As a Macedonian by family background, I am delighted to hear this performance from 1971 in the Church of St. Sophia in Охрид, Македонија! Richter was very generous in sharing music with people far from the cosmopolitan centers of Europe and the USSR.
The reording is not very good and blurs for instance the very beginning of the sonata, which is a critical moment. Nevertheless, we have the feeling of a perfectluy controlled interpretation of this complex sonata, which requires both intellectualism to follow the various episodes that Beethoven proposes us without losing the logic of the whole,a nd the attention paid to every detail. Richer is perfect in bringing together these intellevtual and sensitive approaches. We alrady know it, but in this sonata, it is an essential quality. e
