The nice folks from Supplemental Sound may have thought I was kidding when I told them last month that solo piano has become my music of choice. Subjected to an iffy neo-soul performance on a nearby stage at a disappointing festival, I meant what I was saying at that moment.
Taking in more than a dozen transcendent recitals by elite pianists in recent years expanded my ears. No less importantly, reading Bruno Monsaingeon’s Sviatoslav Richter: Notebooks and Conversations in 2023 personalized the music for me. (The book is a companion to a far less interesting documentary.)
Deutsche Grammophon added seventy-two minutes to the late Russian pianist’s unfathomably massive discography last month.The Lost Tapes: Beethoven: Sonatas Nos. 18, 27, 28 & 31 consists of previously unreleased recordings from two 1965 concerts in Europe.
These performances aren’t referenced in Notebooks and Conversations, but the notoriously prickly Richter might have made self-lacerating comments about his efforts. What did he know? Richter’s bold translations of Beethoven are precisely what I need to hear right now.