Sviatoslav Richter – Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier – Live Innsbruck 1973 | Parnassus Classical CDs and Records (original) (raw)

Bach was a central part of Sviatoslav Richter’s repertoire throughout his career. Some of his very earliest recordings, on Russian 78s, were music of Bach. Some of the latest additions to his repertoire, and his last studio recordings, were also Bach.

Richter began to play some of the pieces from “The Well-Tempered Clavier” in public as early as 1943. He did not play the complete cycle until 1973, and apparently he performed it as a cycle only a dozen times. He devoted much of 1973 to this music, although not always in complete cycles. When he did play the complete cycle, he divided it into four programs, each including half of one book.

Richter’s studio recording of the WTC is well known and has remained available continuously since it was first published. However, there is only one complete live recording of Richter’s WTC. Another issue, from a Russian performance, presented only Book 1 and is long out of print.

This recording is one of the greatest rarities in the Richter discography. It was issued in Japan as a memorial tribute to Richter shortly after his death. When the company which published it discovered that the contract they had received from Russia was fraudulent, they deleted the entire memorial series, ten discs, in a matter of weeks. During that brief time it circulated only within Japan. We are pleased to present this invaluable recording to a worldwide audience of Richter collectors for the first time.

In order to serve the dual interests of quality and economy, we have decided to publish this recording in DVD Audio format. This format enables us to include the entire recording on a single affordable disc while maintaining maximum audio quality.

This disc should play audio through any modern DVD or Blu-Ray player.

This article originally appeared in Issue 40:1 (Sept/Oct 2016) of Fanfare Magazine.
Sviatoslav Richter devoted much of his recital time in 1973 to playing the complete Well-Tempered Clavier, which he also took into the studio that year. It was his habit to divide the two books into four parts, playing only one part per concert, the rest of the program being devoted to the Beethoven Piano Sonata, op. 111, for example; this was also the summer when he partnered Fischer-Dieskau in magnificent performances of Wolf Lieder (Pentatone recently reissued the recording DG made in Innsbruck of those songs; see my review in Fanfare 39:5). Although he had performed parts of the Well-Tempered Clavier in public as early as 1943, Richter waited 30 years before he played the entire cycle, and then only a dozen times or so.

Therefore, this is a welcome addition to the Richter discography. The pianistic revolution in Bach initiated by Glenn Gould in the 1950s apparently made no impression upon Richter. He did share with Gould an astonishing ability to hold intense focus over an extended period, and of course both were virtuosos. But Richter’s Bach is about concentrated feelings. He deplored music analysis, being by nature a completely instinctual musician, and none of the preludes and fugues feel dissected in any way.

There’s a prevailing sense of power and personality in these readings that is a hallmark of Richter no matter what the repertoire. Old-fashioned would be a tag that is at once accurate and misleading—the accuracy refers to how seldom anyone today would dare to inject such Romanticism into Bach (Nelson Freire is a marked exception), while what is misleading is to believe that joyous, highly personal music-making ever goes out of date.
Richter is also notable for not applying a uniform style to his Bach. Some preludes are stately, some fugues are lightning fast. Sometimes he emphasizes the contrapuntal nature of the music; at other times the left hand feels like a separate accompaniment to the melody in the right hand, without much attention to making them a single voice. Scanning the Fanfare Archive, one finds criticism of Richter’s previous WTC recordings as “unidiomatically pedaled” with “murky inner voices”—that was the judgment of Edward Strickland in Fanfare 4:6 reviewing a 1981 reissue of a Melodiya recording of Book II. Strickland gave a tart summation: “Those of you who’ve complained about Gould’s harpsichord-like staccato and dry tone may find what you want, or get what you deserve, here.” Reviewing a live performance of Book I in 1998 on Russian Revelation, Peter J. Rabinowitz found the more meditative parts “slack” and delivered his own less-than-enthusiastic summation (Fanfare 22:2): “… while this Well-Tempered Clavier is more focused (in both interpretation and sound) than the Melodiya account that once showed up on Angel LPs, it still won’t convince the skeptics that Richter is a great Bach interpreter, much less that this work brings out his best Bach playing.”

Rabinowitz recommended that recording to Richter addicts, and I suppose the lines are still drawn between the addicted and the skeptical, which also applies in some quarters to his Debussy and Chopin. Since I much prefer being original to being idiomatic, given a choice, count me as an addict. Parnassus has done as much as any reissue label to scour the world for rare and desirable Richter recordings in concert, and this Innsbruck WTC is one of the rarest. Originally issued in Japan as part of a 10-disc memorial soon after the pianist’s death, it was only available for a few weeks before the discovery that a fraudulent contract had been drawn up for the release. There was no release outside Japan, so the present one is all but unique.

