Mozart Sonata in C minor - Richter

[Xiaolian7]

Thank you for this beautiful piece. I am a Falun Gong practitioner. Falun Dafa is a cultivation system in the Buddha School based on the principles of the Universe:

真 Truthfulness

善 Compassion

忍 Forbearance.

Since 1999 it has been brutally persecuted by the CCP in China.

[nitabahtiri]

I like it,exept the ending...

[nicsevern]

huh this is EXACTLY how i play it when i practice, still think it needs to be a bit more enthusiastic if you know what i mean

[pianist1274]

a great recording of this piece, but Uchida's recording is by far the best one out there

[Lawrencelovespiano]

@pianist1274

I completely agree with you! Uchida's recording is awesome! And in my opinion, the best. However, Richter's recording is good.

[smallfellowz]

I LOVE HIS EXPOSITION(:

[PaulJohnBeatles]

the tempo is perfect! bravo

[Fwibbib19]

didn't like the way he played the ending 8 bars or so, but the rest of the piece sounded just superb

[TJFNYC212]

Try Alicia Delarrocha's recording of this sonata. It is great. Her melodic less bombastic technical approach is so MOZART.

[paolopulici67]

Favolosa!

[colourfulwithaU]

Richter is top.

[silverscape1]

Slight slip just after 8:25 methinks (in the bass octaves)

[brandonscherrer]

@silverscape1 Mistakes are nothing :)

[31557600]

I do like this tempo.

[CanadaPisces]

A piano virtuoso! Thank you liszt111.

[edziomy]

GENIUS!!! No exaggeration.

[sweetnessglyc]

I thought i had mastered this sonata, until i listened to this, and now i'm back to Czerny's speed and dexterity excercises.... I hate geniuses!!! I really wish I were one, too... =(

[superpoopermonkey]

fun to listen to sucky to play

[Jusohpin]

exactly. LOL

[elivioli]

BELLÍSIMA OBRA POR FAVOR!!

[rawrface212]

love this sonata. im considering it for my undergrad auditions. anyone have any suggestions or opinions on it?

[OrMush]

i love this sonata too. go for it!

[ZhongFu]

@rawrface212 Do ittttt! :D

[paolopulici67]

woow....Great Svjatoslav.

[colourfulwithaU]

Tasty.

[sichosi]

man i'm fucked in my grade 8, I play it nothing like his Dx

[Fwibbib19]

lol. same! It's all the key changes that piss me off. I keep ending up playing the wrong passages XD

[ilovefchopin]

LOL  this happen to me tooo

[mirandacentaurus]

WONDERFUL

[AnonymousWhitePerson]

Contrapuntal.

[AnonymousWhitePerson]

Mozart truly shit out masterpiece after masterpiece.

[HelveteKeiser]

hahahaha yeah!

[AnonymousWhitePerson]

Mozart was a shit-stained genius!

[kingalfred100]

so so so so many mistakes, my grandfather can play better than your tempo, my grandfather is already 93 years old and can play better, is the pianist older? i think not because my grandfater is one of the oldest pianist in the earth, he is no ther than beethovan. i think Bach will also lose to my grandfather, my grandfather is death yet play so well, i hope to be like him and become the most famous man on earth, including being the most popular composer ever on earth, the most song written :O..

[etude12]

God, you make me laugh. Shouldn't your user name be King George3?

[SapphireM]

I thought George had porforia...this boy has tourettes!

[etude12]

Ha! I stand corrected!

[kmish213]

it's easy to tell you aren't serious

[Leo199169]

hey ya'll I hear some mistakes!!! So... Nothing or no one is perfect)))

[rwsts]

best version

[Phi1618033]

Why does everyone insist on playing Mozart so dainty? You know Richter could tear this piece up if he wanted to.

[oatboy]

The nature of classical era music lends itself to that, that was simply the philosophy of the era. Moderation, control, perfect balance and grace. It's almost as if the perfection of form makes it beyond humans, and we can only attempt to do it justice, it's similar to a lot of greek thoughts on art. As opposed to the Romantic ideals which are about human emotion.

[ruthlessandevil]

im pretty sure Beethoven would disagree with that.

[oatboy]

Beethoven was not a classicist, only his early period works emulate that style. He was the seminal Romanticist in western music, so it doesnt matter what beethoven would think of that statement. Besides that's not my personal opinion that's the consensus of philosophers, historians and musicologists.

[punkpoetry]

No serious scholar or philosopher would subscribe to your gross, sweepingly overgeneralizing polarizations. Had you gone into the trouble of actually familiarizing yourself with serious scholarship (rather than the shopsoiled Classical Muzak 101 cliches you're spouting), you'd find more contention than consensus on these immensely complex and subtle points

[oatboy]

Well I've studied with serious and well regarded music historians and theorists, so I'm not sure why you think that. Care to be a bit more specific in your criticism of my statements?

