CD 1
Richter in Hungary (1954)
Schumann: Piano concerto in A minor, op. 54
01. I. Allegro affettuoso
14:07
02. II. Intermezzo (Andantino grazioso)
4:26
03. III. Allegro vivace
9:59
04. Brahms: Intermezzo in A minor, op. 118/1
2:19
05. Brahms: Intermezzo in E-flat minor, op. 118/6
Academy of Music (Budapest, 8 March, 1954)
5:19
Bach: Das Wohltemperierte Klavier, Book I (selection)
06. Prelude in C minor
1:13
07. Fugue in C minor
1:30
08. Prelude in F major
0:47
09. Fugue in F major
1:12
10. Prelude in F minor
1:58
11. Fugue in F minor
4:56
12. Prelude in A major
1:04
13. Fugue in A major
2:28
14. Prelude in A minor
0:52
15. Fugue in A minor
3:56
Bach: French Suite in C minor, BWV 813 16. I. Allemande
2:44
17. II. Courante
1:34
18. III. Sarabande
3:01
19. IV. Air
1:10
20. V. Menuet I – II
2:17
21.
VI. Gigue
Academy of Music (Budapest, 10 March, 1954)
1:26
CD 2
Richter in Hungary (1954)
Prokofiev: Sonata No. 8 in B-flat major, op. 84
01. I. Andante dolce – Allegro moderato – Andante dolce
15:02
02. II. Andante sognando
3:36
03. III. Finale (Vivace)
9:21
04. Ravel: Pavane pour une infante défunte
7:05
05. Ravel: Gaspard de la nuit No. 2 – Le gibet
6:06
Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentales 06. I. Modéré très franc
1:10
07. II. Assez lent – avec une expression intense
2:08
08. III. Modéré
1:17
09. IV. Assez animé
0:57
10. V. Presque lent – dans un sentiment intime
1:27
11. VI. Vif
0:41
12. VII. Moins vif
2:22
13. VIII. Épilogue. Lent
4:03
14. Ravel: Jeux d’eau
4:40
15. Ravel: Alborada del gracioso
Academy of Music (Budapest, 26 March, 1954)
5:53
CD 3
Richter in Hungary (1958)
Schubert: Sonata in C minor, D. 958
01. I. Allegro
10:02
02. II. Adagio
8:01
03. III. Menuetto (Allegro)
3:21
04. IV. Allegro
7:59
05. 5. Schumann: Toccata, op. 7
Academy of Music (Budapest, 9 February, 1958)
6:46
06. Schubert: Moment musical in C major, D. 780/1
5:26
07. Liszt: Gnomenreigen
2:31
Liszt: Liebesträume 08. No. 2 in E major
4:27
09. No. 3 in A flat major
4:29
Liszt: Valses oubliées 10. No. 1
2:34
11. No. 2
5:48
12. No. 3
4:47
13. Liszt: Sonetto 123 del Petrarca
Academy of Music (Budapest, 11 February, 1958)
7:06
Debussy: Ariettes oubliées 14. No. 1 C’est l’extase langoureuse
2:33
15.
No. 5 (Aquarelles I.) - Green
Bartók Hall (Budapest, 12 February, 1958)
2:44
CD 4
Richter in Hungary (1963)
Beethoven: Sonata in B-flat major, op. 22.
01. I. Allegro con brio
7:23
02. II. Adagio con molto espressione
8:46
03. III. Menuetto
3:13
04. IV. Rondo (Allegretto)
5:38
Schubert: Drei Klavierstücke, D. 946 05. 1. Allegro assai - Andante -
Tempo I.
15:31
06. 2. Allegretto
12:17
07. 3. Allegro
5:40
Schubert: Wanderer fantasy in C major, D. 760 08. I. Allegro con fuoco ma
non troppo
5:29
09. II. Adagio
6:38
10. III. Presto
4:19
11.
IV. Allegro
Academy of Music (Budapest, 27 April, 1963)
3:39
CD 5
Richter in Hungary (1963)
Händel: Suite No. 5 in E major
01. I. Prelude
1:29
02. II. Allemande
4:10
03. III. Courante
1:32
04. IV. Air and Five Variations
4:13
Shostakovich: Six preludes and fugues, op. 87
Prelude and fugue No. 4 in E minor 05. Prelude: Andante
3:44
06. Fugue: Adagio
4:29
Prelude and fugue No. 12 in G-sharp minor 07. Prelude: Andante
4:36
08. Fugue: Allegro
3:23
Prelude and fugue No. 23 in F major 09. Prelude: Adagio
2:37
10. Fugue: Moderato con moto
2:53
Prelude and fugue No. 14 in E-flat minor 11. 11. Prelude: Adagio
4:03
12. Fugue: Allegro non troppo
4:56
Prelude and fugue No. 17 in A-flat major 13. Prelude: Allegretto
2:11
14. Fugue: Allegretto
3:28
Prelude and fugue No. 15 in D-flat major 15. Prelude: Allegretto
2:51
16. Fugue: Allegro molto
2:00
Prokofiev: Visions fugitives, op. 22 17. No. 3 Allegretto
1:18
18. No. 4 Animato
0:48
19. No. 5 Molto giocoso
0:35
20. No. 6 Con eleganza
0:25
21. No. 8 Commodo
1:32
22. No. 9 Allegretto tranquillo
1:25
23. No. 11 Con vivacità
1:20
24. No. 14 Feroce
0:54
25. No. 15 Inquieto
0:41
26.
