Search - Chopin, Richter :: From the Archives: Sviatoslav Richter Plays Chopin

With Russian eyes!

Hiram Gomez Pardo | Valencia, Venezuela | 08/12/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"One of the main virtues of Sviatoslav Richter was always the impressive gamut of tonal richness he exhibited every time he played some work. It's convenient to remark his main hobby was to paint, that's why his approach about the music guards a closer bound with the visual images; on the other hand Scriabin's school affianced the aesthetic spiritual above any other consideration, which means the personal feelings was part of a subjective vision. Besides, his wisdom approach, cultivated culture and aristocratic gaze allowed it to perform a very wide repertoire like just a few have been able to boast . Some accuse him of being quite rational in the Romantic repertoire. I think it's a matter of approach. His musical training regarded the Romanticism as an inner element of the score and not as a mere torch of cheap exhibitionism that literally disappeared from the stages since the late quarter of the Nineteenth Century.



His performances were hovered of strong temperamental attacks which was perfect for some composers but not for all of them. Indeed Richter's Chopin lacks of this dramatic urgency sense and autumnal ambiance.



As a matter of fact, the Russian school didn't experience notable changes throughout more than seventy years (1880-1950) due its conceptual isolation from the Western Hemisphere. The new forms of expression, the ballets the rupture of the melody and the presence of Stravisnky, Prokoviev, and Shostakovich were in fact the only contact points between Russia and the rest of the world in the first half of the twentieth Century.



That's why his Chopin may disturb to a distinguished audience who may be accustomed to demand from Poland `s beloved son other sonority, intonation details, and tinges





"