Sviatoslav Richter - Beethoven: Hammerklavier, Live in London (2014)

Sviatoslav Richter is an all-around performer who has tackled musical repertoire from Bach to Webern, but has not been a performer identified with the Viennese classical composers. Yet Richter’s Beethoven repertoire is enormous, and he has performed nine concertos and nine sonatas by Mozart as well as various works of lesser proportions and many violin sonatas. At the present time it is easier to see the Beethoven-Richter relationship relatively clearly. We do not know if Richter took into account the fact that Beethoven had been an avid reader of Homer, but this performance of the Hammerklavier is, without any doubt, epic.