Sviatoslav Richter Plays Beethoven

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12 CD 

Classical Music 

Profil Hanssler

11 May 2023

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881488160307

Ludwig van Beethoven:Cello Sonata No. 1 in F major, Op. 5 No. 1Cello Sonata No. 2 in G minor, Op. 5 No. 2Cello Sonata No. 3 in A major, Op. 69Cello Sonata No. 4 in C major, Op. 102 No. 1Cello Sonata No. 5 in D major, Op. 102 No. 2Diabelli Variations, Op. 120 (33 Variations in C major on a Waltz by Anton Diabelli)Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37Piano Sonata No. 10 in G major, Op. 14 No. 2Piano Sonata No. 11 in B flat major, Op. 22Piano Sonata No. 12 in A flat major, Op. 26 'March Funebre'Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor, Op. 31 No. 2 'Tempest'Piano Sonata No. 18 in E flat major, Op. 31 No. 3 'The Hunt' (La Chasse, Die Jagd)Piano Sonata No. 19 in G minor, Op. 49 No. 1Piano Sonata No. 20 in G major, Op. 49 No. 2Piano Sonata No. 22 in F major, Op. 54Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57 'Appassionata'Piano Sonata No. 27 in E minor, Op. 90Piano Sonata No. 28 in A major, Op. 101Piano Sonata No. 3 in C major, Op. 2 No. 3Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major, Op. 109Piano Sonata No. 31 in A flat major, Op. 110Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111Piano Sonata No. 7 in D major, Op. 10 No. 3Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13 'Pathetique'Piano Sonata No. 9 in E major, Op. 14 No. 1Rondo for Piano & Orchestra in B flat major, WoO 6Rondo in G major, Op. 51 No. 2Variations (6) for Piano on an Original Theme in F major, Op. 34Variations (6) on an original theme 'Die Ruinen von Athen', Op. 76
Charles Camille Saint-Saëns:Variations on a theme by Beethoven, Op. 35

Artists

Sviatoslav Richter (Piano)
Mstislav Rostropovich (Cello)
Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra (Orchestra)USSR State Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra)Hermann Abendroth (Conductor)Kirill Kondrashin (Conductor)

It’s quite an achievement: in the depths of space, between the planets Mars and Jupiter, there orbits an asteroid that has borne the name Svyatorichter since Octo- ber 22, 1985. Its discoverer, the Ukrainian astronomer Lyudmila Vasilyevna thus rather unconventionally immortalized the name of Sviatoslav Richter, a pianist whose only connection with the stars was a figurative one. He reached for them.

Svyatoslav Teofilovich Richter was born in Zhytomyr, Ukraine on March 20, 1915 (March 7 according to the Julian calendar). His father Theofil came from a family of German businessmen, but earned a living as organist and choir director in Odessa from 1916. He brought up his son alone. Svyatoslav had had no regular pianistic training at a conservatory when he began working as rehearsal pianist at the Odessa Opera at the age of fifteen. His exceptional talent enabled him to make his concert debut in 1934. Several myths have become woven around the exceptional Soviet pia- nist’s early life. The one certain fact is that his immense talent was recognized by Heinrich Neuhaus (1888-1964), the fa- mous Russian piano teacher with German roots who included him in his master piano class at Moscow Conservatory in 1937.

Neuhaus’s influence can hardly be over- estimated. The teacher specialized in tonal refinement rather than virtuosity, so that at the technical level, he was probably unable to teach much that was new to his gifted pupil, who performed with tremendous power and perfect technique. Musically however he trained him in enormously subtle dynamics, pronouncedly Romantic playing with certain composers and great reserve with others. In 1986, in a rare interview, Richter stated that Neuhaus had made his hands freer and softened his tone. Neuhaus not least familiarized him with Sergey Prokofiev (1891-1953), whose Piano Sonatas nos. 6, 7 and 9 Richter premiered.

Richter, who was rather gauche “in real life”, was supported by Neuhaus, who gave him accommodation for several years; Richter is supposed to have slept under Neuhaus’s grand piano. Neuhaus also twice ensured that the young genius was taken back by the Conservatory. A loner, Richter had refused to attend the political courses obligatory under Soviet communism. It was not that he opposed them politically; he simply failed to see what bearing the subject had on him as an artist.

Richter experienced the full barbaric harsh- ness of the Soviet system only at second hand. His father was arrested during dic- tator Josef Stalin’s notorious “purges” of 1937. Seemingly damned by his German origins, he was shot dead as a supposed spy in 1941, before German forces invaded. The son learnt nothing of this for many years. Together with her consort (who went under the guise of the brother of the murdered man), his mother was later able to go to live in Germany. Richter met her in 1960; he despised his stepfather for the rest of his life.

Richter endured the war without losing inner freedom or independence; in the ensuing Cold War between East and West too, his desire for freedom seemed more inturned and directed towards his art. Some of his early recordings were brilliant- ly fiery; with few exceptions, more live recordings exist than those made in a studio. His horror of routine and his assiduous avoidance of mediocrity began to develop. His later companion Andreas Lucewicz speaks of his “unshakeable quest for truth and his almost pathological self- criticism, in spite of his healthy self- confidence.”

This edition presents live recordings made in Moscow on June 5, 1947. These early interpretations (Richter was thirty-two) of Beethoven’s Sonatas nos. 8 “Pathétique”, 9, 10 and 12 have never before been released commercially, so that they are not included in the meticulous list of all Richter’s recordings at www.trovar.com/str/discs. Richter’s playing is fearless, abounding in self-confidence in these discographical sensations, but the sound quality naturally falls short of modern hi-fi demands.