No. 18 Con una dolce lentezza
Erkel Theatre (Budapest, 29 April, 1963)
1:47
CD 6
Richter in Hungary (1965)
Mozart: Piano sonata in F major, K. 280
01. I. Allegro assai
7:15
02. II. Adagio
10:12
03. III. Presto
3:30
Beethoven: Piano sonata in A major, op. 101 04. I. Etwas lebhaft und mit
der innigsten Empfindung
– Allegretto ma non troppo
4:25
05.
II. Lebhaft. Marschmässig
- Vivace alla marcia
5:23
06.
III. Langsam und sehnsuchtsvoll
- Adagio, ma non troppo, con affetto
3:02
07.
IV. Geschwinde, doch nicht zu sehr, und mit Entschlossenheit
– Allegro
6:44
Chopin: Four scherzos 08. No. 1 in B minor, op. 20
10:16
09. No. 2 in B flat minor, op. 31
9:43
10. No. 3 in C sharp minor, op. 39
7:32
11.
No. 4 in E major, op. 54
Erkel Theatre (Budapest, 17 July, 1965)
11:27
CD 7
Richter in Hungary (1967)
01.
Schumann: Novellette in F major, op. 21/1
5:20
02. Schumann: Novellette in D major, op. 21/2
Erkel Theatre (Budapest, 27 August, 1967)
5:29
Haydn: Piano sonata in C major, Hob. XVI:35 03. I. Allegro con brio
6:25
04. II. Adagio
7:14
05. III. Finale. Allegro
3:10
06. Chopin: Rondo à la mazur
7:58
Debussy: Préludes for piano, Book II 07. I. Brouillards
3:21
08. II. Feuilles mortes
3:24
09. III. La puerta del Vino
3:50
10. IV. “Les fées sont d’exquises danseuses”
2:40
11. V. Bruyères
2:45
12. VI. “General Lavine” – excentric
2:44
13. VII. La terrasse des audiences du clair de lune
4:38
14. VIII. Ondine
3:07
15. IX. Hommage à S. Pickwick Esq.P.P.M.P.C.
2:27
16. X. Canope
3:05
17. XI. Les tierces alternées
2:23
18.
XII. Feux d’artifice
Erkel Theatre (Budapest, 28 August, 1967)
3:48
CD 8
Richter in Hungary (1969)
01.
Schubert: Thirteen Variations on a Theme by Anselm Hüttenbrenner, D. 576
14:30
Schumann: Fantasiestücke, op. 12 (selection) 02. No. 1 Des Abends – Sehr
innig zu spielen
4:16
03. No. 2 Aufschwung – Sehr rasch
2:52
04. No. 3 Warum? – Langsam und zart
3:31
05. No. 5 In der Nacht – Mit Leidenschaft
3:51
06. No. 7 Traumes-Wirren – Äusserst lebhaft
2:15
07. No. 8 Ende vom Lied – Mit gutem Humor
5:26
Rachmaninov: Préludes (selection) 08. F-sharp minor, op. 23/1
3:56
09. A major, op. 32/9
2:30
10. B minor, op. 32/10
5:25
11. G-sharp minor, op. 32/12
2:17
12. A-flat major, op. 23/8
3:02
13. E major, op. 32/3
1:08
14. B-flat minor, op. 32/2
3:00
15. F minor, op. 32/6
1:18
16. F major, op. 32/7
2:06
17. B-flat major, op. 23/2
3:17
18. D major, op. 23/4
4:09
19. G minor, op. 23/5
4:11
20. Prokofiev: War and Peace – Waltz, op. 96/1
Academy of Music (Budapest, 18 November, 1969)
5:32
CD 9
Richter in Hungary (1973)
Bach: Das Wohltemperierte Klavier, Book II
(selection) 01. Prelude in
C major
2:37
02. Fugue in C major
1:26
03. Prelude in C minor
1:42
04. Fugue in C minor
2:27
05. Prelude in C-sharp major
1:23
06. Fugue in C-sharp major
1:41
07. Prelude in C-sharp minor
3:42
08. Fugue in C-sharp minor
1:56
09. Prelude in E-flat major
2:19
10. Fugue in E-flat major
2:12
11. Prelude in D-sharp minor
3:06
12.
Fugue in D-sharp minor
Academy of Music (Budapest, 16 March, 1973)
4:13
13. Prelude in G major
2:07
14. Fugue in G major
1:12
15. Prelude in A-flat major
3:06
16. Fugue in A-flat major
3:26
17. Prelude in A major
1:32
18. Fugue in A major
1:08
19. Prelude in A minor
4:26
20. Fugue in A minor
1:32
21. Prelude in B major
5:34
22. Fugue in B major
3:22
23. Prelude in B-flat minor
2:42
24. Fugue in B-flat minor
7:45
Encores: 25. Prelude in B major
1:46
26. Prelude in B minor
2:12
27.
Fugue in B minor
Academy of Music (Budapest, 18 March, 1973)
1:46
CD 10
Richter in Hungary (1972-78)
Mendelssohn: Lieder ohne Worte, op. 19
01. No. 1 Andante con moto
3:34
02. No. 2 Andante
2:18
03. No. 3 Molto allegro e vivace
2:19
04. No. 5 Moderato
2:46
05. No. 6 Andante sostenuto
3:11
06. Chopin: Nocturne in B-flat minor, op. 9/1
6:41
Debussy: Images, Book I 07. No. 1 Reflets dans l’eau
4:29
08. No. 2 Hommage à Rameau
7:26
09. No. 3 Mouvement
3:30
10. Debussy: Hommage à Haydn
Szeged (16 February, 1972)
2:34
Chopin: Two waltzes 11. F major, op. 34/3
2:00
12. G-flat major, op. 70/1
3:08
Chopin: Four mazurkas 13. C-sharp minor, op. 63/3
1:54
14. C major, op. 67/3
1:15
15. F major, op. 68/3
1:12
16. A
minor, op. post.
