Sviatoslav Richter: Schubert Sonata A major 1st mvt. 1/2

[kassianik1]

Richter: my favorite pianist.

Schubert sonata in A major: my favorite sonata of Schubert.

What a combination!

[JayMalone]

richter is late with the notes -- i do appreciate his passion though

[wolfvader1]

He made his own rules, and for that I am grateful.

[Ivanhoe2]

I just have to return to this again and again,,,for a daily "fix". While appreciating the skills of all the great pianists,,,I find something indefinably magic in this great viruoso. Many thanks for posting,,and Best wishes....

[kantorlive]

" I hope this helps! " No, conventional rules are not helpful. Maybe playing by heart was the.. standard , times are changing! Richter was a wonderful example that it works very well with the music. So he was able to do several recitals with different programs following each other thinking only on the structure of the music and not on the damned memory. People wake up! Be free! Try to make interesting programs, without being to conventional. Everybody as he likes it, with and without music...

[b12384]

Sorry, by mistake I've clicked thumb down: this sonata und the interpretation are wonderful!

[yurtzenika]

sounds strange but every time i hear this sonata it always sounds a bit baroque to me , not bad at all just an observation

[dom0s]

@yurtzenika before 3:53 it does sound a bit baroque except for the arpeggiated bass and the odd early romantic modulation. probably because or the fairly standard chords, similar mood and straight rhythms.

[BassicStorm]

lovely sonata :)

[skeletinjsh]

Murakami

[maxreger100]

I think that Richter is an artist that is ALWAYS best heard by himself rather than in concerto or chamber music incarnations.

I always feel he sounds tight and constrained when "playing with others".

But by himself, he is as a great storyteller--and we are mesmerized by his every "word".

This performance is incandescent.

[japanesesweet]

i suppose we should be thankful for what there is (alot!) but I do think it's a pity Richter never impovised in public- -on all accounts he was very good at this but was worried he might have a blank spot when inspiration deserted him.

[musicy88]

BEAUTIFUL!

[hedones]

qu'est ce que la présentatrice est en train de faire à l'heure actuelle??? hein??? je vous le demande... alors que je termine mon cognac ce vendredi 8 avril 2010 à 22h39.. mais qu'est ce qu'elle est en train de faire actuellement????

[suzettegm]

Marvellous video, goes for Richter here of course but I also love the retro announcement, thanks for sharing.

[Lactoris1]

Hear Richter also in the Schubert D575 sonata in B major from Schubert's age 20 autumn 1817. Richter is superlative in a remarkable Schubert piano work many other pianists have neglected, the B major. is Richter using a Yamaha piano here, as I have read he often did in later years?

[Viennese]

Wonderful performance - so full of depth and expression. It's amazing to think how young Schubert was when he composed this!

[superbemaison]

Munich 1978-studio recording

[ipublica]

Can you tell me in which year was this performance? Thanks. Pierre

[samsonno]

1978 I think.

[ipublica]

@samsonno Thank you!

[b12384]

@samsonno Sorry, by mistake I've clicked thumb down: this sonata und the interpretation are wonderful!

[mdoub]

does anyone know what method they used to record these live concerts of richter?

[stlivermore]

I am sure you're well meaning enough.

[leomulder]

What do you think? Surely it was "And now Sviatoslav Richter will play Franz Schubert's Piano Sonata No. 13 in A major blablabla". : P

[oglox27]

i really don´t care

[leomulder]

Ah, that's why you asked then...

[oglox27]

ehh no

[stlivermore]

As with Schubert, so with Beethoven, both capable of being notoriously pretentious and mindnumbing depending on what bar of music you hear. Some say that LVB was the most prolix and pompous composer ever to make good, if you overlook such worthies as Felix Mendelsohn or Johannes Brahms, who can be just as boring as anyone but capable of writing the very best music in the world. The A major Sonata happens to me one of Schuberts authentic masterpieces and one of the monuments in piano literature.

