Volume Seven in Doremi’s ongoing Sviatoslav Richter series focuses on the great pianist’s Schumann (both Robert and Clara, as we shall see). Richter’s main competition in the two Novelettes and the C major Fantasy is himself. Those who admire the pianist’s tautly lyrical DG studio recording of the F major Novelette will find essentially the same interpretation here. Richter, however, takes No. 2 in D major too fast, leaving little room for punctuation, in contrast to his equally powerful yet more reasonably paced live 1979 Tokyo reading on Olympia. In any case, these 1967 performances from Dubrovnik appear for the first time.
Likewise, this 1980 Budapest Schumann Fantasy is new to CD. The tight microphone placement is problematic. Loud high notes buzz like the vibrating of a broken piano string. Still, I found myself more and more absorbed as the music progressed. Once past the first movement’s return to its main theme, Richter’s tone gains in body and expressive dimension. He gingerly commences the gnarly march movement and quickly grows more confident and animated, taking plenty of chances along the way–more so, in fact, than in his 1961 studio traversal (EMI) or the 1979 live version included in Philips’ Richter Edition. Similarly, the Budapest finale flows more freely than the aforementioned recordings, with more liberal use of the sustain pedal, to exquisite effect I might add.
I can’t share annotator Ates Tanin’s enthusiasm for this Richter/Borodin Quartet Schumann Quintet. The sound, for starters, is mediocre and poorly balanced, with first violinist Mikhail Kopelman virtually in your ear. Transitions between the first movement’s themes are stiffly handled. For all its admirable drive, the Scherzo sounds unsettled and ragged, ensemble-wise, compared to the same artists’ 1994 performance issued on Teldec, in excellent, professional sound. What’s more, the Quintet is pitched nearly a half-tone flat, so that the outer movements play in a key closer to D major.
Sonically speaking, the best items on this disc are two songs with Richter’s longtime companion, soprano Nina Dorliac, recorded in 1948 and 1950. What Dorliac lacks in suppleness she makes up for by way of her fervent, clear delivery and excellent pitch in Clara Schumann’s Er ist gekommnen in Sturm und Regen. She’s nearly upstaged, though, by her ravishing accompanist, who may or may not be Richter: the original 78 rpm issue lists Richter as pianist, but the LP reissue says Vera Shubina. If it’s the latter, I can’t wait to hear more Vera Shubina recordings! Richter specialists, of course, will snap up this disc without my prodding.
