Track Listing

1. I. Nicht Schnell, Mit Innigkeit
2. II. Sehr Rasch
3. III. Frisch
4. I. Ziemlich Langsam
5. II. Schnell
6. III. Ziemlich Langsam, Sehr Gesangvoll
7. IV. Sehr Langsam
8. V. Langsam
9. No. 9 Novelette. Lebhaft
10. No. 10 Praludium. Energisch
11. No. 11 Marsch. Sehr Getragen
12. No. 12 Abendmusik. Im Menuettempo
13. No. 13 Scherzo. Lebhaft
14. No. 14 Geschwindmarsch. Sehr Markiert
15. Promenade
16. I. The Gnome
17. Promenade
18. II. The Old Castle
19. Promenade
20. III. Tuileries Gardens (Children's Quarrelling At Play)
21. IV. Bydko
22. Promenade
23. V. Ballet Of The Unhatched Chicks
24. VI. Samuel Goldenberg Und Schmuyle
25. Promenade
26. VII. The Market At Limoges (The Big News)
27. VIII. Catacombs (The Roman Tomb)
28. With The Dead In A Dead Language
29. IX. The Hut On Chicken's Legs (Baba-Yaga)
30. X. The Bogatyr Gate (At Kiev, The Ancient Capital)
31. Cloches A Travers Les Feuilles

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #326429 in Music
• Released on: 2002-10-22
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Live, Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .23 pounds

Amazon.com
It's hard to believe that any pianist, living or dead (or, probably, yet-to-be-born) could match, much less surpass, these performances. It was Richter, after all, who made Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition almost as important an item in the standard repertory of the piano as Ravel's orchestration is in that of the orchestra. And it was Richter's performances of it, as well as his example, that have ignited the interest of subsequent generations of pianists in the Bunte Blätter, heretofore one of the most obscure works in the Schumann canon.

Indeed, Richter's only competition in these two pieces is himself. These 1968 performances, taped by the BBC, in front of an audience in London's Kingsway Hall, are both better than the pianist's studio recordings of the same pieces. (Richter's studio version of Pictures was recorded in Moscow in 1958 and is available on BMG; his studio version of the Schumann dates from a 1971 session in Salzburg and is available on an Olympia disc.) Wonderful as this BBC performance of the Mussorgsky is, listeners new to Richter should bypass it for another of the pianist's live accounts: the unsurpassable performance from a 1958 recital in Sofia, Bulgaria (Philips). --Stephen Wigler

Customer Reviews

Richter
Richter is exceptional!!! His personal and intimate approach to the piano and especially with these pieces is rivalled only by the incredible mastery of technique and consistency of execution in this live performance.