Academy of Music (Budapest, 10 December, 1976)
3:31
Schubert: Piano sonata in A major, D. 664 17. I. Allegro moderato
12:06
18. II. Andante
6:30
19.
III. Allegro
Academy of Music (Budapest, 10 August, 1978)
7:02
CD 11
Richter in Hungary (1976)
Beethoven: Sonata in F minor, op. 2/1
01. I. Allegro
5:49
02. II. Adagio
4:34
03. III. Menuetto (Allegretto)
3:51
04. IV. Prestissimo
6:33
Beethoven: Sonata in D major, op. 10/3 05. I. Presto
6:54
06. II. Largo e mesto
9:17
07. III. Menuetto (Allegro)
3:06
08. IV. Rondo (Allegro)
4:22
Beethoven: Sonata in E major, op. 14/1 09. I. Allegro
7:07
10. II. Allegretto
6:00
11. III. Rondo (Allegro commodo)
3:05
Beethoven: Sonata in A-flat major, op. 26 12. I. Andante con variazioni
6:46
13. II. Scherzo (Allegro molto)
3:01
14. III. Marcia funebre sulla morte d’un Eroe
5:59
15.
IV. Allegro
Academy of Music (Budapest, 9 December, 1976)
2:44
CD 12
Richter in Hungary (1982-85)
01. Liszt:
Harmonies poétiques et religieuses (excerpt)
No. 9 Andante lagrimoso
8:18
02. Franck: Prélude, choral et fugue
19:38
Szymanowski: Mazurkas 03. op. 50/1
2:15
04. op. 50/17
2:32
05. op. 50/18
3:11
06.
op. 50/3
Pesti Vigadó (Budapest, 11 September, 1982)
3:15
Debussy: Préludes, Book I (selection) 07. No. 1 Danseuses de Delphes
3:29
08. No. 2 Voiles
3:53
09. No. 3 Le vent dans la plaine
2:10
10. No. 4 “Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l’air du soir”
4:07
11. No. 5 Les collines d’Anacapri
3:43
12. No. 6 Des pas sur la neige
4:24
13. No. 7 Ce qu’a a vu le Vent d’Ouest
3:38
14. No. 9 La sérénade interrompue
3:09
15. No. 10 La Cathédrale engloutie
7:08
16.
No. 11 La danse de Puck
Opera House (Budapest, 14 January, 1985)
2:48
CD 13
Richter in Hungary (1983)
Tchaikovsky: The Seasons, op. 37/b
(selection) 01. May: White
Nights
4:50
02. June: Barcarolle
6:19
03. November: On the Troika
2:55
04. January: By the Hearth
6:09
Tchaikovsky: Piano pieces 05. Nocturne in F major, op. 10/1
4:36
06. Valse-scherzo in A major, op. 7
4:03
07. Humoresque in E minor, op. 10/2
2:42
08. Capriccioso in B-flat major, op. 19/5
3:58
09. Valse in A-flat major, op. 40/8
3:31
10. Romance in F minor, op. 5
7:22
Rachmaninov: Études-Tableaux (selection) 11. C-sharp minor, op. 33/9
2:59
12. D minor, op. 33/5
3:21
13. E-flat minor, op. 33/6
2:07
14. C minor, op. 39/1
3:05
15. A minor, op. 39/2
7:38
16. F-sharp minor, op. 39/3
3:00
17. B minor, op. 39/4
3:43
18. D
major, op. 39/9
Academy of Music (Budapest, 3 August, 1983)
3:55
CD 14
Richter in Hungary (1993)
Grieg: Lyric pieces
01. Arietta, op. 12/1
1:23
02. Vals (Waltz), op. 12/2
2:00
03. Vektersang (Watchman’s Song), op. 12/3
2:59
04. Alfedans (Elves’ Dance), op. 12/4
0:57
05. Springdans (Spring Dance), op. 38/5
0:55
06. Kanon (Canon), op. 38/8
4:57
07. Sommerfugl (Butterfly), op. 43/1
1:59
08. Til Foråret (To the Spring), op. 43/6
5:18
09. Valse-Impromptu, op. 47/1
3:21
10. Gangar (Norwegian march), op. 54/2
3:51
11. Scherzo, op. 54/5
3:33
12. Klokkeklang (Bell ringing), op. 54/6
3:48
13. Hemmelighed (Secret), op. 57/4
5:30
14. Hun danser (She Dances), op. 57/5
3:11
15. Hjemve (Homesickness), op. 57/6
5:12
16. Drømmesyn (Phantom), op. 62/5
2:41
17. Bryllupsdag på Troldhaugen (Wedding day in Troldhaugen), op. 65/6
6:35
18. Aften på højfjellet (Evening in the Mountains), op. 68/4
3:32
19. Småtroll (Puck), op. 71/3
2:00
20. Skovstilhed (Peace in the Woods), op. 71/4
5:14
21. Forbi (Gone), op. 71/6
2:34
22.