[punkpoetry]

The neat dichotomy between reason and emotion is a caricature of the complexities of much of The Enlightenment thought, as readers of Kant, Swift, Burke, Johnson and Diderot are aware: much of the era's philosophic discourse is devoted to intense self-questioning and inquiry into the slippery and intangible relation between these two human faculties. As a Wordsworth scholar I'm keenly aware of the schism brought about by Romanticism, but conceptualizing it the way you did would pass muster only

[punkpoetry]

in Wiki entries and intro tutorials. Re Mozart: I'm aware of at least two major treatises on Mozart as a cataclysmic, inscrutable genius (rather than the sunny, dainty, wig wearing fountain of garrulity): Chicherin's *Моцарт* and Philippe Sollers' *Mystérieux Mozart* (in Russian and French, respectively), and I'm sure there is much else written on this. To quote the great Emil Gilels, "was he dainty? He was a tragic figure and something of this must come through in your playing"

[saltyseaweed]

These rigid classifications are silly. It's not like Beethoven woke up one day and decided to be a romantic composer. These designations are given by later generations trying to distinguish musical styles.

[oatboy]

You can never fully classify something obviously, but there were MAJOR philosophical changes he underwent between his first and second compositional periods, which he wrote about. His writings refer to the new Romantic poets, and he begins to espouse some very Romantic ideals, compared to his earlier thinking. So while I agree with you to some degree you can actually make a pretty good case that he DID wake up one day and decide to be a Romantic composer, right after the Heiligenstadt Testament.

[saltyseaweed]

Yes, there is a break in musical tradition but it's not neat and diametrically different. Earlier composers were not totally devoid of romantic and dramatic ideals. They were more subdued and lacking some musical vocabulary, but Beethoven's pursued was not completely new. One should not hinge musical interpretation on mechanical distinction between classic versus romantic but should rather treat each piece on a case-by-case basis. That's all I'm saying.

[ubbddu]

i dont find it to be pure dainty some of it is and some of it isnt.

[lionlambcountry]

wow lol u guys have funny comments,i'm sorry i just find it reallu amuseing

[Gabri950]

Magnifica sonata;ottima interpretazione

[Xiphosss]

I have this Sonate for college exam...I`m in 8th grade...it's very beautiful Sonate !

And thanks for uploading this !

[lesmizzle]

Excuse me... Eschenbach

[liszt111]

I found his performance to be rather flat for one of the most stormy piano sonatas of mozart

[lesmizzle]

Flat in what sense? Can you be more specific?

[Lawrencelovespiano]

@lesmizzle

Eschenbach is good, have you heard Uchida's, it's a good one also.

[lesmizzle]

Hmmm... this is the first Richter recording that hasn't blown me away. I have to say that I find rhythmic articulation to be on the sloppy side. I feel as though the romantic rubato touch kicks in twice as much as needed for this sober piece.

[liszt111]

whose performance of this do you prefer then?

[lesmizzle]

Christoph Eshenbach

[keelan111]

Troll

[yourforte]

This is a wonderful performance

[Superbdragon]

I don't understand Gulda's performance, I can't enjoy it, it´s too fast.

[romanianpianist]

well in the original manuscript there is no "molto" allegro, it's only allegro. Plus, the movement is written in 4/4 and not alla breve. Therefore, I think it shouldn't be faster than this tempo. The last movement is molto allegro indeed (and not allegro vivace or something) and you can see from the length of the bars and the legato that it's much faster than the first one. It's all written in the score, we just need to understand it before we start interpreting it...

[dinastein44]

I love Richter's interpretation. To my mind he plays this sonata in exactly the right tempo, a opposed to a lot of modern pianists who rush the piece. Of course, we'll never know exactly what tempo Mozart wanted it played but it sounds so right, plus Richter gives you time to really enjoy it without the feeling he wants to get it over with quickly, rather like Gulda does.

[idasofie6]

I completely agree with you. In my sheet notes (Urtext, G. henle Verlag) it says in the comments that the piece was originally only "allegro", and that "molto" was added later in a second edition, and not by Mozart himself.

[otterhouse]

clear, without being poppy. very good!

-----------------------------

Rolf, Netherlands.

I am a collector of classical 78's and lp's

Click "otterhouse" above to see (and hear!)

some of my collection.

[suzettegm]

I think it works out fine.

[francorussie]

I think it is fine, with purity and clarity (which some performers can not reach)

[Dzikslol]

In my opinion Richter is a bit too much romantic, five stars anyway as it's great.

[gerryrains]

Dzikslol,

I totally agree with you. It's like David Oistrakh. I have a massive collection of his and for Romantic and later he walks on water, but his Mozart violin concerti on Angel just don't work out. I think that it has something to do with the Moscow Conservatory. That rich, lush Oistrakh sound that makes Oistrakh's Testament recording of the Beethoven violin concerto the best ever just doesn't work for Mozart and Richter seems to be the same way. But what a duo they were!

[4444matthew4444]

not true

[francorussie]

I thinks Richter ' s was fine, with purity and clarity, which some other performers tend to lac)

[HaparukuU]

On the contrary, I like what he did. This specific piece was very far ahead of its time, and leaned more towards the Beethoven era. And thus, a little bit of romantic interpretation should be fine...

[znanto]

grand