http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sviatoslavrichter/message/8014Da whole pozt fo doze not registered:
Being musically constipated, I guess Brendel has to work very hard
to make anything sound musical or vaguely interesting. (Mostly
fails, with a couple of exceptions notably the early Brendel)
Another pianist (???) critical of Richter was Schiff. His comments
were something like “Richter doesn’t really help us understand the
Viennese Classics” and I guess he is right; not even Richter can
make Schiff understand Viennese Classics, or any other music for
that matter.
Gavrilov also had a few things to say in the past (such as saying
that Richter found it very difficult to play Chopin’s Op10Nr2), but
despite his talent and technical wizardry, Gavrilov has proven to be
a less than shining intellect over the years mostly due to his
vanity and excesses. (Despite SR’s virtuosity, I think the crown for
technical perfection must go to Michelangeli - his tone is
incredible, even on old records)
I am not aware of Berzovsky criticising Richter. He is of course a
technical wizard and he does manage to bring out the musical line in
difficult pieces (such as Liszt’s Etudes on DVD) but on the whole, I
find him one-dimensional (a better bet in this category of pianist
would be Volodos).
Richter is no saint, and he does sometimes play extremes, but you
accept a Master as a package (ditto for Michelangeli)
Anyway, enough of my ramblings…
