I'm about halfway through listening to Budapest Music Center Records' marvelous 14-disc collection of live recordings by piano titan Sviatoslav Richter. A couple of reviewers have not been too kind to this set, and I think they need to clean out their ears.
The performances are generally far more interesting — and in consistently better-than-expected sound — than its closest competitor, the 15-disc Praga collection.
Some highlights: a superb Schumann Piano Concerto (with the woefully underrated János Ferencsik conducting the Hungarian State Philharmonic) from 1954 that surpasses either of the "official" recordings, some intense Bach, dizzyingkly playful early Beethoven sonatas from 1976, and a program of Grieg Lyric Pieces that he toured in 1994 that systematically torpedoes the miniatures' undeserved reputation as "lightweight" music.
A full review will follow later this week.