Efterklang (Remembrances), op. 71/7
Budapest Congress Center (9 November, 1993)
2:32
Total time: 17:23:37
Sviatoslav Richter - piano
Hungarian State Philharmonic Orchestra
conducted by János Ferencsik
(CD 1: 1-3)
Nina Dorliac (CD 3: 14-15)
Production notes:
Selected by Dezső Ránki, pianist
Recordings are property of the archive of the Hungarian Radio
Edited by Márta Papp and Márta Perédi
Digital sound restoration: Zsolt Komesz
Sound engineers: Ferenc Varga (CD 5), Katalin Dobó (CD 5), Péter Winkler (CD 8,
CD 9), Péter Schlotthauer (CD 10: 1-10, CD 13, CD 14), Attila Balogh (CD 10:
11-19), Emil Sudár (CD 11), Ferenc Pálvölgyi (CD 12: 1-6), Endre Mosó (CD 12:
7-16)
Recording producers: Tibor Erkel (CD 8, CD 9, CD 10: 17-19, CD 12: 1-6), Sándor
Balassa (CD 10: 1-16, CD 11), Péter Aczél (CD 12: 7-16, CD 14), László Matz (CD
13)
CD 1
- CD 2
The 1954 Concerts, Budapest
In
early March 1954, as part of the ‘Month of Soviet-Hungarian Friendship’, Richter
arrived in Budapest as a member of a large Soviet delegation of artists. The
39-year-old pianist was completely unknown at the time to the Hungarian public,
but in a matter of moments he had Budapest music-lovers enraptured. Many legends
later circulated about his first Budapest concerts: that these were his first
appearances abroad; that the Great Hall of the Music Academy had to be filled
with soldiers and students for the first concert, because nobody was interested
in the unknown Soviet pianist; that in the interval of his first solo recital
Budapest telephone were jammed as everyone tried to call their friends and
acquaintances to come to the Academy of Music, because they’d never heard the
like; that during the performance of Beethoven’s Appassionata the
bewitched audience gradually stood up and listened to the pianist in amazement.
In spring 1954 Richter performed in Hungary twelve times: he performed as
soloist in four orchestral concerts, played chamber music with the Tchaikovsky
Quartet also visiting from Moscow, gave two solo recitals, two small concerts
for young people, one in Győr with the singer Mark Reizen, and two
invitation-only concerts.
On 8 March Richter made his first joint appearance with the Hungarian State
Symphony Orchestra with János Ferencsik, in which he performed Robert
Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor (op. 54, 1841–45) and as an
encore pieces from Johannes Brahms’ Klavierstücke op. 118 (1892).
As the soloist in the concerto, besides the utter perfection and the sparkling
virtuosity of his playing, it now became apparent that he had a special
sensitivity for Schumann’s music, and furthermore an outstanding attentiveness
towards his partners, the orchestra and conductor: the merit for the delicate
undulation of the balance and proportion of sound on this recording goes to both
Richter and Ferencsik. ‘I was very pleased to be able to perform with János
Ferencsik,’ said the pianist after a concert in the journal Sovetskaya
Kultura. ‘In our joint appearance we managed to create the kind of
unfettered soaring, and yet a close relationship, that rarely comes into being
between conductor and soloist.’
The program of his solo recital on 10 March included half a dozen preludes and
fugues from Book I of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier
(BWV 847, 856, 857, 864, 865, 1722), Bach’s French Suite in C minor
(BWV 813, from the 1720s) a Mozart sonata, Beethoven’s Appasionata and
for encore, three pieces by Chopin. The Bach of the ‘young’ Richter (he was 39
at the time) was typified by puritanical clarity, pregnant and rigorous shaping,
and monochrome dynamics. In an interview to the review Új Zenei Szemle
Richter spoke interestingly about questions of style in playing Bach, still
pertinent today: ‘To penetrate deep into the essence of the work entails
attempting to conjure up the atmosphere of the era, the contemporary sound. I am
not thinking here of slavish imitation of the sound of early instruments, such
as the harpsichord, but the creation of the atmosphere surrounding the work. In
spite of this, my opinion is that some of Bach’s works should be performed on a
harpsichord, and I would gladly do so myself, if I had access to a suitable
instrument.’
Richter’s second solo recital on 26 March comprised works by Prokofiev and
Ravel. His first public performance of Sergei Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 8
(op. 84, 1939–44) had been in Moscow in 1944. In a piece he wrote on the
composer, Richter said of the composition: ‘Of all Prokofiev’s sonatas, this is
the richest. It has a complex inner life, replete with deep contradictions. At
times it seems to freeze, as if to surrender itself to the implacable passing of
time. It is difficult to access, precisely because of its richness – like a tree
dripping heavy with fruit.’ In his 1954 Budapest concert the Prokofiev work
sounded in all its splendor. The rest of the official programme included three
pieces by Maurice Ravel: the Pavane pour une infante défunte
(1899), the second piece of Gaspard de la nuit, Le gibet (1908)
and the Valses nobles et sentimentales (1911), and by way of
encore Richter played a half-concert’s-worth of Prokofiev, Ravel and Rachmaninov
works, of which this disc features two pieces by Ravel: Jeux d’eau
(1901) and the fourth piece of the Miroirs cycle, the Alborada del
gracioso (1905). The clear contours, classical part writing and
archaicisms of Ravel’s piano music in Richter’s performances took on a similarly
clear, simple, rhythmic and pregnant form, like the music of Johann Sebastian
Bach, with a multitude of colors, shades of touch, and sparkling virtuosity.
CD 3
The 1958 Concerts, Budapest
In
February 1958 Richter appeared seven times: in addition to two large-scale solo
recitals and an invitation-only event he gave two concerts with his wife Nina
Dorliac, a chamber music recital with the Tátrai Quartet, and as a soloist with
the Hungarian State Symphony Orchestra, he played piano concertos by Mozart and
Brahms in the Erkel Theatre, conducted by András Kórody. At his first solo
recital on 9 February in the Great Hall of the Academy of Music he performed
Schubert’s Sonata in C minor, Schumann’s Toccata in C major and
Musorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, with encores by Rachmaninov and
Debussy, and at the second on 11 February he played the Schubert A major
Sonata, the C major Moment Musical, three impromptus and works by
Liszt.
