I agree entirely. I used to "play" this sonata as a kid--but of course it was not the same piece at all! With Richter I'm hearing it for the first time.
Richter is just untouchable with this sonata. This one was great, but there's another live performance, I think from one of his Carnegie Hall recitals, that's absolutely thrilling. He fudges a few notes in the finale, but it makes it all the more exciting.
Most of the comments are silly and self serving. We are blessed to have lived in the time of Richter and the other giants of 20th century piano, and future lovers of music will marvel at recordings such as this.
Right ! Mani pianist play brautifully this fantastic fantastic fantastic sonata !!! There are not a pianist which is better than all ..... !!! Piano giants ... there are dozens
You are right, only composer himself could tell, which pianist plays it best. Otherwise our judgements are all subjective, according to our interpretation and liking. I also hate some of the reviews using superlatives in excess. Yet Richter is a giant, no doubt.
Even in Beethoven's time there were no pianos with the power of a present day Steinway. If he'd had the precise hearing of his youth, Beethoven would have marveled at the sound of contemporary instruments. He would probably have performed his music differently on a more impressive piano than was available in the early 19th Century.
@@petie32 there is no perfection in anything, but Steinway is the closest to perfect, and its newer crop sounds even better than XIX century pianos. I owned grand Steinway from the 30s and can tell the difference.
What a fireworks! What expressiveness, what irresistible drive, what fingerfertigkeit! Best rendition by far. (The - distant - second, in my humble view, would be Friedrich Goulda's rendition.) And to add my 2 cents to, rather misplaced, comparisons with "Beethoven's playing," no, I do no think the master could have been any better; I think Sasha Richter, on a modern concert piano, has achieved the ultimate perfection. We will probably only slide down in the years, decades, centuries to come, as we already have in many other areas - think of composing music, painting, .... (But we are so much better at shopping!)
Think before you speak please... Beethoven was a creator, he often added flair to his own performances and was known to change passages for his own personal performances. Secondly, Richter makes plenty of mistakes here so it is hardly 'ultimate perfection'. Thirdly, you are for some reason pretending that the only great renditions are already uploaded to youtube. I would speculate that a very low percentage of great performances of this sonata are actually up on youtube. Richter was a fantastic pianist and noble character however. One of the best.
'Sasha Richter' ..never heard that before or did you mean to write Slava? -edit- it's Gulda, not goulda..and 'best' is a sports term, doesn't work in art when used as an objective ;- )
Grotrian Steinweg First and foremost, every pianist should strive to communicate the expression of the almighty Beethoven! In this sense, Richter's performance is ultimate perfection ! It's such a pitty that you think that playing the right notes are that important, was it not Beethoven himself that proclaimed ''To play a wrong note is insignificant; but to play without passion is inexcusable''.
Brandon Scherrer Please, I always interpret Beethoven with spirit over note perfection. I can still appreciate musical perfection, since I play at concert standard myself. Gould is better musically and technically. Richter is more human, which is what you are trying to say I think. Gould found it hard to 'let go' and his intensity instead comes from attention to detail and volume of every voice present in the music. Since Beethoven composed the music, we can only assume that he had a mastery over the sense of harmonic construction and could have projected each and every note just as he would have liked, similar to what Glenn Gould does. Other pianists just don't even come close. I'm sorry, but Richter, although admired by Glenn, was just not as good a pianist musically or technically. If you want to see real flair comparable to Beethoven or Mozart check out Alma Deutscher on youtube.
Formidable Richter ! et qu'importent les fausses notes (9.34). Un pianiste qui savait prendre des risques. Un musicien dont les interprétations ne laissaient jamais indifférent. Le contraire du jeu aseptisé de beaucoup de pianistes d'aujourd'hui.
I only wished that there was a video for this so I can ENJOY Richter 'miserable" look while playing Beethoven menacing f minor. That would make me so happy. This is an awesome interpretation
Beethoven Sonata " Appassionata"- пожалуй, самое мятежная, грандиозная и трагическая его Sonata. Richter исполняет ее как схватку Человека с враждебными ему силами: отсюда волевой напор, оправданная резкость контрастов, лавина несущихся звуков, страстный порыв к Победе и Свободе. Все три части связаны единой линией развития, неуклонного движения. Небольшой отдых в вариациях второй части лишь на короткое время уступает место динамике трагической борьбы, усиливающейся в Финале. Светлана Давыдова
Sounds like a page from Pravda, full of Communist propaganda editorial cliches. Please, try to describe your feelings with your own words, if not, just be mum.
