Sviatoslav Richter - Richter plays Bach (4CD) (2008)

Stradivarius' 1991 studio and live digital recordings of Sviatoslav Richter are now brought together for a new definitive mid-price luxurious digipak box. Sviatoslav Richter is widely regarded as one of the finest pianists of the 20th century.With a career that began in Soviet Russia in the 1930s, listeners in the West had their first opportunity to hear him through recordings made in the 1950s, and his reputation among classical fans grew quickly. Richter's approach to music is best illustrated by the enormous range of his repertoire. In recital and on recordings he played everything from Bach to Stravinsky to George Gershwin as well as championing unknown or unpopular works he thought deserved the public's attention. Richter's performances of Bach are rare and exquisite jewels indeed. He possessed exactly the right degree of intellectual command and technical control to liberate the ghost from the machine and the results are never less than satisfying.The playing is patrician and often miraculous, but the visceral element of showmanship, is almost entirely absent. Instead, there is a tangible sense of communion that seems particularly appropriate for Bach. Richter does not make the mistake of attempting to turn his concert grand into a harpsichord, instead he subtlety uses all the resources at his disposal to delineate and clarify the texture.The possession of one of the most glorious sounds in pianistic history certainly helps too.