Two details about the headnote: Parnassus chose to publish these recordings in DVD Audio for the sake of economy; it kept everything on a single disc. The dates for each of the four parts reflects Richter’s habit of playing Book II before Book I. The reason he did this is that he was Sviatoslav Richter, a law unto himself. The recorded sound is clear and full, with minimal tape hiss. As for comparing these live readings to the studio version, which would be a huge task to carry out in detail, I agree with the program booklet that the live account is more focused and concentrated, not to mention more spontaneous. Huntley Dent
PDVD 1505

Why This Format?
In order to serve the dual interests of quality and economy, we have decided to publish this recording in DVD Audio format. This format enables us to include the entire recording on a single affordable disc while maintaining maximum audio quality. This disc should play audio through any modern DVD player.

Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier (complete) [Total running time 4:11:49]
Sviatoslav Richter, piano;
Live performances, Innsbruck
[Book 1: 1:53:20]
[Book 2: 2🔞29]

August 7, 1973 (Book 1, Nos. 1-12)
August 10, 1973 (Book 1, Nos. 13-24)
July 26, 1973 (Book 2, Nos. 1-12)
July 28, 1973 (Book 2, Nos. 13-24)

[1] BWV 846 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude and Fugue No. 1 in C major [4:36]
[2] BWV 847 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude and Fugue No. 2 in C minor [2:54]
[3] BWV 848 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude and Fugue No. 3 in C-sharp major [2:59]
[4] BWV 849 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude and Fugue No. 4 in C-sharp minor [8:08]
[5] BWV 850 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude and Fugue No. 5 in D major [2:41]
[6] BWV 851 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude and Fugue No. 6 in D minor [3:36]
[7] BWV 852 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude and Fugue No. 7 in E-flatmajor [5:06]
[8] BWV 853 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude and Fugue No. 8 in E-flatminor [10:01]
[9] BWV 854 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude and Fugue No. 9 in E major [2:06]
[10] BWV 855 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude and Fugue No. 10 in E minor [2:52
[11] BWV 856 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude and Fugue No. 11 in F major [2:01]
[12] BWV 857 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude and Fugue No. 12 in F minor [6:39]
[13] BWV 858 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude and Fugue No. 13 in F-sharp major [3:27]
[14] BWV 859 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude and Fugue No. 14 in F-sharp minor [4:42]
[15] BWV 860 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude and Fugue No. 15 in G major [3:06]
[16] BWV 861 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude and Fugue No. 16 in G minor [4:22]
[17] BWV 862 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude and Fugue No. 17 in A-flatmajor [3:42]
[18] BWV 863 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude and Fugue No. 18 in G-sharp minor [4:36]
[19] BWV 864 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude and Fugue No. 19 in A major [3:44]
[20] BWV 865 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude and Fugue No. 20 in A minor [5:08]
[21] BWV 866 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude and Fugue No. 21 in B-flatmajor [2:24]
[22] BWV 867 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude and Fugue No. 22 in B-flatminor [6:17]
[23] BWV 868 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude and Fugue No. 23 in B major [3:19
[24] BWV 869 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude and Fugue No. 24 in B minor [14:50]
[25] BWV 870 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2: Prelude and Fugue No. 1 in C major [4:04]
[26] BWV 871 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2: Prelude and Fugue No. 2 in C minor [4:12]
[27] BWV 872 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2: Prelude and Fugue No. 3 in C-sharp major [3:03]
[28] BWV 873 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2: Prelude and Fugue No. 4 in C-sharp minor [5:28]
[29] BWV 874 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2: Prelude and Fugue No. 5 in D major [8:05]
[30] BWV 875 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2: Prelude and Fugue No. 6 in D minor [2:55]
[31] BWV 876 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2: Prelude and Fugue No. 7 in E-flatmajor [4:22]
[32] BWV 877 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2: Prelude and Fugue No. 8 in D-sharp minor [7:08]
[33] BWV 878 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2: Prelude and Fugue No. 9 in E major [8:18]
[34] BWV 879 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2: Prelude and Fugue No. 10 in E minor [5:19]
[35] BWV 880 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2: Prelude and Fugue No. 11 in F major [4:21]
[36] BWV 881 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2: Prelude and Fugue No. 12 in F minor [5:49]
[37] BWV 882 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2: Prelude and Fugue No. 13 in F-sharp major [5:07]
[38] BWV 883 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2: Prelude and Fugue No. 14 in F-sharp minor [8:23]
[39] BWV 884 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2: Prelude and Fugue No. 15 in G major [3:07]
[40] BWV 885 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2: Prelude and Fugue No. 16 in G minor [5:55]
[41] BWV 886 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2: Prelude and Fugue No. 17 in A-flatmajor [6:22]
[42] BWV 887 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2: Prelude and Fugue No. 18 in G-sharp minor [9:34]
[43] BWV 888 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2: Prelude and Fugue No. 19 in A major [2:32]
[44] BWV 889 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2: Prelude and Fugue No. 20 in A minor [5:49]
[45] BWV 890 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2: Prelude and Fugue No. 21 in B-flatmajor [8:42]
[46] BWV 891 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2: Prelude and Fugue No. 22 in B-flatminor [10:15]
[47] BWV 892 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2: Prelude and Fugue No. 23 in B major [6:04]
[48] BWV 893 – Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2: Prelude and Fugue No. 24 in B minor [3:36]