Sviatoslav Richter plays Schumann Toccata Op.7

[lovegabriel33]

Wow.

[uhartchristian]

this is the fastest toccata by Richter i heard. Later he obviously had problems with it to play it in tempo.

He takes it here less heavy also. Its a very good version.

So I was right with my opinion that the other versions not so good were due to age. He3 was a giant and did play so much different repretoire. But this is an important piece to keep up a good technique of pianoplay and should be in the standart repertoire of every pianist.

[geertdehoux]

@uhartchristian

"To keep up a GOOD tecnique" and "should be in the standard repertory of every pianist" ??!

Man, you're a criminal!!

I hope you're not a piano teacher.

Geert Dehoux, pianist.

[Liebromeistal]

Listen to Simon Barer's version. The speed is incredible, and he had a technique that Richter could only dream of.

[truecrypt]

If speed is the only subject you're interested in you should look somewhere else..

When Richter played something slower, - it's not because he couldn't do it faster... I understand it's difficult to comprehend though...

[yekhaty]

in one of the interview books Horowitz tells this funny anecdote. He said to Simon Barere, "Simon, I think you play Toccata too fast." - "Oh, I can play it even faster!" (I think, this was the book with David Dubal.)

[NecroSexy]

Simon who?

[mdeonx16]

lol?

[Tsotne16]

Simon Barer's version is only speed and nothing else. Musically it's zero

[Noshirm]

Thanks for this post, Truecrypt. I had never heard Richter's version! It surely ranks, along with Gilels' with those of the greats, like Lhevinne, Barere, and Horowitz. It is rousing indeed!

[Oblomov18]

the best version i think

[geertdehoux]

@Oblomov18

Yeah, a lot of noise!

[hothairybtm4u]

without wandering into wretched excess....it takes an alignment of the stars to really bring off the schumann toccata. cziffra, horowitz, lhevinne and pogorelich have all done splendid performances, but 1959 was richter's year for an apex. this along with as his smuggled sophia performance of the fuex follets show how incredible he really was, both are daunting pieces each in their own way. thanks so much for posting it.

[abcst1]

I thing that this is a very hard and heavy piece to perform, It won´t give a one little moment for player to rest! You must paint a romantic broad sound in lower register, while hammering a "Toccata perpetuum" in upper side! But however. Amazing Richter!

[KV620]

wow, terrific! thank you for posting it

[MrFullService]

Best Schumann Toccata!

[geertdehoux]

@MrFullService

How do YOU know ??!

Do you honestly think the ultra-romantic Schumann hadn't more in mind than only fast notes and noise ?!

Geert Dehoux, pianist.

[francorussie]

Svyatoslav Richter plays as if creates beautiful and clear architectural lines despite the "agitated Romantic" character of the music. Richter is more than a virtuoso : a thinker and a personality

[nietzschemasterclass]

Yes, it's a temperamental work where its structure and form should be heard sometimes as "mechanical" but in the bottom, I believe Shumann achieved the Toccata reconstruction in its most pure conception of the term, and got a very complex and exquisite result.

I wouldn't change a single note nor a single sound in Richter's interpretation...

[geertdehoux]

@nietzschemasterclass

Why do you think this is a 'temperamental work' ??

[andibonnington]

@geertdehoux

Interesting. What does this work mean to you?

This is like a fireball exploating getting to a climax in intensity, all emotions and feelings gathered into one conception, all the power that a mind can create with the instrument, and at the end there comes little by little the peace...

It's just my conception of this incredible work and the best rendition I ever heard.

[geertdehoux]

@andibonnington

When I was 17, I heard it by Gilels in recital (in the Opera house in Ghent, Belgium) and I was captured by the beauty of this musical piece.

The same year, being a student at the Royal Conservatory of Music, I was allowed to play it myself.

In those days I used to listen to Richter's recordings a lot, and I was impressed by his speed and perfection.

While living in South America, I remember I tried to play the entire piece at 144.

[andibonnington]

@geertdehoux

Playing this piece at 144 is quite an achievement, but yet, the big challenge is to play this piece remarking the melody all the time without loosing control in the dynamics.

When you can please post your version, I would like to listen.

Regards.

[geertdehoux]

@andibonnington

Well, now I think 144 is totally unnecessary and will only serve maniacs.

The tempo I prefer now is 104. Played at such a moderated speed, the piece becomes light, warm and charming in a rather natural way.

[geertdehoux]

@andibonnington

Now I see this musical creation as a remarkable Schumann's piece, with a beautiful, short melody and refined harmonic fluctuations, not as a fireball.

This is my own view.

Therefore I said: listen to the older Gilels' performances and you'll know what I mean.

A cordial greeting,

Geert Dehoux.

