Bach - The Well Tempered Clavier / 48 Preludes & Fugues [Richter]Here's another complete set of Bach's 48 Preludes & Fugues for keyboard, this time by Sviatoslav Richter, considered by many to be the greatest Pianist in the last hundred years [not my opinion though], it's good to have these 48 Preludes & Fugues all in one box of four discs, i listened to this set while on the way to and from Church last week and today, it's been a very enlightening experience.
Sviatoslav Richter was born in old Russia, which is now part of Ukraine, he lived from 1915 to 1997, and he made these recordings in 1972 & 1973, the front cover is very plain, a dark grey background, with light grey lines and lettering, but somehow i like it.
Here's my general verdict on Richter, he is really quite individual, he has his unique ideas here, he plays some of the preludes really slow, sometimes a lot slower than normal, but it can certainly work, others are fast, fugues can be fast, you can see how he uses extreme speeds when necessary, not everything is compelling, the Prelude 34 [Book 2, number 9], loses it's poetry, he plays it too fast, and too matter of fact, but other things really do make you sit up and take notice, the sound isn't great, especially in the left ear, there's a degree of fierceness and reverb, can get annoying at times.
So the highlights?, well it's Prelude 3, Fugue 10, Fugue 13, Prelude 29, Prelude 30 & Prelude 31.