[KennYWooD2]

While I agree with you about the A major sonata here, your position that Schubert, Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Brahms are (or can be) all boring, speaks volumes about the depth of your understanding. Hopefully as you mature so will your insight and you'll realize how foolish you once were to make such asinine statements.

[stlivermore]

Your remarks are irrelevant. Try commenting when you've acquired some rational perspective.

[KennYWooD2]

Rational perspective? What's irrational about my position that none of the composers you've mentioned are at all boring?

[60okka]

@KennYWooD2 perfect adjective you extracted from somewhere: asinine

[davidgee100]

honest enough. I think you will change opinions over time.

[christophleipzig]

Learn more about music.

[christophleipzig]

Yea - and you make me smile.

*irony on*

I don't like Bruckner, Beethoven or Wagner as well, because it is overlong and boring. ;) Wagner never should have composed his Tristan and Brucker should have never learned from Schubert. Stupid 19th century...

*irony off*

Puh...

[natber27]

you dont like much though

[natber27]

re billyguns2

[billyguns2]

Do you know me? How do you know that I "don't like much?" I have often been croiticized for TOO much of everything, anmd how does my not loiking Schubert Sonatas out of al of the music ever written qualify you to make such a ridiculous statement? Sir Thomas Beecham once said that he'd take one bar of antting Massenet wrote over the entire output of J.S. Bach! Did HE "not like much?"

[Ecthelon]

can you stop spamming?

[billyguns2]

The last comment i made was over a month ago; what are you talking about?

[peixotoraul]

shut the fuck up

[prodesica]

:O !!!!!

[idwtbiinitwog]

richter and brendel are the best performers of schubert in history

[jcyl141104]

BRENDEL????! -_-

[christophleipzig]

Who is Brendel? ;)

[stlivermore]

Святослав Рихтер, Бог благословит тебя, и держать вас всегда. Спасибо за красоту вы дали нам возможность насладиться. Благодарим Вас за Шуберта, в частности ... И благодарю Вас, samsonno!

[lamusike]

GENIO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[sam0xin]

Master Rikhter's Schubert Sonatas makes me speechless....

[rva25]

MIRACLE... nothing to add...

[crazypianistik]

Richter always played Schubert brilliantly, and he doesn't let down here.

[powerpiano]

seine Musik ist nicht so kompliziert sondern so einfach, aber es grosse artig als andere PIanisten wenn das spielt...:)

[wanjabelaga]

richter and schubert....

without words

[SviatoslavRichterSpa]

Commovente. Il più grande interprete di Schubert di sempre...

[keenanrol]

Una Sonata molto difficile dal punto di vista interpretativo in cui il Maestro riesce, con estrema naturalezza a rendere intelleggibile ogni struttura senza mai uscire da certi schemi che in Schubert rappresentano quella soglia tra due mondi estremamente diversi ma allo stesso tempo molto vicini: Beethoven e i primi romantici. Grande performance stilistica.

[goldberg72]

come sempre formidabile...una volta dal vivo ho sentito questa sonata da un 70enne badura skoda stilisticamente quasi uguale devo dire...ancora me la ricordo!

[KlassikFan2007]

He is just terrific... :) what an artist! The philosophical depth of his Schubert is bottomless if I may say so. Transcendental.

[cagrisert1]

@KlassikFan2007 what the hell is philosophical depth in a piece ??

[exponentu]

Unusual to see him playing without the score. Do you think that alters his playin? Freer, even more flowing and inevitable perhaps?

[samsonno]

I don´t know - maybe. You know he always claimed that he started using the score because thus being able to be the most true to the music. Other Richterians have other explanations though. Anyway his playing is incomparable - with or without it!

[exponentu]

It's interesting to compare actual performances in this respect. For example, his D894 is, I think, one of the greatest performances of anything I've ever heard. Could it have been even better played from memory...obviously that's unknowable. I just have a hunch that it could have been. I'm going by Richter's whole body language, the sound he produced and the greater flowing inevitability in his performance of D664. Of course, I could be totally wrong.

Btw, thanks very much for these gems.

