Gramophone critic Bryce Morrison described Richter as follows: “Idiosyncratic, plain-speaking, heroic, reserved, lyrical, virtuosic and perhaps above all, profoundly enigmatic, Sviatoslav Richter remains one of the greatest recreative artists of all time.” Richter, largely self-taught, was an eccentric genius who often performed in darkened halls so the public were not distracted by any of his mannerisms: “…I don’t play for the audience, I play for myself, and if I derive any satisfaction from it, then the audience, too, is content.” He disliked recording and many of his recordings are live but once engaged, took the process very seriously and teamed with Maazel and the Paris Orchestra, these 1969 studio sessions for EMI were magic. Curiously, he never recorded Brahm’s first piano concerto.
Recorded on 24-28 October 1969 at the Salle Wagram, Paris. Produced by Christfried Bickenbach and Eric Macleod and Engineered by Allan Stagg.
Cut at Abbey Road Studios from the original stereo analogue master tapes with the Neumann VMS82 lathe fed an analogue pre-cut signal from a specially adapted Studer A80 tape deck with additional ‘advance’ playback head, making the cut a totally analogue process.

Pressed on 180g vinyl to audiophile standards

Featuring the original album artwork

In the original October 1970 review Trevor Harvey of the GRAMOPHONE wrote:
“This is a magnificent performance. As sheer piano playing, for a start – however much you may think other aspects of the work matter more, you can hardly help enjoying the extraordinary range of the pianism, for there is scarcely a passage that doesn’t bring new delights… There is everything here; the power, the darting delicacy and, above all, the most beautifully expressive soft playing… I have a list as long as my arm of splendid things about this performance, from Maazel as well as from Richter. And not least is the piano tone, which is superbly caught in every way from brilliance to the most lovely quiet warmth…”