As with the previous three double-CD editions in Parnassus’ “Sviatoslav Richter in the 1950s” series, Volume 4 digs up more live, unreleased bounty from a seemingly endless stream of performances. Save for the two-minute, 29-second Scriabin Poème Op. 32 No. 1 (the one Horowitz made famous), none of the material here is new to Richter’s recorded repertoire. The sound is dynamically constricted but free of the occasional distortions that mar the earlier items in Praga’s 15-CD Richter box. I, for one, find the present September, 1956 Prokofiev Ninth Sonata sonically easier to digest than its grainier Praga counterpart from a few months later, although Richter’s lucid, nimble-fingered reading differs little from his excellent studio account on Monitor. I’ve lost count of Richter Prokofiev Sixth Sonatas in circulation, but Parnassus has uncovered one of the freshest, most spontaneuous, incisive, and technically effortless of the batch.
Interpretive differences also mark a group of Shostakovich Preludes and Fugues. In contrast to its straightlaced, even militant studio counterpart, a gentler, more yielding and lyrical countenance informs the live D-flat major Prelude and Fugue. Alternatively, the E minor is weightier and more dramatically parsed compared to the lithe, pared down studio take. It’s nice to have a version of Scriabin’s Vers la flamme from Richter’s prime, more fiery and scintillating than the veteran pianist’s spacious but no less passionate 1992 Philips and Live Classics recordings.
I’ve never warmed to Richter’s square-patterned, emotionally detached way with the Beethoven C minor Concerto, and even Hermann Abendroth’s spirited, stylish leadership (poor orchestra and all) can’t convince me that I’m not actually listening to a newly discovered piano concerto by Cherubini. If you know Richter’s ripely expressive 1972 Melodiya recording of Bartók’s 15 Hungarian Peasant Songs, you’ll be fascinated by the younger pianist’s fleeter, more overtly virtuosic treatment of the work’s final two-thirds. Let’s hope we don’t have to wait another two years for Volume 5. A must for Richter specialists.
