Sviatoslav Richter - Six Russian Piano Concertos (1950-59) [2014]

Six brilliant Russian concertos - Richter at his best in the studios of Soviet Russia

"Richter's playing is magnificent ... I wouldn't want to be without this recording" - Fanfare, 1990


These recordings were all made by Melodiya for LP (and, presumeably in the case of the earliest, 78rpm) issue in the USSR in the 1950s, at a time when Richter was just about unknown in the West. They include a number of works for which these are his sole recordings - perhaps most notably the first Rachmaninov concerto - as well as in the case of the Tchaikovsky, possibly his finest recorded interpretation of this major work.

The sources for these transfers were all near-mint German reissues made in collaboration between Ariola-Eurodisc and Melodiya some years later, and benefit from far superior vinyl pressings than were available in the original Soviet issues. Even so, the original recordings were not perfect, and I've had to deal with a certain amount of peak distortion and wow and flutter throughout most of the series.

What I have also been able to recover in these XR remasters has been far superior overall sound quality than was apparent in any of the original recordings. Whilst this is especially true in the later issues, even the very earliest, 1950 recordings have also shown significant improvements.

Andrew Rose



Tracks:

Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1
Rimsky-Korsakoff Piano Concerto
Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 1
Rachmaninov Piano Concertos No. 2
Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 1
Glazunov Piano Concerto No. 1

Personnel:

Sviatoslav Richter, piano
Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra
Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra
Moscow Youth Orchestra
USSR Radio & TV Large Symphony Orchestra
Yevgeny Mravinsky - Kirill Kondrashin - Kurt Sanderling, conductors