his, namely an introverted and self-communing manner. We are starting to hear this in the Fantasiestuecke from 1956, but it breaks on us in a major way in the great C major Fantasie itself, for my money probably Schumann's greatest composition, which Richter recorded in 1962 at age 47. His overall concept of the work is not a million miles distant from Pollini's, and no extrovert account of the last movement would be worth listening to, but just listen to Richter in the central march. I admit that the dynamic marking at the start is `mezzo-forte', but did you ever hear that interpreted as being quite as subdued as this?



In general however, this set is more forte, and completely free, so far as I noticed, from not only inaccuracies but also eccentricities. My one serious query concerns Scriabin's etude op 42/3. To hear how this should really go listen to Horowitz, and I have to wonder whether Richter really understands it. His speed is far too fast, and the lonely, darting, will-o'-the-wisp feel about the trills is lost. I can on the other hand reassure you that the piece immediately following is played in the reasonable time of 2'36" and not 1'36" as stated. Apart from this little or nothing here is anything short of superlative. He gives only 6 of the 8 Fantasiestuecke, omitting Grillen and Fabel which apparently he didn't care for, but I would say he surpasses Rubinstein in these, above all in Traumeswirren where he eclipses him totally. The Rachmaninov quota is magnificent from start to finish, not least in the concerto. Richter's speed is more or less par for the course these days, significantly slower in the first movement than the composer's own incandescent account. This is done, according to the liner-essay, to elucidate the movement's structure. From this I must infer that the composer obfuscated the movement's structure, which is such patent rubbish that I would suggest that you treat this remark, together with much else in this liner-note, as clueless and meandering.



The recorded quality is quite good for its era, although short of what we would expect today. As a memento of a great player and musician, whose reputation has suffered no little hurt from the dull and automatic applause given to everything he did by a certain section of his following it is just about as good an anthology as I know. He was fascinating and unusual to a fascinating and unusual degree, and we will come to know, love and appreciate him better by listening to him with some discernment."