Karl Richter's Bach performances, although they represented a departure from the over-romanticized treatments of Baroque music that had prevailed up to his time, were not the kind of trailblazing return-to-authenticity projects of Trevor Pinnock, Christopher Hogwood, and others, whose early-music-performance practices continue to be the standard today.
Karl Richter's performance dates from 1965, since when it has seldom been out of the catalogue. It is in an entirely different class… Richter's Munich Bach Choir were at a peak at this time and the results are often quite exciting. Under Richter's direction the ''Ehre sei dir, Gott'' chorus…is appropriately lustig with wonderfully light-hearted singing and orchestral playing… [T]he arias with Gundula Janowitz and Fritz Wunderlich…[are] of a calibre which will always ensure considerable enjoyment…
"Astounding" doesn't even come close to describing these '60s recordings of Bach's organ works played by Karl Richter on the Jaegerborg-Kirche organ in Copenhagen. Richter's technique is more than astounding; it is stunning in its virtuosity. While there are a handful of organists that equal Richter, there are none who surpass him. From his incredibly independent hands to his unbelievably dexterous pedals, Richter is a marvel.
It would be impossible to say enough good about this two-disc set of Sviatoslav Richter playing Bach. Coupling three English suites and three French suites plus a pair of toccatas and a fantasia in live recordings from 1991 and 1992, Richter gives every movement, line, rhythm, and note its own weight and character, but also conveys every detail's critical function in the work as a whole. One could, for instance, characterize his E flat major French Suite as serene, his F major English Suite as playful, or his D minor Toccata as thoughtful, but doing so would not fully capture Richter's fusion of individuality and inevitability.
These are carefully considered and precisely executed interprations. Nicolet has a warm tone, his excellent breathing technique creates wonderful phrasing.
This box set gathers together Karl Richter's stereo recordings of Bach's choral works that were recorded between 1959-1969. Missing is his final, digital St Matt, the 1961 Mass in B Minor (the 1969 "from Japan" recording is included) and an earlier mono Christmas Oratorio (available on Teldec CDs).
Wie ein Monolith ragt der Dirigent, Organist und Cembalist Karl Richter in der Geschichte der evangelischen Kirchenmusik und der Bach-Interpretation der zweiten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts auf. Als junger Mann beschloss Karl Richter, inspiriert von der mitteldeutschen Kantorentradition seiner Heimat, dem frühen Eindruck des Klangs der sächsischen Orgeln und der Werke Johann Sebastian Bachs, sein Leben in den Dienst an der Musica sacra zu stellen. In seinem kurzen Leben, das nur 54 Jahre währte, setzte er diesen Vorsatz in den Kirchendiensten an der Thomas-kirche zu Leipzig, an der Markuskirche zu München, in Konzerten, Schallplattenaufnahmen für Teldec und Deutsche Grammophon und als Lehrer an der Münchner Hochschule für Musik, in einer Lebensleistung von fast unüber-schaubarem Ausmaß ins Werk. Es gelang ihm dabei, internationale Maßstäbe zu setzen.
Stradivarius' 1991 studio and live digital recordings of Sviatoslav Richter are now brought together for a new definitive mid-price luxurious digipak box. Sviatoslav Richter is widely regarded as one of the finest pianists of the 20th century.With a career that began in Soviet Russia in the 1930s, listeners in the West had their first opportunity to hear him through recordings made in the 1950s, and his reputation among classical fans grew quickly. Richter's approach to music is best illustrated by the enormous range of his repertoire. In recital and on recordings he played everything from Bach to Stravinsky to George Gershwin as well as championing unknown or unpopular works he thought deserved the public's attention.