Sviatoslav Richter plays Bach French Suite no.2 in C minor, BWV 813 (1/2)

[Zaynlovesme2]

OMG it makes me sleep

[gadionson1]

great video

[meyerchen86]

in the picture he looks like john malkovich!

[akhoucharmouta]

Must not cry when listening to this....Must not cry when listening to this....Must not cry when listening to this.....I AM IN THE GOD DAMN WORK

[AntonioSaucedo22]

@akhoucharmouta

Go ahead and cry, but cry tears of joy for this is perfection

[akhoucharmouta]

@AntonioSaucedo22

I cried and I became clean, I was back a child...

[RichterThePianist]

I like his great lightness, his brilliant tune and his complete music oponion!!!!

Thank you for this posting!!!

[60okka]

In the past, I used to love Gould so much and his all interpretations of Bach. Then later on learning about other great pianists, I came to confess that there are more frank, more touchy interpretations. For me now Richter has a feeling, ein Gefühl, something felt in, rather than dictating the piece. This may be related to his assumption about recording. He didnt like recording at all. You may only record in your mind in your heart ,it is a fact. I am lucky to be Richters contemporary.

[TheMauthe]

meravigliosa interpretazione Bach starebbe orgoglioso grazie

[bonsema1]

what´s your problem ?

No need to be so pissy for some idle banter on YT

[bonsema1]

JohnEBPiano the venue in fact was the swedish embassy residence in Mexico City , about 28 years ago.

Eight years later I finally decided to give up. playing & sold my Yamaha 1/2 grand ( 1.85m ) Smart move on my part ! That same evening I also performed a 4 hands hungarian dance by Dvorak. My frenchie playing partner , who also was my piano teacher, had started off playing in a tempo several ticks above what we had rehearsed . I have never forgiven him. Today these are dear memories

[jasjjb]

@bonsema1

Selling your piano was possibly the best thing you could have done. Nobody wants to hear from someone who is so full of himself like you seem to be. Critical of your piano teacher - critical of Sviatoslav Richter with stupid comments. Lucky for your previous 70 audience in the assisted living centre that they could at least switch their hearing aids off.

[bonsema1]

verticaldiscourse you could very well be cleverer than me BTW I have performed the italian suite in public ( 70 audience ). Bach is like a colombian cumbia: when it´s the real thing it takes one second to confirm that. JSB probably had a lot of pupils finishing his works and had his signature put under it. Otherwise I have no explanation for so much inane , uninspired work.

[JohnEBPiano]

@bonsema1 70 AUDIENCE? Man, you really packed that assisted-living center.

[AntonioSaucedo22]

@bonsema1

Shame on you for mixing Bach Magnus with crap like cumbia.

[bonsema1]

gosh just a lot of notes wiyhout saying anything, or drama....the second part does have that but a lot of Bach oeuvre is pretty wothless

[Verticaldiscourse]

@bonsema1

Your comment is one of the most stupid things which I've read in a long, long time. Stupidity is a bottomless pit.

[peronospera]

How we miss Goldberg's version by  Richter !

[enrothable]

Does anyone know why so many Richter recordings are live?

[efitzger76]

@enrothable

Richter did not like to record, as he believed the 'moment' created in a performance contributed greatly to the entirety of a performance/ work. If you are interested, you might want to read 'Richter: The Enigma" by Bruno Monsaingeon.

[beakt]

This gentlemen is a tremendous pianist and musician. I enjoyed this performance very much. Somehow I must say I like Gould's playing better.

[88MysticGohan]

Les suites Françaises, mon gars :D

[meredith218461]

As well as extraordinary clarity Richter brings humanity to this sublime music.

[francorussie2]

Heavenly... heavenly beautiful understanding and intepretation by Richter (in this particular case, but not only this one, I do not even wish to compare this one to some other pianists'...)

[mikhel000]

I don't know why... but I prefer Gould's interpretation of Bach, his style is closer to the sound of Clave.

[sickpuppytoo]

I am writing a very boring document for my job...and i remembered this song and i have to say---it has made a pathetically dismal evening much much better...thank you for posting this song...wonderful...

[TheOneWingAngeI]

@sickpuppytoo piece**

[SquallEstel]

"Et Bach ? C'est... L'univers, beau, immense, serein,

Eternité tranquille et toujours jeune ; amour

Des hommes et de Dieu, d'hier et de demain,

Du souvenir qui vit et renaît chaque jour ;

L'univers tout entier dans le creux de la main..."

I simply love Richter's touch - this is the Bach I grew with. Pure, eternal, simple yet divine... Gould's approach of Bach is amazing too, but too "strange" in many ways for me to sympathize with it. With Richter, I feel at home...

[iguarni]

Only in heaven it is possible to play so well!!! WONDERFUL WONDERFUL WONDERFUL!!!!!!

[smudgepots]

Some of the finest Bach playing upon the piano we will ever be privileged to hear!

[MrPakired]

Richter is human, Gould divine; I can't choose, I can only clap.

[Bouboumien]

Vraiment trop beau,Richter restera toujours l'un des meilleurs pianistes,si ce n'est le meilleur,merci pour cet enregistrement magnifique.

