Antonin DVOŘÁK (1841-1904)
Piano Concerto in G Minor, Op. 33 (1876) [38:11]
Piano Quintet No. 2 in A major, Op. 81 (1887) [40:55]
Sviatoslav Richter (piano)
Borodin Quartet
Prague Symphony Orchestra/Václav Smetáček
rec. live, 2 June 1966, Smetana Hall, Prague (concerto); 25 April 1983, Moscow (quintet). ADD stereo
ALTO ALC1460 [79:15]
This very well filled bargain Alto issue offers an excellent coupling of two of Dvořák’s most important works. The best-known recording by Richer of the Piano Concerto is the studio account he made with Carlos Kleiber in Munich in 1973, which I very favourably reviewed in 2018, but some critics have opined that Kleiber was having an off-day, that his orchestra sounds too “Germanic” and that Richter was always preferably heard live rather under studio conditions, all of which are criticisms whose validity is worthy of consideration.
This new, live recording was previously issued on the Praga label and while there is no shortage of other recordings, most use the revision made in by Vilém Kurz in 1919, as with the celebrated – but mono - recording made by František Maxián with Václav Talichin 1952, whereas Richter pioneered the playing of the almost impossibly challenging original and always stuck with it – and that in itself is a “unique selling point”. Other pianists have indeed since followed his example and both performed and recorded the original, while other have even performed a combination of the two versions, but none of those soloists is as distinctive or exciting as Richter. He might have been a celebrated, international virtuoso but he was also a “man of the people”. Happy trundling an old upright around the rural regions of Russia and playing for ordinary folk, he responds to Dvorak's unflagging high spirits and frequent incorporation of folk tunes in the first movement. While the concerto might lack the conventional adversarial relationship between piano and orchestra, being more of a symphonic poem for those two elements, its components are thrilling and is so winningly executed here that Richter convinces the listener that it is a masterpiece worthy to stand alongside its violin and cello equivalents. Just the thunderous succession of chords beginning at 15:12 heralding the cadenza is reason enough to prize this recording – and it is even more intensely delivered than in the Kleiber version. Furthermore, the rawer, more idiomatic Prague orchestra under Smetáček is surely closer to Dvořák’s intent than the smoother, statelier Munich forces under Kleiber. Even EMI’s recorded sound, too, is slightly more recessed, tubbier and less biting; the crystalline clarity of Paul Arden-Taylor’s remastered sound for Alto better reveals the bell-like purity and lucidity of Richter’s tone in the first dreamily introspective, then more polemical, Andante. The finale is a tour de force of temperament, all cascading roulades delivered with astonishing force and dexterity. The conclusion is the craziest, most exhilarating thing of its kind I have heard for a good while – or maybe ever; it’s astonishing.
There are three live recordings of Richter and the Borodin Quartet performing Dvořák’s Op. 81, all made within a year or so of each other, the first in Prague in June 1982, the second on New Year’s Eve of the same year and the third as per above, both in Moscow. Their timings and performances are thus understandably very similar and all are superb. The performers obviously loved the work to perform it so frequently and if this is music in a very different genre from the concerto, much closer in idiom to what we think of as home for Dvořák, it exhibits the same potent admixture of poignant lyricism and coruscating brilliance. The Borodin players conjure up dark, brooding tones in the soulful Dumka then sparkle in the Scherzo; the finale is a riot, played at breakneck speed. Their collaboration with Richter was clearly a match made in heaven.
The recorded sound for both the quintet and the concerto is very acceptable, very little troubled by any audience noise; indeed, you hear virtually no extraneous sound until the applause. Thus, as much as I waxed lyrical over the studio recording, I now prefer these live performances by a wide margin.
Ralph Moore
