Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
The Lost Tapes
Piano Sonata No. 18 in E flat major, Op. 31 No. 3
Piano Sonata No. 27 in E minor, Op. 90
Piano Sonata No. 28 in A major, Op. 101
Piano Sonata No. 31 in A flat major, Op. 110
Sviatoslav Richter (piano)
rec. 1965, Kunsthaus, Lucerne, Switzerland; La Grange de Meslay, Tours, France (Op. 110)
Deutsche Grammophon 4795554 [72]
New from Deutsche Grammophon, comes this exciting release of four Beethoven sonatas from the legendary Sviatoslav Richter. These are performances genuinely brand new to the discography of the great artist and were engineered by an on-site DGG team at festivals in Lucerne and La Grange de Meslay in the Summer of 1965. Richter was fifty years of age and at his peak.
Sviatoslav Richter was born in Zhytomyr, Ukraine in 1915. At the age of six, he moved with his family to Odessa. From his mid-teens he was involved in musical activities at the opera house in that city often acting as a repetiteur. After being bowled over by Heinrich Neuhaus in one of his Odessa recitals, Richter moved to Moscow and enrolled at the Conservatory there in Neuhaus’s class in 1937. He had a turbulent time at the college. His natural temperament meant he kicked against some of the traditions and routines. He refused to attend many classes on his timetable, didn’t turn up for examinations and was consequently expelled on more than one occasion. Richter was the student that Neuhaus had waited his whole career for; he always found a way of engineering a way back for this complicated genius. Richter even lived with Neuhaus for a spell in his early days in the capital. In November 1940, Richter made an act of passage with his official debut. He included in it, Prokofiev’s Sixth which the composer had premiered a few months earlier. The fact that a little over two years later in January 1943, Richter gave the world premiere of the Seventh tells us all we need to know about how he was rated at the time, not least by Prokofiev himself.
Richter’s discography is enormous. The recordings we have (often live) date from 1947 to 1994. After winning a Stalin Prize in 1949 the state sanctioned foreign travel, and he appeared in Europe from 1950 onwards. His records can be found on many labels. Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft (DGG) made their first recording with Richter in Prague in 1956. That one was in mono but the rest of his legacy with the label is in stereophonic sound. Of the nine LPs made, the final two were recorded live on the pianist’s tour of Italy in 1962. Apparently over forty hours of material was taped to get these two sublime records: SLPM 138 849 from 1963 and SLPM 138 950 released a couple of years later in 1965.
In that year of 1965 Richter played a program of Beethoven sonatas often. The recital usually consisted of Nos 17,18,27,28 and 31. He gave this in Prague in February, part of which was released on the Praga record label. In May he performed the concert at Carnegie Hall, New York (he gave several recitals there during April and May). I have traced other similar Beethoven recitals that season in Kiev, Salzburg and back in Moscow in October. A DGG team led by producer and engineer Heinz Wildhagen recorded Richter’s concerts at the little festival Richter had initiated near Tours in June and the A-list Lucerne Festival in September. All four sonatas Deutsche Grammophon now release from those tapings are thus available in other performances from either that season or later. None are in such fine sound as these, though. Richter had curious gaps in his repertory. He played only twenty-two of the Beethoven sonatas. What would we give for lost recordings of works like the Moonlight, Pastoral, Waldstein or Les Adieux. Unfortunately for us, we will never experience them, as they do not exist. Richter was never complacent, however. An interpretation was rarely fixed, and we often hear new shades in a performance of something we have heard him in before. I think listeners will agree with me that there are instances of that happening here, too.
Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 18 in E flat, Op. 31/3 dates from 1802. This is middle-period Beethoven, and he is consciously steering us down new paths and pushing at the boundaries of the classical model. The opening chord forms a kind of recurring cell in the first movement. On its first exposure, I don’t hear the middle semiquaver but perhaps that’s just me. It has happened before. Richter really captures the joy and sunshine in this bright positive piece, relishing those old-school bass figures in the second subject and the birdsong figurations the composer plays with in the development. Richter brings a wonderful palette of colour and nuance to the whole movement. The timing of this movement, of all four in fact in this sonata, matches almost exactly the Prague performance earlier in the year. Notes in the booklet by Markus Kettner suggest DGG were aware that the piano at Lucerne was less than perfect in its upper register at fortissimo. I concur with this, but it is a very small issue. Richter played on far poorer instruments in those years. To my ears, the piano actually sounds lovely in most of its range.
Op 31/3 has no slow movement; we move through a scherzo then a minuet before we get to the finale. Richter is very exciting and dramatic in the scherzo. He is fast in the 2/4 section and his fortissimo will certainly make you spill your coffee if you’re not sitting comfortably. Richter’s staccato is outstanding, and the contrasts superbly judged. I bet Beethoven would have loved the restlessness of it. He is equally adept in the fast E flat second section of the movement. The minuet is all tenderness and nostalgic simplicity with a sweet little trio. Richter paces everything neatly with grace and class. The finale follows on quickly, a tarantella which, as you would guess, Richter fairly dives into. He doesn’t hold anything back despite the slightly fragile nature of his instrument. What strikes me most is the clarity of his finger-work even at this speed and level of intensity. It is truly a thing of wonder. DGG leave in some audience ambience between movements which gives a live concert hall atmosphere. There is very little extraneous noise in the performance however and no applause on the tape.
