Sviatoslav Richter’s May 22, 1991 performances of the Second, Fourth, and Sixth French Suites from Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow occurred just two months after the live Bonn/Rolandseck recordings issued in Philips’ Richter Authorized Edition. The present versions, however, seem more settled and internalized on the pianist’s part. He takes slightly faster tempos in each movement and his phrasing has more lilt and fluency. One cogent example involves the Gigue from the E-flat Suite No. 4. In the Philips recording Richter’s left-hand scales are uncharacteristically effortful. However, by May his fingers more comfortably grasp the movement’s dancing patterns, and at a quicker pace. Similarly, a smoother, shapelier line can be inferred from the same Suite’s Prelude. Unlike Richter’s 1994 Live Classics recording of Bach’s B-flat Capriccio, this earlier reading doesn’t get too loud too soon in the opening section, and the jubilant fugue’s trumpeting subject is crisper, less hammered out.
Of course no one seeks Richter’s Bach for historically informed accoutrements like embellishments, scholarly ornaments, and no sustain pedal. Instead you get beauty of tone, pure, singing lines that are sensitively and clearly spun out, calmly centered rhythm without a trace of rigidity, plus every repeat under the sun. Incidentally, Richter played a Bach concert in the same venue two days earlier on May 20th, featuring the same English Suites played in the aforementioned German concerts issued on Philips. A private tape of the May 20th concert reveals similar modifications and improvements to those I mentioned in the course of the review. Perhaps Live Classics has access to the master tape?