[stlivermore]

As far as Bach is concerned, Richter and Gould were like complementary sides of the same coin, heads or tails you win. Thanx for the lovely recording.

[TheDirkplas]

Bach laughes at Scarlatti

[rockmusscarcella]

This is like being in heaven~

[thinkgreenlovepurple]

Oh wow, I find myself coming back and listening to this practically every day! Amazing I love it so much!

[Pizzadegklump]

******* shit in homework!!!

[morvensky]

Can you please make sense out of your initial comment?

[koliatima]

Magnifique!

Merci Truecrypt pour cet enregistrement.

[bachmaninoff]

Richter and Gould use the same ornaments because they are educated in the style of J.S. Bach and of baroque era keyboard playing. It is not necessarily because they heard one another play a certain piece. Certain types of ornaments are appropriate at certain times and are not always written in. Ornamentation and embellishment were expected skills of all baroque era keyboardists.

[gr0mithtimon]

they did certainly hear and admire each others playing though

[morvensky]

Very good! I prefer Gould's for the uniqueness but this is very fluent.

[codeman2008]

Organists should learn to interpret Bach more like this! We organists always play Bach so rigidly, using horrible registration of chiffy flutes and principals, and sharp mixtures... just because that's all that's what organs of the time sounded like doesn't mean that's how we have to play! Take Richter's example! Forget about using historically accurate ranks and stops of pipes, use our modern resources! What were the French Romantic, English Romantic, and American Orchestral movements for?!

[embenadorfinearts]

Richter and Gould had a complete different concept style of paying. The use of the pedal for example, which is strictly minimal with Gould's interpretation is with Richter a lyrical or human element and draw on discreet dynamic layers. They have complete different tempi (as Dinu Lipatti) it means only one important matter: Bach is such a rich composer that when interpreted at this level it can only enriched our lives. Thank you posting this concert.

[gzaenker]

@embenadorfinearts let Bach be Bach (read the book: Goedel Esher Bach). I suggest you do some more research and come to yourself by letting Sviatoslav Richter show you what the music of Bach could mean to your soul.

[Jackoby62]

@embenadorfinearts I hope you get this . Goulds version of the Allamande is Superb! in 813. But Crap in 812. What was he thinking of?? does he not love the piece??

[cuallito]

@embenadorfinearts We just need to splice their DNA then to get the definitive Bach interpreter.

[morvensky]

Richter for certain heard Gould's performance or the other way around (they use the same ornaments that are not written in, in the allemande). Great playing.

[wikt0rius]

I'm Sory but I'm playing allemande now and I play same ornaments which richter played and all of them are wrote in notes! Maybe you saw another version of this notes beceause sometimes there are few version of same bach's composition which are different in some little things (like ornaments).

[morvensky]

Maybe. Just curious, but which edition do you use?

[wikt0rius]

I use edition of Polish Music Print but unfortunately I can't tell you anything more, because I use copy not original book.

[wikt0rius]

Please can you tell me where did you find gould's performance of this suite on youtube because I can't find that and i'd like to hear him performing this beautiful composition.

[imusiciki]

Truly wonderful recording, the recurring theme is simply mesmerizing. Thank you very mcuh for sharing:)

[chad410]

beautiful.  danke.

[RabidCh]

Hmm, now that i've listened to this, I prefer his later 1991 over this recording, for the reason that the sound that old Richter could get out of the piano... simply beautiful.

Not to mention it's easier to get hehe...

ty very much for posting as always :)

[BachScholar]

This is really excellent. God, this is in a totally different class than many of Yudina's recordings. Better expression, better sound. Just plain better, period. Almost everyone is unaware though, that this particular courante is actually a slow piece but it's always played allegro. Had Bach wanted it faster like allegro he would have notated it in 3/8 rather than 3/4 because this was the established convention of the time.

[RDSerebrianny]

I'm not so sure, that there is a strong basis for your comparison. Very interesting words about the courante. What publication can we read about this? I have to play the 3/4 courantes slowly? e.g. in first and third partitas? How sad. :(

[BachScholar]

No, actually those two are fast because they have triplets and 16ths built in. But in the case where there are no 16ths (like in this courante) the perceived tempo is naturally slower because of no 16ths. You can read my article from a few years ago in Clavier titled "Of Bach and Courante Tempos", sorry but I forget the year and issue # at the moment. Also, visit my website, which has extensive information on Bach's tempos.

[weikko79]

What's with the bad sound in the beginning? Is that applause??? What year is this from?

[RabidCh]

truecrypt you know we adore Richter, and so you must tell us the year this was recorded! :D

[truecrypt]

Yes, this is a storm of applause...

It should be 1977 but I'm not completely sure.

[leviyehonatan]

@truecrypt to me it sounds like bad encoding of the audio track

[Toxxic88]

Ofcourse it's applause... what else would it be dude? Richter didn't do much studio recording, most of his pieces are from live performances.

[skryabyn]

Much faster than Gould's interp. of the first mvt. I can't decide which is better. I love it either way. They are the best two for Bach, albeit polar opposites. Haha

[weikko79]

You are quite wrong about the studio recordings; a considerable amount -- I would say 50% -- of Richter's released recordings are studio performances.

[Imforeverone88]

@weikko79 Wasn't THAT bad....