Piano Sonata No.16 in A minor, D845 (1825) [35:47]
Piano Sonata No.17, D850 (1825) [39:21]
Sviatoslav Richter (piano)
rec. 14 June 1956 (D850); other, unknown
PRAGA DIGITALS PRD/DSD 350 067 [75:20]
As ever, Richter’s discography proves convoluted. The performance of
D850 has already been issued by Praga on PR254031, and I’m pretty sure
it was also available on Music & Arts CD-957. Its latest incarnation
on Praga is in hybrid SACD form, but I don’t think any perceived benefit
in sound quality is so significant that it means jettisoning those previous
discs in favour of this one. For all the documentation, I’m not quite
sure as to the provenance of D845. Up to this point the best known version
of D850 was the Moscow one of 1956, given quite close to this June 1956
concert; and in the case of D845, a March 1957 Moscow recital. Both these
last two were on Melodiya, as well as ancillary labels.
Richter’s recorded history is in a state of constant flux, not least when
covertly recorded in-house releases (cassette-under-the-overcoat jobs)
are themselves superseded by official tapes from the concert in question.
This last happened when a BBC recital was made available for the first
time officially in correspondingly good sound. The recording quality in
these Praga sonatas is, however, reasonable enough.
In the Sonata in D (D850) Richter sounds, frankly, more bad-tempered than
poised and the Allegro vivace marking draws from him a machine-gun
attack, relentless and at times disagreeable, that stands at a complete
remove from the more Viennese imperatives of Curzon in his great Decca
recording of the work. There’s a degree of scrambled phrasing amidst the
brimstone. The slow movement (‘con moto’) is decidedly slow, as was so
often Richter’s way with Schubert, but cumulatively speaking it rather
lacks intimacy. True, it has gruff nobility, a rugged and strong power
behind it, but tone colours are muted and the whole thing is rather downbeat,
lacking Curzon’s moments of phrasal elation. Richter is at his best in
this sonata in the finale where accenting is more alive and his playing
is very much more approachable.
The A minor sonata receives a direct, forceful reading and not without
many points of interest. The finale, once again, goes well, probably best
of all the movements, with Richter relaxing as far as he will. It’s clear
that he sees the Sonata in D through a glass darkly and this perception
colours much of this companion sonata too.
It all makes for layers of complexity in the Richter discography.
Jonathan Woolf
More bad-tempered than poised.
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