@newFranzFerencLiszt You are very wrong, sir. Beethoven was a sensational pianist. He became famous as a pianist of immense technique and unrivaled power before he made his name as a composer.
he was pianist, like trevrockone said, he was tremendous pianist, there are many proofs about it... we dont know,there is no best interpretation,it can be the closest to best,and i think that richter achieved to be great so much as possible... love all his interpretations,especially appassionata
I fail to see how Beethoven would appreciate the tempo of the third movement, in light of his tempo indication "Allegro ma non troppo". According to Carl Czerny, the finale should be only occasionally stormy.
Dear TrevRockOne, you are right that Beethoven was an outstanding pianist in his youth -one of the best at his time- but you cannot compare the technical level of the first romantic period with the degree of development in pianistic technique reached over hundred years later. Along history, numerous composers point out that other people play their music much better than themselves. In the case of Beethoven there are thousends of reasons for the story to be the same. Let us not be too idolatric!
Oh yeah, Mr. Rationalist, then tell me, why did Richter become one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century if he hated his job, as they say that he was very emotional(in a good way) in his playing.
Рихтер индивидуален. Он не просто играет,он передаёт эмоции, он проводник и в этом его гениальность. Как он сам говорил - Я играю для себя и если мне нравится - нравится слушателю . Это тот случай,когда когда любить искусство в себе, а не себя в искусстве. Другого такого нет.
ne vous semble il pas que le tempo (du 1er mouv) ne devrait pas bouger d'un pouce? être implacable? et un poil plus rapide (a mon gout) alors que rudolf Serkin (1936)... écoutez le... bien sur, faite s fi de l'acoustique qui n'est pas du meme niveau... 2me mouv, superbe! le bon tempo!... et le 3me mouv... aussi ... formidable!! Donc a part le tempo du 1er mouv trop lent et fluctuant, j'aime...
While you're right about technique coming a long way in the interim between Beethoven and Richter here, I'm sure that Beethoven had more than enough technique to play his own pieces, at least the ones he wrote when he could still play. Richter's Appassionata is amazing, but I wouldn't assume that it is automatically better than how Beethoven played it. We can assume, however, that Richter is better at playing say Rachmaninoff.
paganviodio Rachmaninoff was a well known self-hater. Plus even though Horowitz's 40's recordings of Rachmaninoff were great, they still can't live up to Rachmaninoff's (though the cuts do make me cringe). And I do believe you are referring to Rachmaninoff's comments about Horowitz's playing of the 3rd concerto. I believe Rachmaninoff recorded that in 1939, when he was old and about to die, and it was still better in my opinion.
I also don´t believe that Beethoven could play this so well as Richter. Writing a Sonata and playing it , are two diffirent Disciplines. Mozart has written Horn Concerto, allthoug he could manage to produce one single Tune out of a Horn. Besides , we have the recordings of Rachmaninov playing his own Concertos. Rachmaninov knew Horowitz, and said himself , that Horowitz played his Concerto better than he himself. If Beethoven has heard this performance, he ´d take his hat up and greet Slava.
Dieu n'existe pas! Il y a juste l'homme en prise avec sa conscience et ses affectes le reste est bla bla . C'est Ce que nous crie cette musique! Rocher à tout comprit .
Just look at that photo of Richter. The most miserable looking pianist you'll ever see. He must have hated his job. Compare his photo with the smiling Liberace or Richard Clayderman. These guys played music the public wanted to listen to, not this rubbish.
Russians ( Richter was German born in Russia and lived there all his life) traditionally never smile on photos. They believe smiling for no reason is a sign of being an idiot! Besides Richter had very tough life, dealing with bias by Bolsheviks. He was able to perform in the West only occasionally with many blocks on his way. He had 2 problems: Russians thought of him as German, and West thought of him as Soviet! Nothing to smile about.