Richter played Franz Schubert’s four-movement late C minor sonata
(D. 958, 1828) in Budapest in February 1958 and March 1973. Though the
difference between the earlier and the later interpretation is enormous, the
tempos and time proportions of the two performances are similar, and reflect the
same basic conception, namely: the intensification of Schubertian wanderer music
into a flight from pursuers, and the transformation of longed-for happiness into
mere illusion, a scheme which Richter conveyed with wonderful poetry on both
occasions. The earlier Schubert interpretation is perhaps more aloof, yet it is
more technically compact, and the characteristic subito forte and
piano effects have great impact. The Toccata in C major by
Robert Schumann (op. 7, 1833) is played at a rattling tempo, with
extraordinary dynamism and fervor.
Richter’s second 1958 solo recital also included magical pieces by Schubert;
rather than this early recording of the A major Sonata (D. 664) this
series includes the later one made at the 1978 Budapest concert (CD 10). In his
performance of Schubert’s C major Moment Musical (D. 780/1, 1828)
simple beauty is combined with an enormous dynamic intensity. But the real
sensation of the concert for the Hungarian audience was the series of Liszt
pieces. In his own characteristic manner he mingled the highly popular virtuoso
works with the rarefied atmosphere of Liszt’s later compositions. Franz Liszt’s
second Concert Etude, Gnomenreigen (Dance of the Gnomes,
1863) shows the artist’s astounding virtuosity. In Richter’s interpretation, the
sentimental banality of Liebesträume (Dreams of Love,
1845–50, three Notturni, transcriptions of Liszt songs), is ennobled to music
with a powerful inner charge. Particularly beautiful is the poetry that radiates
from the expressive rendition of the Petrarch Sonnet 123 (Années
de pèlerinage, Deuxième annee: Italie, 1838–39/1850). The performance of the
three Valses oubliées (1881–83) is characterized by pregnant
rhythms, brilliant runs, trills, repeated notes and outstandingly sensitive
touch. Hungarian critics could not help but conclude that Richter’s playing is
just as unique in its own way, as Franz Liszt’s must have been in his time.
In Dorliac and Richter’s Song recital on 12 February, the songs sung in the
original language shone out: Modest Musorgsky’s The Nursery and songs
from Claude Debussy’s series Ariettes oubliées (1888),
which lent themselves especially well to Nina Dorliac’s supple, light soprano,
and Richter’s accompaniment underlined the character of the music even more and
created perfectly attuned chamber music.
In autumn 1958 and 1961 Richter appeared in orchestral concerts in Budapest, as
the soloist in Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Liszt’s A major Piano
Concerto. At the Liszt concert, by way of an encore he played the
Hungarian Fantasy with the Hungarian State Symphony Orchestra conducted by
János Ferencsik, earning riotous applause.
CD 4
- CD 5
The 1963 Concerts, Budapest
Having arrived from Vienna, Richter gave a solo recital on 27 and 29 April 1963
in the Academy of Music and the Erkel Theatre respectively, and on 30 April
performed in Debrecen. The programme of the two Budapest concerts is radically
different, while the Debrecen programme is a combination of the two.
The program for the concert in the Music Academy on 27 April featured a
Beethoven sonata, followed by works by Schubert almost or wholly unknown to the
Hungarian audience. In his performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s B-flat
major Sonata (op. 22, 1799/1800) the many faces of the master from Bonn
are clearly apparent: in the first movement the unbridled vivacity of the young
Beethoven – in Richter’s ‘clamp’, the elegantly polished social style of the
minuet and the closing rondo, and the Adagio, which on his piano Richter plays
in the countless shades between pianissimo and mezzopiano, the voice of
rumination and suffering. Franz Schubert’s Drei Klavierstücke (D.
946, 1828) date from the year of the composer’s death, and each of them is built
on intricate melodies of infinite tormentation and boundless peace; Richter
played them as a minstrel recounting his own ballad to the audience. The
notorious technical difficulties of the C major Wanderer Fantasy
are charged with substance in Richter’s performance, and the public at the Music
Academy witnessed several descents to hell and cathartic purifications.
The
program of his 29 April concert spans the eighteenth and twentieth centuries.
His performance of Georg Friedrich Händel’s four-movement Suite in
E major (No. 5, 1720) moves from a grand, Romantic, heavily pedaled
Prelude to increasingly puritan simplicity, and Richter plays the complex
ornaments of the closing variation movement with utter clarity. The Händel suite
is linked by key to the first of Shostakovich’s Preludes and Fugues, in E
minor, written more than two centuries later. The six pieces selected from
Dmitri Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes and Fugues (op. 87, 1952) are a
visionary Richterian combination, which ignores the original order completely
(no. 4 in E minor, no. 12 in G-sharp minor, no. 23 in F major, no. 14 in E-flat
minor, no. 17 in A-flat major and no. 15 in D-flat major), and whose basic
principle is the contrast of each piece: after delicate, sensitive, intricate
music comes a concise bass variation and a snappy fugue; after introverted
music, extrovert. In Richter’s performance these Shostakovich pieces sound
perfectly simple and natural, yet highly colorful. Another individual, colorful
and varied compilation was the ten pieces he played from the series of twenty of
Sergei Prokofiev’s Мимолетности (Visions Fugitives, op. 22,
1915–17), which Richter presented to the audience in three small ‘bouquets’ to
the raving public, showing how different the flowers Russian-Soviet music had
put forth in the gardens of Shostakovich and Prokofiev.
