Emil Gilels made the famous comment to his admirers
after he was allowed to play in the West, wait until you hear Richter.
That took until 1960 when he was 45 years of age before he did indeed
take the public and his musician colleagues by storm. He was a shy,
diffident man, unaccountably nervous when playing in public, but whose
sound remains unique to this day. He was almost as bad as Michelangeli
for cancelling concerts at the last minute and there were several works
which he declined to play, such as Beethoven's Emperor and Rachmaninov's
Third Piano Concerto, or even complete sets of a composer's works. His
choice of conductor as accompanist was soon whittled down to two, Benjamin
Britten and Rudolf Barshai. The former was not only a personal friend
but also the provider of the opportunity to perform chamber music from
piano duos to concertos at Aldeburgh. This gives a clue to the choice
of three Mozart concertos here for that composer was not one readily
associated with Richter (though he also recorded Nos.22 in Eb K.482
and 25 in C K.503), let alone such early works.
These concertos were written when Mozart was eleven,
seventeen and twenty-eight respectively, so considering his brief life
they represent all but his most mature years. The first concerto is
a particular delight, tuneful from start to finish (but then what of
Mozart isn't?) and innocently precocious. The music all speaks for itself,
but listen out for delicious horn and woodwind playing by this Japanese
orchestra. The sound is a little over-bright and resonant but Richter's
playing is clean, incisive and lyrical. The absence of a cadenza in
the finale of No.5 leaves an unwelcome hole but otherwise these are
revelatory performances. The title The Last Concert is somewhat
misleading for Richter lived another four years, a more accurate description
would be his Last Recorded Concert with Orchestra. He was a deeply sensitive
artist, intense in approach and a visionary who now is sorely missed,
and the like of which will probably never be seen or heard again.
Christopher Fifield
Rudolf Barshai (conductor)