Sviatoslav Richter’s “Bach Box” on Stradivarius

from the Amazon.com Web page for Richter Plays Bach

Recently I had an opportunity to sample recordings of Russian pianist Sviatoslav Richter playing the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. These did not involve any new or recent recording releases, but I decided to take advantage of an opportunity to balance my writing about Glenn Gould’s Bach albums on Columbia with a more modest account of Richter offerings. I had previously written about one of these for Examiner.com in May of 2016; but, because it is still in circulation, it definitely deserves “reminder” acknowledgement.

What makes this item particularly interesting is that it is an Audio DVD, and I wrote about it shortly after Parnassus had released it in April of 2016. The album consists of all of the preludes and fugues in both books of The Well-Tempered Clavier, compiled from four recitals that Richter gave in Innsbruck in 1973 between July 26 and August 10. Producer Leslie Gerber observed:

This format enables us to include the entire recording on a single affordable disc while maintaining maximum audio quality.

If there is any disadvantage, it is that on most players the video interface is required to start playing the DVD; but, on the other hand, that interface also makes it easier to select any one of the prelude-fugue couplings for specific listening. Since there is little to be gained from listening to this recording in its entirety over the course of four hours and about ten minutes, such an interface is highly desirable. As to the music itself, there is consistent clarity in Richter’s executions; and he always seems to find just the right dispositional stance to take for each of the 24 keys in both of the books. To be fair, Gould’s account of these preludes and fugues is more convincing that many of the more idiosyncratic accounts in his Columbia anthology; but, from a personal point of view, I find myself more drawn to Richter’s approaches to expressive interpretations.

More recently I had the opportunity to listen to a box set of four-CDs released by Stradivarius under the title Richter plays Bach. I have yet to see any evidence of a booklet; and, when it comes to information about the sources, the back cover says only “Live and Studio Recordings, 1991.” This is far from a “comprehensive” account of the Bach repertoire, but one must be content to take what one can get. That means that there are only four of the “English” suites and two from the “French” set, while both of these were collections of six.

On the other hand there are three keyboard sonatas that were part of a consecutive set of numbers in the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (BWV) catalog categorized as “Sonatas and sonata movements.” Only one of these, BWV 963 in D major, counts as an “original” composition. BWV 964 in D minor is an arrangement of the BWV 1003 solo violin sonata; and it is included in the article “Unechtes unter Johann Sebastian Bachs Klavierwerken” (inauthentic keyboard works of Johann Sebastian Bach) by Hartwig Eichberg. BWV 966 in C major, on the other hand, has been identified as a transcription from Johann Adam Reincken’s Hortus Musicus collection of fifteen sonatas.

From a personal point of view, I was pleased to see the inclusion of the four duets, BWV 802–805. These were included in the third of the four volumes published under the title Clavier-Übung (keyboard practice), which was the only one of those volumes consisting of music for the organ. However, the BWV numbers put these duets in the same overall category that includes the “English” and “French” suites, that “Sonatas and sonata movements” subcategory, and (of course) both books of The Well-Tempered Clavier. Dover Publications, on the other hand, included the duets in its Organ Music volume, rather than the Keyboard Music collection. As a result, I have played them on my Yamaha Clavinova using the organ stop, rather than one of the two for piano. Having now listened to Richter, I am thinking about revisiting them with the piano stop!

Taken as a whole, this is a far more limited account of Bach’s keyboard music than one finds in the Gould collection. However, where Richter is concerned, one must take what one can get. What is available for the taking definitely deserves attentive listening that will constitute a satisfying experience.