Sviatoslav Richter, piano
Video: Ravel: ‘Alborada del gracioso’: Richter
4 comments
Comments RSS and TrackBack URI
Leave a Reply Cancel reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Support Classical Life
Recent Comments
- Paul Bodine on At the library …
- Anonymous on At the library …
- Paul Bodine on 3 picks for spring season
- MmarkK on 3 picks for spring season
- Paul Bodine on 3 picks for spring season
Blogroll
- Alex Ross: The Rest is Noise
- All is Yar
- Arts & Culture / Voice of OC
- Arts & Letters Daily
- Arts: New York Times
- ArtsJournal: Music
- Classical Voice North America
- Clef Notes
- Composers Doing Normal Shit
- Deceptive Cadence
- Emphasis Dance
- Iron Tongue of Midnight
- Kenneth Woods — A View from the Podium
- Montonous Forest
- Night After Night
- On An Overgrown Path
- Opera Chic
- Opera News
- Out West Arts
- Pacific Symphony blog
- Parterre Box
- Please Enjoy!
- Robert D. Thomas/Class Act
- San Francisco Classical Voice
- Slipped Disc
- Sounds and Fury
- The Eastside View
- The Misread City
-
Recent Posts
- At the library …
- 3 picks for spring season
- Roger Angell, 1920-2022
- Review: Pacific Symphony performs ‘Otello’
- Review: Rattle and London Symphony at Segerstrom Concert Hall
- Review: Ohlsson and Gerstein at Soka
- May 6, 1991
- Ozu and Schumann
- Review: New chamber group debuts at the Barclay
- Schumann on ‘Frasier’
Archives
- April 2023 (1)
- January 2023 (1)
- May 2022 (1)
- April 2022 (1)
- March 2022 (2)
- December 2021 (1)
- August 2021 (1)
- July 2021 (1)
- June 2021 (1)
- February 2021 (1)
- January 2021 (1)
- November 2020 (2)
- September 2020 (1)
- August 2020 (1)
- July 2020 (1)
- June 2020 (3)
- May 2020 (3)
- April 2020 (2)
- March 2020 (1)
- February 2020 (1)
- January 2020 (2)
- December 2019 (3)
- November 2019 (4)
- October 2019 (1)
- August 2019 (3)
- July 2019 (4)
- June 2019 (7)
- May 2019 (7)
- April 2019 (4)
- March 2019 (5)
- February 2019 (4)
- January 2019 (7)
- December 2018 (4)
- November 2018 (4)
- October 2018 (6)
- September 2018 (9)
- August 2018 (3)
- July 2018 (7)
- June 2018 (3)
- May 2018 (4)
- April 2018 (3)
- March 2018 (4)
- February 2018 (5)
- January 2018 (3)
- December 2017 (5)
- November 2017 (7)
- October 2017 (9)
- September 2017 (10)
- August 2017 (6)
- July 2017 (7)
- June 2017 (12)
- May 2017 (8)
- April 2017 (7)
- March 2017 (11)
- February 2017 (7)
- January 2017 (19)
- December 2016 (11)
- November 2016 (9)
- October 2016 (8)
- September 2016 (14)
- August 2016 (10)
- July 2016 (12)
- June 2016 (15)
- May 2016 (18)
- April 2016 (19)
- March 2016 (19)
- February 2016 (20)
- January 2016 (16)
- December 2015 (15)
- November 2015 (17)
- October 2015 (27)
- September 2015 (18)
- August 2015 (10)
- July 2015 (14)
- June 2015 (14)
- May 2015 (16)
- April 2015 (17)
- March 2015 (17)
- February 2015 (17)
- January 2015 (17)
- December 2014 (19)
- November 2014 (21)
- October 2014 (13)
- September 2014 (14)
- August 2014 (11)
- July 2014 (11)
- June 2014 (12)
- May 2014 (16)
- April 2014 (14)
- March 2014 (12)
- February 2014 (14)
- January 2014 (17)
- December 2013 (13)
- November 2013 (19)
- October 2013 (15)
- September 2013 (20)
- August 2013 (11)
- July 2013 (20)
- June 2013 (15)
- May 2013 (17)
- April 2013 (15)
- March 2013 (17)
- February 2013 (13)
- January 2013 (15)
- December 2012 (8)
- November 2012 (14)
- October 2012 (12)
- September 2012 (11)
- August 2012 (8)
- July 2012 (16)
- June 2012 (9)
- May 2012 (12)
- April 2012 (15)
- March 2012 (11)
- February 2012 (16)
- January 2012 (13)
- December 2011 (10)
- November 2011 (15)
- October 2011 (16)
- September 2011 (14)
- August 2011 (11)
- July 2011 (12)
- June 2011 (15)
- May 2011 (13)
- April 2011 (20)
- March 2011 (13)
- February 2011 (16)
- January 2011 (10)
- December 2010 (16)
- November 2010 (12)
- October 2010 (16)
- September 2010 (14)
- August 2010 (19)
- July 2010 (13)
- February 2010 (1)
- March 2009 (1)
- November 2008 (2)
- March 2006 (1)
-
Join 413 other subscribers
Classical Life
classical life 
Richter had a way with Ravel. I love his performance of “Jeux d’eau” (I think it was his 1960 Carnegie Hall concert). So ethereal.
In my opinion, this pianist’s “greatness” is vastly overrated. In this performance, for example, there is not nearly enough of either French elegance or Spanish flavor. The fast episodes are messy and uneven, tempo relationships don’t make much sense – the attitude often seems to be “let’s play each passage as fast as i can hit those notes” – and loud stuff is simply loud without much character in the sound.
I agree, it’s not perfect, but it is a live recording. But I like his rhythmic energy and articulation and voicing quite a lot. It’s an exciting performance.
For me, this kind of excitement tends to show off the performer more than it does the composition that is being performed. And when the piece is a darn good one by Ravel, it’s a shame. A quick perusal of youtube yielded at least two renditions of it that sound far superior to me: Dinu Lipatti and Emil Gilels – certainly imperfect both, but in a much more musically attractive Ravelian way. Of course, Alicia de Larrocha was very fine too. For my taste, Sviatoslav Richter was indeed outstanding in pieces that are mostly cerebral and intellectually meditative, while in the kind of music that is mainly about colors, flavors and scents, he was far less impressive.