Richter plays Scriabin: Sonata no. 2, Op 19 (movement 2)

[dido93]

One colud listen to thousand pianists....then listen to Richter and think: stop....no other's necessary....!!

[picardynerd]

I feel like it is a pointless endeavor for me to even try to play this as well as Richter... but what is the point in living if I don't at least attempt to recreate with my own hands the most beautiful sounds I've ever heard...?

[trigalg693]

@picardynerd It's not that bad actually, just have to get used to the excessive wrist/finger twisting which is pretty uncomfortable :/

[danielito1979]

@picardynerd

hahaha you are brilliant

[zeusjeke]

impossible....



[leonec31]

Superbe interprétation. Very griping.

[marmasiotis]

so beautiful sound he has.....so beautiful

[Vesivian]

Scriabin's Piano Sonata No. 2 in G sharp minor, (Op. 19, also titled Sonata-Fantasy) took five years for him to write. It was finally published in 1897, at the urging of his publisher.

[addeex1]

hm and my teacher gave me this....

[concertviolinist]

excellent

[lilly763]

My teacher suggested this sonata to me... It's so beautiful, but I didn't quite realize how ridiculously hard it is until I saw the music here and listened to Richter's fabulous interpretation.

[TheRachmaninoffFan]

what an incredible interpretation...the technique is just....there are no words to describe how great Richter does this piece!!!!

such accuracy and control. this is brilliant!

[experimentalis]

merci

[kempff95]

awesome playing ,with energy and with a great pianissimo !!

[Darksmile1234]

This seems like a bitch to play.

[crackapolo]

yeh

[Lukecash12]

It sure is. You don't have to play it quite like Richter though. Honestly, about 99.8% won't even be able to attempt such an interpretation in the first place, so that's a good cushion for my ego. I suck just as bad as everyone else compared to Richter :)

[doctordrums8]

So beautiful. It's magnificent.

[noinin88]

gonna study this piece... I'm quite crying... It's so beautiful! *.*

[Lukecash12]

There is absolutely no respite in this piece! I'm afraid this, his sonata opus 53 no 5, and a few things by Alkan might literally make me get epilepsy...

[adagiocantabile]

Quanto ci manchi, Slava!

[magyarnota]

dear pianoplayer,thanks for sharing this unixhaustable geniues work with us...i adore richter,heard him life 5,6 times in my studyyears in budapest.unforgettable concerts those were.besides a thinkerpianist the most mesmerizing,captivating genious on stage he was.you felt after such a concert as if a train went through you.

[coasterman16]

You wrote Prag instead of Prague in the description.

[Pianoplayer002]

fix'd

[coasterman16]

thank you

[afertyus1000]

@coasterman16 could've written Praha that's how it is spelt

[soami2u]

I like the soft ending. Richter convinces me with everything he does here. There is something ghostly and haunted about this piece...the loud ending would for me have destroyed the mood. It seems only pianists from the Russian school really understand Scriabin's music. Why is that--or do you know exceptions?

[truecrypt]

Probably Richter could play last cord FF and be equally convincing! ;)

It would be "politically correct" to say that not only Russians can play Scriabin, but then I started to recall great names: Sofronitsky, Richter, Horowitz, Neuhaus ... and then younger genereation - Ashkenazy, Bashkirov, Nasedkin, Ioheles, Fedorova, Igolinsky, Pletnev, Volodos, Demidenko. Probably Ponti and Hamelin are the most well known non-russian scriabinists.

[Lukecash12]

I agree.

[sofi1506]

This s soooo goooood!!!!!!!!!!!

[aliosaronin777]

ime i bota

[aliosaronin777]

leonida gamiese

[MemyH567]

It's fantastic!!!

[aliosaronin777]

i love it

[aliosaronin777]

i hate it

[toneeeeeee]

The best. Richter was a master

[aryanpianist]

He played very good , that's all !

[vcupiano]

I love this, but Hamelin's is better

[lklkhjhjdfs]

la meilleure interprétation de cette sonate que je connaisse pour l'instant .

[horatiodreamt]

Did Horowitz ever record this sonata?

[churchlandsmuso4life]

Thank you so much for posting this! is there a 3rd movement in this sonata or does it just have 2?

gotta love this piece!

[Pianoplayer002]

There are only 2 movements ;)

[sziyyet2]

Great idea to post the score. It is a bit fuzzy though. Any ideas on how to improve the quality of the display? Thanks for using this technique!

[Pianoplayer002]

Try to watch the video in its original size, it will be sharper, but might be harder to read because it becomes much smaller =)

[deutschesmaedchen]

@sziyyet2 if you know notes, it's really easy to tell which one's which.

[123eldest]

Can someone please tell me what the split quaver note in the 4th bar is and how it is played???

[Pianoplayer002]

Don't trust me, I could be compleetely wrong, but I believe it means that you choose if you want to play it as a b or b#

[123eldest]

well its all i got right now so thanks. it makes sense, i dont believe he is playing both.

Regards,

[bachopinberg]

you MUST play both notes: b is the 7th of the IV7 chord (C#-E-G#-B)(G#min Key, IV=C#, IV7 is a minor7th chord)), and b# is the lower appoggiatura (sorry I don't know the exact english word) of the C# in the chord above. That is the usual way to write two notes with and without accident, is not an "ossia".

[123eldest]

Ok i understand. thank you :D

[forrestisnotmoody]

appogiatura is correct.

[bachopinberg]

Thank you!

[pianopera]

I don't understand why he chooses to play the final chords soft - it's the only liberty he takes with the score, and for me it doesn't work. Apart from that, incredible performance (both first and second movement).

[truecrypt]

You are so right! Who knows...

May be just a "moment on the stage..."

Chopin played the last octaves in Barcarolle pianissimo! (and he wrote FF in score)

.

[pianopera]

True...but Richter didn't compose this piece!

I don't think he decided it "on the spot", probably he didn't like the effect of subito forte at the end (he was very peculiar with his likes and dislikes). We'll never know...

[truecrypt]

I don't have any of R's other recordings of this sonata... Would be interesting to know if was "on the spot" or his interpretation. It's well known that 2nd movement influenced by the image of storm on Black sea and 1st movement - by calm Mediterranean sea. By all means, it's gorgeous piece and outstanding performance. Search for Sofronitsky for the same. Absolutely astounding and "still" 1st movement!

[rallestar1]

Well, the chords are marked sf, but in pianissimo. I don't think they're meant to be much louder really.

[pedrobesteiras]

Agreed, maybe a little accent, but his cantabiles convinced me as well.

[DF5JT]

I have heard him in concert with this piece in 1992 and he played the ending just as this recording from Warsaw in 1972.

[elmauro]

technically... i think this recording might be from prague. but that's ok!

[123eldest]

it is.

[soami2u]

By that time Chopin was too weakened by tuberculosis to play it as he had written it...or at least that is the conventional wisdom

[Lukecash12]

Chopin? You mean Scriabin, but i don't think scriabin had tuberculosis too bad to play at this age seeing as he played all of his famous atonal sonatas based on the fourth for the public except for the Satanique just before the "White Mass", or so i am told.

[soami2u]

I think you misunderstood. I was referring to the fact that CHOPIN was allegedly too weak to end his Barcarolle, Op. 60 ff as he had marked it because of final-stage tuberculosis. Scriabin himself is supposed to have died at the age of 43 from blood poisoning.

[hedgehod]

bloody difficult :(