Shostakovich Richter

Shostakovich - Complete String Quartets (CDs + Scores!) - Borodin Quartet
Classical | EAC: FLAC+Cue+Log | 6 Cds, Covers; 15 PDF | 2.21 Gb (CDs) + 39.8 Mb (Scores)
Label: Melodiya/BMG - Date: 1997

Rarely do we come across as intimate and wide-angled a set as this collection of Dmitri Shostakovich's 15 string quartets, all of them played by the Russian Borodin Quartet. Recorded in Moscow between 1978 and 1983, the quartets are excellently reproduced in digital sound by Sviatoslav Richter, who maintains just enough shadow from the old Melodiya vinyl's audio vérité to make the music breathe passionately…

Two factors should disqualify this disc immediately. First, the pieces are incomplete and out of order. Second, and arguably more crucially, the pianist misses handfuls of notes in nearly every selection and bucketfuls of notes in some. But some listeners won't care about these things because of the miracle of Sviatoslav Richter. What in another pianist would be grounds for dismissal is here cause for celebration. Check out Richter's Shostakovich: the mysterious colors of his F minor Prelude and Fugue, the fleet virtuosity of his A minor Prelude and Fugue, or the intensity of his E minor Prelude and Fugue.

These live recordings from 1985 are fantastic treasures. The Moscow Studio Archives release may now be unavailable – perhaps this Regis version is now easier to obtain. Oleg Kagan plays the Violin Sonata (1968) and Yuri Bashmet plays the Viola Sonata (1975), which was Shostakovich's last work, both accompanied by the great Sviatoslav Richter on piano…

From the notes: "This volume includes two major Piano Sonatas by Sergei Prokofiev, a composer Richter knew well. Richter's only performance as conductor was in music of Prokofiev, the premiere of his Sinfonia
concertante for cello and orchestra. And although, as with all composers, Richter played only the music of Prokofiev he felt closest to, there was a great deal of this music, including the First and Fifth Piano Concertos and the Second, Fourth and Sixth through Ninth Piano Sonatas. Prokofiev gave the first perfromane of the Sixth Sonata on a radio broadcast, but Richter gave the public premiere of this Sonata, and also of the Ninth, which was dedicated to him."

These live recordings from 1985 are fantastic treasures. Oleg Kagan plays the Violin Sonata (1968) and Yuri Bashmet plays the Viola Sonata (1975), which was Shostakovich's last work, both accompanied by the great Sviatoslav Richter on piano. Kagan, who died at a tragically young age, was a student of David Oistrakh, the dedicatee of the Violin Sonata. Yuri Bashmet was the star student of Fjodor Drushinin, the violist of the Beethoven Quartet, and the dedicatee of the Viola Sonata. These are unmistakably works of the late Shostakovich, brooding and dark.

Yuri Bashmet developed a highly successful international career as a violist, but then, like so many talented instrumentalists of his generation, branched out into conducting, even founding an orchestra. He has never abandoned the viola, managing to split his time in even portions between soloist and conductor, often appearing in both roles in the same concert.

Sviatoslav Teofilovich Richter was born on March 20, 1915 (Julian: March 7) in Zhitomir in present-day Ukraine. His father Teofil (Theophilus) came from a German commercial family. The famous Russian piano teacher Heinrich Neuhaus (of German origin) recognized his huge talent and enrol led him in his piano master cl ass at the Moscow Conservatory in 1 937. Profil Edition Gunter Hanssl er is progressively releasing all the recordings that the great Soviet virtuoso made between 1945 and 1963. Most of them were largely unknown in the West during the Cold War, as Richter could only perform til I 1960 behind the ""Iron Curtain"", that is to say, in the Soviet Union and the sate I lite states of Eastern Europe.

Late Richter's austere and roughly sculpted sort of pianism makes this 20 century piano music repertoire utterly captivating listening experience. Audience is spell-bound throughout the recital except a few insensitive people daring to sneeze and cough in most scerene moments. There is always something transcendental about his playing in his late years, if not as thrilling as in 60-70s recitals.