Sviatoslav Richter plays Franck

[leandrusi]

Less instrument talking and more interpreter/composer talk.

Richter is simply amazing!!!!!

[revizorsb]

Une des plus belles interprétations d'une oeuvre magistrale de Franck. La musique est là, reste à se laisser conduire là où l'interprète nous conduit : au-delà de nous-même...

[hedones]

Jolie formule, et qui vise juste. Cette fugue me fait immanquablement penser à une pro-jection hors de soi qui n'est pas sans rappeler notre propre mort. Mais à laquelle nous assisterions en pleine possession de nous-même. Un chiasme impossible mais qui se dessine à mesure que se poursuit la fugue. Lugubre, mais jubilatoire.

[hophmi]

Hi guys,

Agree with comments on the Steinway. Not with the Bechstein though. The Steinway will always be a good bet, but it is usually a big hall piano, and it's not easy to get an intimate sound out of it in a small room. Bechstein's particularly old ones, have a beautifully mellow sound that is perfect for things like Schubert and other romantics.

[ipublica]

A fantastic interpretation, but the horror is the piano ... as so often with Richter's performances. Many pianists blamed him for not taking care of the piano. I don't know. In the 'Richter the Enigma' movie he asserts that he is afraid to choose pianos as that may preclude his intimate focus on the score. This comes over to me as an almost religious or magic conviction boiling down to when you focus on the sound of the piano, you will lose out on performance power. Most pianists contradict!

[soami2u]

Perhaps that explains his choice of rather tinny-sounding Yamaha pianos in some of his recordings. His performances on CD of some late Beethoven Sonatas such as Op. 111 suffer from this idiosyncrasy...you would think Richter would have been a Steinway artist, or used a Bechstein or Boesendorfer...but how many artists today are as unique and mesmerizing as Richter? His playing just about transcends his choice of instrument

[ipublica]

I fully agree transcends any choice of piano, as he himself asserted in Richter the Enigma. He magically believed that when he focuses too much on the instrument he will somehow fail to give his best, actually psychologically a very fine and true observation. But his hands were huge and his sound magistral and very strong, Steinway is simply the best piano for those pianists, and I mean the Steinway & Sons, made in USA, not the Steinweg (the brother) from Hamburg, Germany.

[ipublica]

Bechstein is good for Jazz only. Bösendorfer has two models, the one for classical is good only for Baroque, Classical and early Romanticism, not for Prokofiev, Rachmaninov, Scriabin and later. The other is the most metallic piano in the world, it's the Jazz-tuned Bösendorfer that is usually played without a cover. Steinway is the only all-around concert grand, and perhaps now also Kawai ES. Yamaha is bad quality, not enduring, losing value very much after a few years. Steinway is Rolls.

[soami2u]

I haven't played any newer Bechsteins and the only Boesendorfer I ever played didn't impress me. I agree with you about Steinway. It's the only piano that ever really satisfied me. I have 2 of them--a vintage model "O" and a newish model "B". Though I recently encountered a brand-new Bluethner 7-foot grand that had a really exceptional tone. Yamaha is striving very hard to compete with Steinway, and they do have a few excellent artists like Maria Joao Pires on their roster.

[ipublica]

My dream is a D, a used one, but they are still around 60k or 70k, I have composed and played all my music on a Roland RD-700 Stage Piano so far (digital), was not yet in state to buy my dream piano. My first piano teacher had a wonderful 1920s Bluethner, that sounded wonderful for Mozart, and I played an even better one from the same age in Geneva Conservatory back in 1985/1986. Bluethners have a strong personality, something really magic about them. I do not know how to put it in words...

[soami2u]

You'll need a large room as well as a fat wallet to accommodate a "D", new or used (though I've heard the new Bluethners are even more expensive). Steinway (NY) has revived the "O" and "A" models, which had been discontinued many years ago, but I haven't played any of the new ones. Maybe you heard Henry Z. Steinway died a few months ago at 93. He was the last of the family to serve on the Board. The quality dipped in the '70s after the CBS takeover, but later improved...the best again now

[ipublica]

Thanks for your invaluable information! I did not know that. I have played on a D back in the 1970s in Kaiserslautern, Germany, it was a second-hand one in excellent shape, and it was only 40.000 Deutsche Mark, which was at the time just 10.000$. I was a student and did not have the money to buy it, and I was really dying a slow and painful death ... unable to describe in words. I hope that Steinway will keep their standard, for they are not only excellent pianos and also excellent investments.

[wayneredhart]

Hamburg makes real "Steinways" too. Not merely the Steinweg. I believe you're mistaking for a separate brand entirely.

[ipublica]

And you are right, Yamaha is tinny-sounding because they have construed it like you would turn on the bass and treble boosting on your hifi. The basses are too deep and the treble is banging. Hear the treble in a Steinway Concert Grand: 'angel voices'. And the bass is balanced, and the most wonderful is the middle layer that sounds like celli when you play a bel canto. Benedetti-Michelangeli only played on Steinway, and he knew why! Listen to his Debussy Preludes and Images:) The layering!!

[ipublica]

Please also take into account that the D has slightly longer keys, so when you play on black keys and your forearms are more 'pushed' toward the wood, on any model below D you may actually hit the wood with your fingertips. I happens constantly to me on my Roland RD-700 when I play octave passages. In addition, the repetition mechanism of the D is far superior any model below, the repetition rate is much faster, for pieces like Alborada Del Gracioso or Jeux D'Eau by Ravel. Larger room, no prob.

[Nika666666666]

what a work of art!!!!

[hansmeyer111]

Sometimes I lough when he plays a false note, and think, he is so superb, that he do that occasionaly deliberately..

How is it to explain, the false note in the last accord, consisting only of b´s...

[fredpierce08]

This is another wrongfully neglected masterpiece by a genius among geniuses. I agree, usually it is given a perfunctory, too fast reading. Franck was anything but a vulgar show off. His works must be performed with power, respect and articulation. A deep, passionate artist, again who brought mastery and depth to Romantic forms. His pupils revered him for very good reasons. Even Franz Liszt praised Franck's Organ works as the best compositions for the king of instruments since BACH.

[HiyaHolaHey]

Sensational indeed!!!

[tamarahisk]

JENIUS piece of music and JENIUS performance!!!

There is nothing more to say!

[musicdivinemusic]

Fantastic!

[sviatoslavberezovsky]

the tempo is phenomenal, i think many people plays this too fast.

[weikko79]

Especially at the end.

[isabvaz]

Palavras para quê?

[marrie4343]

Sensacional! Franck é um compositor perfeito! Ainda mais nas mãos do gênio de Richter!