Beethoven wrote his sonata No. 27 in 1814. I feel this piece fits with the later works more than the middle period. It is a short work in two movements. The first in E minor and the second in the major key. There is inner turmoil, even despair in the first part of the work. The two themes Beethoven presents are not equalised. The first group lasting until bar 25 (0:40) is followed by a connecting passage before we hear the second subject at bar 54 (1:16). There is no repeat, a development section that is masterful and succinct and a recapitulation. It all sounds so straightforward, yet what effects Beethoven draws from such an innocuous turn of phrase here or there. Richter has studied every note, and one can tell the piece is measured to perfection. In the songful second movement rondo, I hear a smooth flowing line adopted by Richter, entirely correctly in my view. There are so many moments here that make me look forward to Schubert and the Lied. Richter sings this one divinely. Philips issued Richter’s Salzburg Festival performance from a couple of weeks before this one in its Authorised Recordings edition. The performance is very similar; the sound on both is outstanding, although the piano in Salzburg, a little more well-tempered.
The following sonata No. 28 is from 1816. I adore this transcendental work in which Beethoven encapsulated “impressions and reveries”. The lyric beauty of the opening movement harmonises with such skill and warmth I find it heartbreaking to reflect that at the time Beethoven was almost totally without any hearing and so isolated from society, ever reliant on the notebooks he always had in his pockets to communicate with anyone he encountered. Richter’s playing is noble, clear and heartfelt. His phrasing is exquisite. The march that comes next is infused with dotted rhythms. It is quite unsettled actually in its motion and Richter conveys the nervous energy and raggedness nicely. The ABA structure brings repose and enlightenment in the Bachian central plateau. The broadly expressive slow movement is poignantly rendered here. It promises to be a genuinely long arch adagio movement in that glorious manner he would later employ in the composition of his last symphony; but it is actually in reality just a prelude to the finale, to which it is attacca. This allegro is very demanding and full of intricate counterpoint and invention. Richter’s navigation through the span is as you would expect the result of months of study and hours of practice. The fugal passages have all their voices equalised and it all seems effortless. Anyone can see from the score, however, that the tough passages are fiendishly dense, difficult and very long. This performance of Sonata No. 28 is an outstanding one. It is for me, alongside the last piece, the pinnacle of the performances on this disc. The major labels only released one other version of Richter in this work, and it dates from 1986. This one is finer.
The final work on DG’s new release is Piano Sonata No. 31 in A flat, Op. 110 which dates from 1821/22. This performance comes from the festival in the Touraine region of France that Richter had set up in 1964. His concerts were held in the barn there which dates from 1220. DGG arrived with their equipment in June 1965, and this sonata actually got to the test pressing stage before being shelved until now. The reading is staggeringly good. Richter had been playing this work since his days in Moscow with Neuhaus. In a little piece in the booklet, Richter recounted how it was in this work that Neuhaus taught him how to sing, loosening his hands and opening up his shoulders. The cantabile markings in the first movement are thus faithfully rendered. His arpeggios at the end are like a necklace of pearls, each note shining purely and linked with a supremely graded legato to the next. Beethoven’s scherzo second movement is taken more slowly than I expected but after a few seconds to adjust I was in the mood completely that Richter lays out. There is much interest dynamically in this performance and I love the mischievous way he takes the trio.
DG have tracked the finale into two. They could have gone to four or even six. It is a fascinating movement: the introduction, two alternating ariosi and fugues and a final concluding section. After over an hour of listening to his genius in action I was expecting this finale to be good. I hadn’t realised what a tour de force it would be, all-embracing and a supreme end to a special record. His phrasing of the first arioso “klagender gesang” is sublime. The three-part fugue that follows is immediately tracked on. Richter’s building up on the fugue is perfect and immense at its height. The second arioso is marked “perdendo le forze” (losing strength). Beethoven writes little rests in the melodic line. Do try and hear how Richter breathes this arioso. It must be right. The ensuing fugue this time is an inversion of the original and marks a coming back to life poi a poi più moto. Richter is magisterial and his triumph at the end is assured. There is no applause at the end of any of the sonatas; it is edited out immaculately. It must have been quite something, though, to have been in that place at the end of that movement on that summer’s day in 1965.
You may have thought you had had quite enough of Sviatoslav Richter’s records. These lost tapes are, however, well-nigh indispensable, especially for the towering readings of those two late sonatas. If that were not enough, DG provide a superb note by the great Jed Distler, as well as an enlightening interview with Richter’s friend and fellow pianist Elisabeth Leonskaja. The sound production and the overall quality of the product is first class in the best tradition of the yellow label. Sixty years was a long time to wait, but the best things in life are worth waiting for.
Philip Harrison
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