CD 6
1965, Budapest
In summer 1965 Richter travelled the breadth of Hungary: on 16 July he played in
Szombathely, on the 17th in Budapest and on the 21st in Miskolc. Much of the
program of the Szombathely concert was also played in Budapest, but he gave the
public a completely different offering in Miskolc: here he played, for the only
time on Hungarian territory, the Liszt B minor Sonata. No recording was
made of the Miskolc concert.
The program of the solo recital in the Erkel Theatre included works by Mozart,
Beethoven and Chopin. Richter played the outer movements of Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart’s three-movement F major Sonata (K. 280, 1774) with
poetry but restraint, as if playing Haydn on an eighteenth-century instrument;
the great surprise pauses in the closing movement also gave this impression. But
the ruminative performance of the great central slow movement tipped Mozart’s
music in a Schubertian direction. The grand interpretation of Ludwig van
Beethoven’s Sonata in A major (op. 101, 1816) with its free treatment
of agogics, revealed the enormous contrasts of the work: from the contemplative
opening movement through the volatile march, the marvelously peaceful and
restrained slow movement, to the flexible rhythms and impish elements of the
finale, crowned with a fugue – he cast the sonata in one single arc. In
Frédéric Chopin’s Four Scherzos (B minor, op. 20, 1831–32,
B-flat minor, op. 31, 1837, C-sharp minor, op. 39, and E major,
op. 54, 1842) Richter boldly emphasized the light and shade of Chopin’s music,
creating huge contrast between the racing main themes and the calm central
sections.
CD 7
The 1967 Concerts
Once
more, Richter arrived unexpectedly in summer to surprise the Budapest audiences
with two concerts on successive evenings in the Erkel Theatre with completely
different programs.
After the large-scale Beethoven–Schubert program of 27 August Richter took his
leave of the public with a lyrically soaring performance of two Schumann
Novelettes (F major and D major op. 21,
1838); many considered the two encores to be the most memorable moment of the
concert. On 28 August he played Haydn, Chopin and Debussy, unraveling the hidden
threads that bind together these three great composers of keyboard music, each
from a different culture. Joseph Haydn’s Sonata in C major
(Hob.XVI:35, 1779–80) strikes a note of classical beauty and clarity, with
transparent texture on Richter’s piano. Similar clarity, natural impetus, and
flexible mazurka rhythms with delicate ornamentation characterize a performance
of a less well-known early work by Frédéric Chopin, the Rondeau à
la mazur (op. 5, 1826). After the Ballade in G minor, in
Claude Debussy’s Twelve Preludes (Book II, 1910–13) Richter
continued and consummated the concert with pastel tints of musical colors, the
pianistic novelties, and nuanced gradations of tone-color. This series of twelve
pieces, each strikingly individual in its relation to the series and highly
varied within itself, satisfied even Richter’s high dramaturgic demands, so –
unusually for him – he played the entire Book II of Debussy’s Préludes
in the original order, to the great delight of the audience.
In autumn 1967 Richter returned to Budapest, and on 18 September performed
Britten’s Piano Concerto with the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra,
conducted by János Ferencsik.
CD 8
1969, Budapest
In November 1969 Richter again arrived in Hungary from the West: after
performing in Sopron and Veszprém, he gave two concerts in the Great Hall of the
Budapest Music Academy. This time the program of the four concerts was almost
identical: after Schubert variations and a selection from Schumann’s
Fantasiestücke there followed 12 Rachmaninov Preludes, and at the
second Budapest concert Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 8.
The solo recital in the Music Academy on 18 November was perhaps Richter’s most
successful Budapest concert, with its intellectually and technically perfect
performances, its every moment an enthralling experience. He once more produced
an unknown work by Franz Schubert: Thirteen Variations on a Theme by
Anselm Hüttenbrenner (D. 576, 1817), a fairly early composition, with a
very simple theme (reminiscent of the opening melody of the slow movement of
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7), and after some charming figured variations
the gates of heaven and hell are flung open. With the six pieces from Robert
Schumann’s series of Fantasiestücke (op. 12, 1837), Richter’s
Schumann reached its highest peak: he saw Schumann’s world as one infinitely
broad, in which demented passion and profound calm could coexist, all in a
crystal-clear form – similarly, though in quite a different manner, to
Schubert’s music. ‘Whoever would have thought that an almost tangible musical
question mark could be drawn in the concert hall’s incandescent air?’ wrote one
Hungarian critic of the performance of Warum? (Why?). The
performance of the twelve preludes, selected from Sergei
Rachmaninov’s op. 23 (1903–04) and op. 32 (1910) series with the
characteristic Richterian sense of drama persuaded the Hungarian public, who had
until then looked down somewhat on the Russian composer, of Rachmaninov’s true
value; he showed the full significance of the unusual harmonies, the character
now veiled, now full of bold feeling, the color that hovers on the border
between dream and reality. One of the encores to the concert was one of the few
transcriptions that Richter was willing to play (and how splendidly!) – the
Waltz from Sergei Prokofiev’s opera War and Peace (op.
91, 1944).
In 1972 Richter’s journey bisected Hungary from north to south: in the morning
of 16 February he stopped off in Debrecen to practice (which in the small green
room behind the great hall of the local Music School all the teachers, young and
old alike, listened to with bated breath), and that evening performed in Szeged,
the following day in Subotica (Yugoslavia); the treasures of the Szeged concert
are contained in Disc 10. In 1973 he performed in Budapest in both spring and
autumn: in March he gave two Bach recitals, and in a third played two grand late
Schubert sonatas, whilst in October he gave a memorable concert with Dietrich
Fischer-Dieskau of Hugo Wolf’s Mörike Lieder.
