Richter Archives 23

Karol Szymanowski (6 October 1882 – 29 March 1937) was a Polish composer and to commemorate his 100th anniversary, Sviatoslav Richter and Oleg Kagan teamed up to honor him in Warsaw. Richter was no stranger to Szymanowski's works as a few of his mazurkas, metopes and masques were performed in previous recitals of his. Although it was the great pianist Artur Rubinstein who introduced the world to Szymanowski's second piano sonata, it was Richter who championed the work and performed it throughout his career. The work is a technically vigorous work that the composer himself thought was on par with that of Liszt's Transcendental Etudes and Beethoven's Hammerklavier. In the 1950s, Richter tore through this work in under 23 minutes. 30 years later it clocks in about 5 minutes slower, but he still gives the piece justice. The two movement sonata begins with violent energy and dramatic contrasting themes and sounds similar to early piano sonata of Sergei Prokofiev. The second movement demonstrates a more Romantic heritage and influence. This can be attributed to Szymanowski's respect and admiration to his fellow countryman composer Frederic Chopin.The third sonata was also in Richter's repertoire, but this is the only rendition of it on CD to date with good sound quality. The work far more resembles how Szymanowski was influenced by Alexander Scriabin. The one movement piano sonata features mysticism, darkness, a nice adagio element and is overall more intriguing than the second sonata.Last, but not least Richter pairs up with his longtime chamber musician partner Oleg Kagan to play Szymanowski's 3 Myths for piano and violin. These works are one of Szymanowski's more popular works and have been played by many others such as Zimerman/Danczowska and Yampolski/Oistrakh. The color, expression and beautiful contrasts between the violin and piano in these pieces really represent Szymanowski's ability as a composer and are far more accessible to the average listener than either of the piano sonatas.Full CD content can be found here:http://www.pianistdiscography.com/discography/pianistLabel.php?cdnum=1496&labRich=4&PIANIST=1Overall this yet another great addition to the Richter's DOREMI series. The series continues to bring forth new Richter recordings to light while the major labels Decca/DG/Philips conglomerate continue to rehash and release the Richter recordings you likely already own.