[berlinzerberus]

he played without the score till he had a slip or maybe a few i think it was at luzern,suisse.he played the well tempered piano by bach and from 1980´s he used to play with score furthermore

[KennYWooD2]

He didn't always use a score. In fact it wasn't until his performances later in life that he started using them on a regular basis.

[dalecampbl5]

@exponentu maybe the score is projected onto a screen in front of him and we don't see it?

[afertyus1000]

@exponentu i heard that as he got older he suffered a few memory losses so played with the score

[minasgekos]

@exponentu I think that with musicians of the greatness of Richter having or not the score in front oh his eyes doesn't change a thing.

[ForgetJosh]

@exponentu It is standard for a concert pianist to play without a score. Even at the undergraduate level, piano majors are required to perform entirely from memory on recitals. The only time it is acceptable to use a score is if the pianist is performing a work written post-1950. I hope this helps!

[CaradhrasAiguo49]

@ForgetJosh: "even at the undergraduate level" is not a statement. ANY recital or concert requires its soloists to perform from memory. and why does a work have to be written post-1950?

[uhartchristian]

@ForgetJosh Richter had problems with his perception of what he heard. as the pianos went up a lot during the time he gave recitals he heard the music sheets more low than the actual sound. he actually heard in his ear the music score a half tone lower and this disturbed him. so he took the music sheets to be sure not to make mistakes... he had an absolute ear !!!!

[uhartchristian]

@ForgetJosh what does it mean a standard. there is no standard , an artist is free to do as he likes !!!

if the public or the manager does not like, well its another problem, but an artist is free to chose what he wants to do and how otherwise he gets a slave of the concert system and the money around....

[laqin007]

@exponentu Perhaps he's known as one of the best Schubert interpreters in the world. He knew Schubert sonatas much familiar than other repertoire he played I think. He is very comfortable with Schubert.

[XiyueDeng]

@laqin007 I'd like to believe he knew at least Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, or Bach to the same level, but I totally agree with the rest you've said.

[superbemaison]

@exponentu

I read about reliable sources that R played sometimes with the score as early as 1964!!He played the Beethoven op111 with score (featured on a Japanese DVD).It is even on YT..

[uhartchristian]

@superbemaison I just would like to know if you are aware how many music sheets richter did perform? no other pianist did that much different music performances . so don t you think sometimes he had the right to do it with the sheets? I think it was good and there were ear reasons also for it. The pianos were not tuned to his absolute ear so he didn t hear in his inner ear the piece in the same tonality.

[superbemaison]

@uhartchristian

Of course you are right:I am fully aware of how many sheets R read during his career, don't you worry.

But did many Richter lovers know that he had played WITH SHEETS far more many times than we ALL thought(even myself) even in his earlier years????

That is what was meant to be stated!

[uhartchristian]

@superbemaison I understand what you wanted to tell us. I just would say that its not important if he did play by heart or with sheets as only the result is important. There were not so good recordings with and without sheets and very good ones with and without sheets.... So what does it matter today how he did it.... What is interesting for example is that he excused himself on one record sheet to have played a wrong note !!!

[superbemaison]

@uhartchristian You are absolutely right-only music is the issue.

R said he disagreed to public watching him play.That is why he played in darkness.

We understood each other.

No matter if he plays with or without music-sound is the most important!!!

[gollllum]

omg what a sound :o !!!!

[pochida]

Thank you for posting this.

I miss him very much. Do you?

[samsonno]

Yes,very much, there has never been nor will be anybody like him! My big regret in life is that I didn´t follow him around on more recitals, I only had the opportunity to watch him live twice, and although these were experiences of a lifetime I am sorry for all the chances I missed. It is really, really sad - - -

[samsonno]

Sorry for accidentally removing a comment from 20Regards. Post it again if you want to!

[samsonno]

Obviously at the same time and place, in the Napoleonsaal of Schloss Ismaning near Munich 1978.

[georgecziffra]

What year is this from?

[curiousspectator]

Don't know but a guess is 1978 or 1979.

[samsonno]

As far as I know 1978

[Toxxic88]

WHAT A FIND! Thanks so much for this! *****