Sviatoslav Richter - Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2, Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 23 (2010)

Richter was one of the those great virtuoso egomaniac genius types who was so insecure that he practiced for something like 10 hours a day, even before a scheduled performance. But it wasn't just getting the notes right that he was after. He was looking for the way to somehow get an entire work "into his hands," and trying to figure out the relationships between all of its different parts. That's why his performances--even the very slow one--have such an inevitable sounding organic unity. This performance isn't one of the very slow ones, but it does have that sense of urgency and spontaneity, as though Richter and Leinsdorf were composing as they play. It's one of the great recordings. -- David Hurwitz