[geertdehoux]

@geertdehoux

Of course, I don't mean my actual musical feelings are the ONLY or RIGHT ones!

It's just the way i see it.

I might work on it again and make a recording of it, in the near future.

Not that I mean I'll play pianistically better than for example Lugansky, but it will be a very different muscial approach.

Saluton,

Geert Dehoux.

[andibonnington]

@geertdehoux By the way Gilel's version is awesome too, couldn't finish my comment.

[geertdehoux]

@andibonnington

Please notice I'm talking about the OLDER Gilels, not the young one.

As far as I remember, there is no version of the older Gilels on Youtube.

[andibonnington]

@geertdehoux

Gilels in my opinion plays this piece with this reminicense of baroque style. "A lla Bach"

The approach given by Richter trhoughout the piece piece takes me directly to the mind of the composer where I can find a complex but sublime and melanchoholic being, Full of life, temperament, and sorrow at the same time. 

[geertdehoux]

@andibonnington

Did you listen his live-performances in the seventies ?

The young Gilels played it more like a machine, but when he got older, he changed 180 degrees!

The same happened to Schumann's Carnaval, Opus 9: the old Moscow recording and the much later Los Angeles recording show a VERY different approach!

A performen's evolution is one of the things which make listening to music interesting.

A cordial greeting,

Geert.

[andibonnington]

@geertdehoux

I got your point, but yet in my opinion Richter is the best performer for this piece as a whole.

After what I call the "scrable", near the ending, Richter slows down the tempo and remarks the melody like no one else, slowing down to the "calm" of the end. Most of performers play this part very fast which doesn't make sense to me, Gilels, Lugansky (in my opinion a very good rendition as well), among others, fall into this trap and as I said they rush to the end.

Regards.

[geertdehoux]

@andibonnington

You know, the ritenuto and diminuendo at the end is exactly what the ORIGINAL score shows!

And the older Gilels did that, too!

In my opinion, it gives a very different 'mood' to the piece.

Regards,

Geert.

[andibonnington]

@geertdehoux

Sorry Geert, I meant "scramble", not scrable... My english is not too good. Hope you got the idea though.

[geertdehoux]

@andibonnington

My penry, krap!

Regards,

Gerald.

[geertdehoux]

@francorussie

Why do you think this piece of music has an 'agitated romantic character' ??

[RabidCh]

Bit too fast and it is mechanical in the beginning... but it is my favorite.

[nietzschemasterclass]

This is the best interpretation I've ever heard of this Toccata. The way he plays the entering chords -far away different from everyone else-, the way he leads it to the climax and at the the way he plays the last melody structure with a diminuendo I haven't heard in Zciffra, Horowitz, Gilels, Pogolerich and many others, really makes Richter's the best one.

Guys like SS doesn't even know this Toccata Structure and its meaning, please buy the score first. They don't have any clue...

[nietzschemasterclass]

Sorry: ...and at the END, the way he plays the last melody structure...

[geertdehoux]

@nietzschemasterclass

So, YOU do know...

[lhiram23]

i adore Horowitz, Richter too..but among all the pianists who plays this piece,i cannot feel more emotions and beauty than Pogorelich's version. Does anyone know that one?

[truecrypt]

I know pretty well both Ivo and his performance of Toccata. It's rather *super-automatic* and *completely* emotionless! I will post it within couple hours and let's see if others will share your opinin... ;)

[lhiram23]

question of opinion, as always. i feel that Pogo's version is obsessional, and emotionnal too :-)

the piece asks this rythm, this energy. thanks for posting that in the future, even if this is not for the good reasons :-))

[truecrypt]

Of course it's only our opinions. Ivo is exceptionally gifted pianist. I remember him since his Conservatory years in Moscow when he studied with Gornostaeva. Still seems to me that Ivo intentionally leveled dynamics, completely switched to staccato and intentionally removed human component. Combination of *super-perfectionism* and *absolute steadiness* approaches almost anti-musical level. BTW, you can find link to Pogorelich performance under Richter's video.

[lhiram23]

truecrypt

so interesting! thanks for your posting. in fact, by re-listening to pogorelich, i'm even more fascinated. The pulsation of the rythm that he gives in this piece makes the music dance. A lot of little and accents, singing voices, the use of the pedal.. still the best for me :-) but i agree partially about what you say about his evolution. I like more the young Pogorelich. Despite that, his Brahms, Scarlatti, first Chopin are magnificients

[geertdehoux]

@lhiram23

Yes, it was pubished on his second DGG LP, if I remember well.

[mltube]

For me this is a clear winner of the Truecrypt Schumann Toccata Marathon, but I find the later Richter (also on YT) an even better interpretation, despite some fatigue by the piece's end.

[gerryrains]

As always, Richter sends you away in awe - how could anybody play this well?