Sviatoslav Richter - Sviatoslav Richter Archives, Vol. 18: 1958 Budapest Recital (Live) (2010)

The sound is terrible on this live recording of a Sviatoslav Richter concert in Budapest on February 11, 1958. One can hear not only the pianist's playing, but also the audience's coughing, grunting, and groaning, and although the noise is not quite enough to swamp Richter's music-making, it will drive any listener bothered by such things to the edge of madness. But it is unlikely that any admirer of Richter's playing will be much bothered by the ambient noise here -- most of the pianist's recordings were live and many were made in conditions that could charitably be described as primitive -- and they should be able to concentrate on the performances. And, to put it mildly, those performances will likely blow him/her away. An early advocate of Schubert's piano music, Richter turns in richly lyrical accounts of the composer's A major Sonata, D. 664, and Impromptu in A flat major, D. 899/4, that are distinctly different from his later recordings of the same works. Perhaps even more impressive is Richter's potpourri of Liszt pieces: a harrowing Funérailles, a fleet Gnomenreigen, a pair of sensuous Liebestraums, a set of three sexy Valse oubliées, a radiant Sonetto del Petrarca No. 123, and jaw-dropping Feux Follets. The average classical listener may not have much use for this disc, but the average Richter listener will have to hear it.