In contrast to most of his colleagues, pianist Sviatoslav Richter set no store by complete sets, and Beethoven is no exception. He recorded only 22 of Beethoven’s 32 so- natas, which makes comparisons between early and later presentations all the more interesting. In addition to the 1947 Moscow live recordings, this edition for the first time features those from Leningrad of May 31 and June 7, 1960 and from Moscow April, 1st, 1960: Beethoven’s Sonatas nos. 3, 17, 18, 22 and 23, made at an important time in Richter’s life. There is also a studio recording of no. 23, the “Appassionata”, from 1960.

After finally being allowed to record for a Western label – Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft – in Warsaw in 1958, Richter’s reputation spread like the rumble of thunder among the “enemies of the working class”. The Soviet authorities eventually gave him permission to tour the USA. And, persuaded by 60,000 dollars, in October 1960 they also permitted Columbia Records to record his five concerts at Carnegie Hall live. Richter, who naturally saw none of this money himself, insisted that no microphones were to be visible.

Those recordings were a sensation in spite of deficits in sound quality and even though Richter had such a poor opinion of his own playing that he prohibited repressing. At all events, they made Richter a star in the West as well. Recording companies scrambled for contracts, but the blatant disproportion between studio recordings and more or less legal live recordings remained.

From the famous Beethoven recordings made at the Philips Paris studios in summer 1963, we feature Sonatas nos. 9, 10 and 11, which together with the 1961 London recording of no. 17 did much to boost Richter’s legendary reputation. Piano enthusiasts in East Germany were naturally also fascinated by him. The meticulous hero, who also happened to be a great fan of Leipzig-born Richard Wagner (1813- 1883), performed Beethoven’s last Sonatas nos. 30, 31 and 32 at the old Gewand- haus. The live recording of November 28, 1963 is one of the gems Richter has left us.

Serving as consolation for the sonatas Richter did not record, there are recordings of other piano works by Beethoven: The keyboard titan is once more revealed with enormous presence in the astounding “Diabelli Variations” as well as in a truly heroic rendition of the “Eroica Variations” recorded live in January 1951, together with Sonatas nos. 11, 17 “The Tempest” and 27. Richter’s solo recordings of Beet- hoven would be incomplete without the Variations op. 34 and op. 76 (the latter live from Moscow 1950) and the Two Rondos of op. 51 (1951). The Bagatelles (unfor- tunately only eight of them), which he re- corded in Kiev on November 16, represent another first.

Sviatoslav Richter’s failure to record com- plete sets of works is all the more lamen- table in the case of Beethoven’s piano con- certos. He recorded only the first (chrono- logically the second) and the third of the five. We feature here live recordings from the early 1950s. No. 1 was made in 1952, conducted by Kurt Sanderling, with whom Richter also made other recordings. No. 3 was made in 1954 and conducted by Hermann Abendroth, with whom Richter seldom worked. Together with the con- certos, we present the Rondo for piano and orchestra in B flat major.

Parts I and II of Johann Sebastian Bach’s legendary Well-tempered Clavier represent one of the few complete sets Richter did record. It forms the “Old Testament” for pianists (Beethoven’s sonatas being the “New Testament”). He told Andreas Luce- wicz that in striving for a soft and less richly-contrasting piano tone, he had left the heavy cloth cover on the piano. That puts paid to the widely held opinion that Richter did not care about tonal aspects in his recordings.

In the case of Beethoven, Richter also made an exception. He recorded all five sonatas for cello and piano with his illustrious Soviet compatriot Mstislav Rostropovich. This edition includes from the famous Philips set the recordings of nos. 1, 2 and 5, made in the Rosenhügel Studios in Vienna in 1962/63. In order to provide an opportunity to compare them with an earlier stage of Richter’s activity in chamber music, we feature his performance of nos. 3 and 4 in live recordings made in Moscow in March 1950. It goes without saying that they cannot vie in sound quality with the standard-setting Philips recordings.

In contrast to Rostropovich, who settled in the USA in 1974 to escape serious conflict with the Soviet regime, Richter remained a Soviet citizen. He was however allowed to give concerts in the West with few restric- tions from 1960, possibly because he had entered into marriage with the Russian singer Nina Dorliak in 1945. In the West, as at home, he chose minor performing venues (within walking distance) rather than celebrated concert halls in the last decades of his life. Unlike his slightly older contemporaries Vladimir Horowitz (1903- 1989) and Artur Rubinstein (1887-1982), an artist who esteemed Richter as “an outstanding musician of great intelligence”, Sviatoslav Richter was not a showman nor did he need an audience to give of his best. Yet, in contrast to Glenn Gould (1932- 1982), he did not like studios with their at- mosphere and technical apparatus.

In his later years, Richter thus performed in small, inadequately lit halls. He died in Moscow on August 1, 1997, having per- formed until the spring of 1995. The Russian government minted a two-rouble commemorative coin in silver to mark his hundredth birthday in 2015.

Well versed in literature, Richter remained self-critical despite his seriousness and self- confidence. At the end of Bruno Monsain- geon’s famous film portrait, the world- famous pianist says: “I do not like myself.”

The response of most of those who hear him will surely be quite different. The author would like to thank: Andreas Lucewicz of Wenden-Schönau, Germany, the concert pianist who was one of Richter’s closest friends in the later years. Not only did he “turn pages” in Richter’s concerts, he also exchanged ideas with him; he might even be thought of as “a kind of pupil” of his, although the great Soviet pianist officially never accepted pupils. Lucewicz was the last pianist to partner Richter in a duo and also perfor- med with at the last of his 3,589 concerts in Lübeck on March 30, 1995.

Ernst Müller of Biel-Benken, Switzerland, an indefatigable record collector. He owns “about 90 per cent” of the well over 4,000 archive recordings of Richter and has published valuable analyses of them.

Translation: J & M Berridge

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