Sviatoslav Richter: Legendary Recordings 1959-65

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si vous ne voulez pas de l'intégrale DG de Richter, ce double album vous livre le meilleur, c'est à dire inatteignable dans chaque morceaux !!: une sonate N 8 de prokofiev et vision fugitive inégalés, des debussy mystérieux et envoutants, une 5eme soinate de scriabin et des préludes de rachmaninov qui place ceux d'horowitz loin derrière, et les bach, schubert et schumann !Ecoutez et réecouter ces plages, vous ne pourrez vous en passer !

大変良かったとの事。内容は私には分かりません。先方の希望で買いました。

This Deutsche Grammophon compilation is an excellent celebration of the talents of the great pianist Sviatoslav Richter. In keeping with his own approach, the choice of music demonstrates that there is much more to piano virtuosity than the ability to play fast and loud. He could do this, of course, but here we also experience his phenomenal control over the `colour' of each note (the Bach D minor prelude) his poise (the Debussy Estampes) and his intellectual grasp of structure (the Chopin F minor Ballade which also superbly demonstrates his ability to make the piano roar, whisper or sing).The discs are compiled from various recording sessions 1959 to 1965, so there are some variations in the recorded sound but this is mostly a pleasant, moderately liquid hall acoustic, a bit drier in the Bach. Some of the recordings are of `live' performances so there is some audience noise; but as live concerts were this pianist's preferred medium, it is in keeping with the spirit of the discs to accept it.After a generous helping of Rachmaninoff's Preludes, the collection ends with a brief journey into Prokofiev's Visions Fugitives; my only real grouse with this release is that there is not more of the Prokofiev.

　　リヒテルというと、非常に理知的で詩情溢れる演奏を聴かせてくれた人ですが、それを前面に出した選曲じゃないでしょうか。版画は、一曲目の「塔」からテンポをゆっくり目にとっていますが、繊細ながらも妙に芯の通った音と絶妙にとられた間が生み出す緊張感が、まるで聴いているこちら側の空間をも動かし、引き込んでしまうように感じられます。これがいわゆる『霊感』と言うやつなのでしょうか。　リヒテルのこうした点は、いわゆる技術的に難しい難曲よりもどちらかと言うと簡素な曲の演奏により自由に現れるような気がします。ドビュッシーはもとより、ラフマニノフのニ長調前奏曲にもそういったリヒテルの美質が随所に感じられ、そういった意味では他の人とは一線を画す演奏といえましょう。　

No one can be in any doubt that as far as pianistic technique is concerned, few if any pianists of the 20th Century could match Richter.However, his interpretations often give the impression of being designed to provide maximum impact in the concert hall (many of his recordings are live), whilst not providing the necessary intellectual rigour to satisfy repeated listenings on the recorded medium.In the recordings under review the above observation can, in my view, be illustrated by the Well-Tempered Clavier excerpts which I found so musically unsatisfying that it had me running for my Angela Hewitt recording of these works in order to calm my senses. The same can be said of the rendition of the Chopin Etude in C Major Opus 10 No. 1 which seems to me, in Richter's hands, to be an exercise in breaking the piano with the left hand!However, there is much to wonder at in these recordings. Most notably, in my view, the wonderful interpretations of the 3rd and 4th Chopin Ballades and the selection of Rachmaninov Preludes. As one can expect from a pianist who seemed to prefer recording in front of an audience, the sound quality is often impaired. This is most noticeable in the Bach works where the audience seems to be coughing as if their lives depended on it.

He was a master; this CD poor quality.