Sviatoslav Richter
was no “legend”; he was a real person, and I once had a
ticket to hear him at a concert near me. Unfortunately, when the
great day came, I found I had mistakenly thrown away the ticket, so I
never heard him live. But he was a very great and very famous
pianist, with a special love for the music of Franz Schubert.
I settled down to
listen to Richter in 1979 in Tokyo playing Schubert piano sonatas; B
major D 575, F minor D 625, A major D 664, and A minor D 784. The
pianism was wonderful. The audience was ecstatic (some applause was
maintained). Three of the sonatas have slow movements marked
“andante”, but Richter's concept of andante in Tokyo was
more akin to molto adagio. Richter being Richter, his tempi
were never based on a desire for affect, nor to please the crowd. And
Richter being Richter with his superb ability to concentrate, the
andantes never sagged. However, the three andantes were all so slow
they often nearly stopped, and I just could not take it any more.
Click on the following movements.
No comments:
Post a Comment