CD 9
The 1973 Bach Concerts
On
13 and 15 March in the Great Hall of the Budapest Music Academy Richter played
the entire Book II of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier
(BWV 870–903, 1738–42) right through. After the two concerts he gave precise
designations to the staff of Hungarian Radio what could and could not be
broadcast; some of the preludes and fugues from the encores he played so that
they could be used to substitute for a performance (in his view) a less than
satisfactory. The compilation on this disc was made on the basis of the approved
selection by the pianist.
Richter played Bach with the same simplicity and conciseness in 1973 as he had
in 1954; yet his tone had changed, becoming more colorful and saturated with
emotion, the scale of color running from whispered pianissimos to mezzo forte,
in a thousand gradations of tone and touch. He played the piano with the lid
down, which depending on the character of each prelude and fugue sounded now
like a domestic clavichord, now like a ringing harpsichord, now like a normal
hammer-action piano. In pieces of every character – the calm, contemplative
works muted with the una corda pedal (such as the C-sharp major
and C-sharp minor preludes, the D-sharp minor and A-flat major
fugues and the A minor prelude), the bright, energetic pieces (such
as the C major fugue, the C minor prelude, the C-sharp minor,
E-flat major, A major, A minor, and B minor fugues), and the playful
dance-like movements (the C-sharp major fugue, the E-flat major, G
major and B major preludes) the parts weave perfectly clearly, each
one with its own color and life, while the whole composition takes firm shape in
Richter’s performance.
At the end of 1974 Richter gave two concerts in Pécs, and in April 1975 appeared
in Győr. In December 1976 he played two recitals in the Budapest Music Academy,
a mostly new program of Beethoven sonatas and Schumann and Chopin works never
before heard by him in Hungary. In spring 1977 he appeared in Debrecen, and in
August 1978 once more in the capital, en route, with a Schubert, Schumann and
Debussy program.
CD 10
Excerpts from the 1972 Szeged, and 1976 and 1978 Budapest concerts
The recording of the legendary Szeged concert is only slightly marred by the
less than perfect instrument and acoustic environment. After Schubert’s
magnificent late C minor Sonata, which Richter also played in Budapest in
1958, then in 1973, a rarely heard gem followed: five pieces from Volume I
of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s Songs without Words (op. 19b,
1830). In Richter’s hands these small poetic pieces sound in all their lyrical
beauty, with some heart-stopping dramatic moments. Frédéric Chopin’s
early B-flat minor Nocturne (op. 9, 1830) also sang out with
wonderful lyricism. The continuation was an organic progression, with the three
pieces of Book I of Claude Debussy’s Images roaming through
the broad world of the magic of nature, a ballad-like vision, and a perpetuum
mobile. The encores included one unusual piece by Debussy, the
Hommage à Haydn.
On 10 December 1976 in the Academy of Music after the Beethoven sonata and the
Schumann work he played pieces by Frédéric Chopin. In the F major
Waltz (op. 34, 1831) Richter conveyed the dizziness of the dance with
capricious rhythms and marked accentuation, and in the D-flat major Waltz
(op. 70, 1829), its gentle lilt and singing character. The four Mazurkas
are played with impressive simplicity and beauty, with refined yet striking
ornamentation.
Franz Schubert’s earlier A major Sonata (D. 664, 1819)
commenced and continued with such sweet, calm singing tones in the summer 1978
concert in Budapest, one would think life’s dark powers, Richter’s demons, did
not exist. Even the heavy octaves in the left hand merged into this gentle
character, and in the closing movement there shone sunshine and humor.
CD 11
The 1976 Beethoven Recital in the Budapest Music Academy
The
concert of 9 December could be entitled ‘The Character Development of Young
Beethoven’ or ‘Bildungsroman: between Classicism and Romanticism, from 1795 to
1801’. Richter played the opening movement of the op. 2 F minor Sonata
(1795) at a surprisingly slow tempo, in a classicizing manner, and the Adagio’s
infinite calm showed no sign of swerving off this course. Greater contrasts
sounded in the Minuet, and with the fervid scurrying of the closing Prestissimo
the audience was transported to the world of Schubert. In his performance of the
first movement of the op. 10 D major Sonata (1796–98) was apparent
the rich thematic variety, the emotional world and the expansion of the register
of the fully-developed Beethovenian sonata form process. In the Largo e mesto
the deepest of sorrows was expressed with the simplest of means. With the
enormous change to the delicate song of the Minuet and the playfully cheerful
Rondo (though not devoid of scare tactics), he placed the mature Beethoven on
the Music Academy stage. The op. 14 E major Sonata (1798) once
more takes us back to the world of Classical proportion and clarity, spiced up
with a few Richterian ‘thunderbolts’, and with a feverish drive to the closing
rondo. The opening set of variations of the op. 26 A-flat major Sonata
(1800–01) seems in Richter’s interpretation to presage the piano music of
Schumann. In place of the second-movement minuet stands a scherzo, initially
gentle, but increasingly wild, and after the grave, solemn, but clear and
transparent playing of the Marcia funebre, lamenting the death of a hero,
the finale starts enigmatically but playfully, to become a dramatic chase, a
terrifying sprint.
In summer 1980 Richter arrived in Hungary from the east, and appeared with the
same program in Miskolc and Budapest. On 11 and 12 September 1982 he surprised
the audience in the Pest Vigadó concert hall with unusual works: after
rarely-heard pieces by Liszt he played Franck and Szymanowski. In summer 1983 he
arrived with another unconventional program, compiled of Tchaikovsky’s piano
music and pieces from Rachmaninov’s cycle of Études-Tableaux. In January
1985 he performed with the young violist Yuri Bashmet in the Hungarian State
Opera House, with a program of Haydn, Hindemith and Debussy on the first
evening, and Hindemith, Britten and Shostakovich on the second. On Easter Sunday
1985 he once more travelled through Hungary, and in an invitation-only concert
one afternoon played exclusively Hindemith. In early summer 1986 he stopped to
give two concerts in Győr.
