Sviatoslav Richter Archives, Volumes 2 and 3.
Music of Frederic Chopin.
Scherzo no. 1 in b minor, opus 20; Scherzo no. 2 in b-flat minor, opus 31;
Scherzo no. 3 in c-sharp minor, opus 39; Scherzo no. 4 in E major, opus 54;
Polonaise-Fantaisie in A-flat major, opus 61;
Barcarolle, opus 60; Waltzes, opus 34 nos. 1 - 3;
Mazurka in c-sharp minor, opus 63 no. 3; Mazurka in C major, opus 67 no. 3;
Mazurka in F major, opus 68 no. 3; Mazurka in a minor, op. posth.
DOREMI DHR-7724, total time 78:52
Recorded at Carnegie Hall, New York, April 15, 1967 (Scherzos);
in Warsaw, November 10, 1954 (Polonaise);
in Salzburg, August 26, 1977 (Barcarolle and Waltzes);
and in Helsinki, August 25, 1976 (Mazurkas).
6 Etudes from opus 10: nos. 1, 6, 10, 11, 12, and 4;
Polonaise-Fantaisie in A-flat major, opus 61; Scherzo no. 4 in E major,
opus 54;
Waltz in F major, opus 34 no. 3; Waltz in d-flat minor, opus 70 no. 3;
Etude in f-sharp minor, opus 25 no. 7;
10 Preludes from opus 28: nos. 8, 9, 10, 11, 4, 5, 6, 7, 19, and 17;
Trois nouvelles etudes; Impromptu in F-sharp, opus 36; Impromptu in
G-flat, opus 51.
DOREMI DHR-7738, total time 79:49
Recorded at Royal Festival Hall, London, January 27, 1963 (Etudes, opus 10);
in Helsinki, August 25, 1976 (Polonaise, Scherzo, Waltzes, Etude);
in Warsaw, November 10, 1954 (Preludes), and
in La Roque d'Antheron, France, January 31, 1990 (Nouvelles
etudes, Impromptus).
Reissues produced by Jacob Harnoy.
The second and third discs in the series entitled "Sviatoslav Richter
Archives" from DOREMI are now available. Both feature the music of Chopin,
and most of the performances are new to CD.
It is a bold move to open the set with the Scherzos from Carnegie Hall.
This really shows Richter at his best and most exciting. Ten years
before the great studio and festival recordings from Munich and Salzburg,
Richter brought a special magic to these performances. His Carnegie Hall
appearances always displayed a high intensity and willingness to take risks
that allowed him to surpass everything else he did. The playing is very
fast, even rushed at times, and it is certainly not note-perfect as it
would be in the later recordings, but the electricity and sense of occasion
more than make up for a few slips.
The sound quality here and in the balance of the two discs is somewhat
dull, probably as a result of processing to remove noise. The source here
is apparently a tape made by an audience member.
From Warsaw thirteen years earlier come two very different performances.
The Polonaise-Fantaisie is competent but unmemorable. The excerpts from
the opus 28 Preludes are a completely different story. This is an amazing
performance, both for the brilliant virtuosity and for the shifting moods.
For example, number 8 is played very fast and with perfect control over
the musical shape; number 9, with gravity; number 10, very delicately,
with wonderful pianissimo arpeggios; number 11, warmly; and number 4 is
hesitant, gentle, almost fearful. There is much more effective contrast
here than in his later versions. Here is the essential Richter.
There is audible distortion in the material from Warsaw and the sound is a
little more grainy and muffled than New York. While not high fidelity, it
is certainly listenable.
Material recorded in Salzburg gives us a chance to compare the sound of the
DOREMI with releases from Music & Arts (CD-1019) and Orfeo (C 491 981 B).
All three include the Barcarolle and the opus 34 Waltzes, and all sound
different. Orfeo has the clear advantage, as they had access to the
official Salzburg Festival tapes, and their version does sound better and
more realistic. Unfortunately they did not release all of the recital.
It is complete only on Music & Arts, which has good audio quality but is
somewhat noisier than the others. (And the Barcarolle on the Music & Arts
disc only gets off to a bad start technically, as though the tape started
just a little late.)
There is more overlap between DOREMI and Music & Arts (CD-1020), as both
document the August 1976 Helsinki recital. Music & Arts gives us as much
of the recital as will fit on one disc and DOREMI supplies the missing
Chopin Mazurkas. These moody, melancholic dances are played with a bit
of an edge here; they are dreamy and a little sad.
The second DOREMI disc also contains much that had never been released on
LP or CD. The six Etudes from London, 1963, are apparently all encores, as
there is applause after each one. These are Richter's earliest recordings
of these pieces (not counting those on film) and the most interesting.
Especially good in this set is the opus 10 number 12, its rushing
passagework invested with a Lisztian grandeur. Number 4 also is very
exciting and fast, a risky headlong rush into the piece.
For contrast, compare the Nouvelles etudes recorded in France in 1990.
These little-known pieces do not rise to the technical or imaginative
level of the 24 in opus 10 and 25, and the performance exhibits grace and
sensitivity rather than daring. In this case the choice of repertoire is
telling. In his last years, as Richter's technique declined, he found a
different kind of beauty in simpler scores.
Paul Geffen | mail:[log in to unmask]
Boston, Massachusetts | http://richter.simplenet.com/music.html
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