CD 12
Excerpts from the concerts in the Pest Vigadó Hall, 1982 and the Opera House,
1985
In the darkened hall of the Pest Vigadó the pianist’s music was illuminated by
one single standard lamp. Richter selected some less popular and showy pieces
from Franz Liszt’s Harmonies poétiques et religieuses (1847–52),
and he was engrossed in the performance of this meditative music. This disc
features the contemplative suffering of the Andante lagrimoso (no.
9). In Richter’s organically structured performance, César Franck’s
large-scale tripartite composition, the Prélude, Chorale and Fugue
(1884) took on a discursive style, with organ-like sonorities. After the sonata
by Karol Szymanowski, he played four Mazurkas from Szymanowski’s
op. 50 series, pieces with a peculiar modal flavor and conceived in the harmonic
world of the twentieth century, whose melancholy mood, contemplative nature and
passionate rhythms perfectly suited the atmosphere of the concert.
On 14 January 1985, in the second half of his joint concert with Yuri Bashmet in
the Hungarian State Opera House he played ten pieces from Book I of
Claude Debussy’s Préludes. Omitting La fille aux cheveux de lin
(The Girl with the Flaxen Hair) and Minstrels, he forged the series into
a tripartite cycle with his own individual dramaturgy. The five preludes of the
first part – Danseuses de Delphes, Voiles, Le Vent dans le plaine, Les sons
et les parfums tournent dans l’air du soir, Les collines d’Anacapri – was a
basically pastel formulation of colours, shadows and scents, yet with great
internal variety. The second – Des pas sur la neige, and Ce qu’a vu le
vent d’Ouest – was a sombre, stark, shockingly concise image of a winter
landscape and a turbulent seascape, and the third – La sérénade interrompue,
La Cathédrale engloutie, and La Danse de Puck – was the poetry of the
real world, with concrete sonorities, a rigorous structure and pregnant rhythm.
CD 13
The 1983 Tchaikovsky–Rachmaninov Recital at the Academy of Music
In
this concert Richter presented the Hungarian public with two segments of the
peculiar Russian world, very different one from the other, though nurtured by
the same roots. With piano works by Pyotr Tchaikovsky (four pieces from
the series The Seasons op. 71/b, 1875–76, the F major
Nocturne op. 10/1, 1871, the A major Valse-scherzo op. 7,
1870, the E minor Humoresque op. 10/2, 1871, the B-flat
major Capriccioso op. 19/5, 1873, the A-flat major Valse
op. 40/8, 1876–78, the F minor Romance op. 5, 1882), he conjured
up the atmosphere of the salons in the country houses of the nineteenth-century
Russian nobility – now intimate and refined, now clod-hopping, simultaneously
smiling and tearful – and its rarely-seen tragedies. Tchaikovsky’s little genre
pieces were played in a fine, simple, expressive performance, in which Richter
gave them the same attention and absorption as the greatest music.
The eight works chosen from Sergei Rachmaninov’s two series of
Études-Tableaux (op. 33/9, 5, 6, 1911 and op. 39/1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 1916–17)
show the visionary, tragic world of the early twentieth century, with pieces
predominantly in the minor, chiming funereal music, triumphant fanfares, shrill
orchestral and organ-like sonorities, which sounded with captivating virtuosity
in Richter’s hands, triggering a spontaneous applause after almost every work.
In the early 1990s Richter visited Budapest twice more: in June 1991 he gave a
solo recital of Bach and Mozart in the Academy of Music and played two Bach
concerti with the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra. In autumn 1993 he stopped for
one single concert, and this was the last time the Hungarian audiences were able
to hear him.
CD 14
The Last Concert in Budapest
On 9 November 1993 the 78-year-old pianist gave a concert in Budapest’s new
concert hall, the Budapest Congress Centre, with a capacity of fifteen hundred,
in which the intimacy of the musicianship surpassed the atmosphere of the 1983
Tchaikovsky–Rachmaninov recital. Richter made a personal selection from the 68
compositions in the seventeen volumes of Liriske stykker (Lyric
Pieces) by Edvard Grieg, whose 150th anniversary was that year.
This time the selection kept to the composer’s chronological order, and the 22
pieces played in the concert showed in their continuity and their diversity the
highly original voice of the ‘musical diary’ kept by the Norwegian composer for
34 years: Arietta, Waltz, Watchman’s song,
Elves’ Dance (op. 12, 1867), Spring Dance,
Canon (op. 38, 1883), Butterfly, To the Spring
(op. 43, 1884), Valse-impromptu (op. 47, 1888),
Norwegian March, Scherzo, Bell Ringing (op.
54, 1891), Secret, She Dances, Homesickness
(op. 57, 1893), Phantom (op. 62, 1895), Wedding Day in
Troldhaugen (op. 65, 1896), Evening in the Mountains (op.
68, 1898), Puck, Peace in the Woods, Gone,
Remembrances (op. 71, 1901). There were character pieces, genre
pictures, programmatic miniatures, impressionistic tone poems, dances and
spirited folklore works – played simply and expressively, markedly accentuated
even in their reticence, and with the marvelous richness of color of Richter’s
touch. The whole evening was spent in a spirit of philosophical musing almost
independent of the instrument, in which nostalgia and sadness were more present
than cheeriness; the profound message of a great elderly artist through
miniature masterpieces.
Note: For info on Richter's various recordings of Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier click here.