Description
Parnassus: Richter in Warsaw — The Scriabin Recital (Audio CD)
Brand new! Factory packaged! As pictured! Buy with confidence!
Product Details:
- UPC: 606345004217
- Catalog Number: PACD 96053
- Product Type: Audio CD
- Brand / Label: Parnassus Records
- Performer: Sviatoslav Richter (piano)
- Composer: Alexander Scriabin (1872–1915)
- Release Year: 2012
- Genre: Classical
- Style: Solo Piano, Live Recital
Product Features
- Format: CD
- Discs: 1
- Total runtime: 74:20
- Recording: Live, Warsaw, October 27, 1972
- Condition: Brand new, factory sealed
Overview
Richter in Warsaw: The Scriabin Recital captures Sviatoslav Richter playing an all-Scriabin program on October 27, 1972 — one of the great live documents of his concert career, restored by Parnassus Records and available again after more than a decade out of print.
The recital is built almost entirely from miniatures. Twenty-four preludes drawn from across Scriabin's life sit alongside six of the Op. 42 études, the early "Sonata-Fantasy," and the later, harmonically restless Sonatas No. 5 and No. 9. Richter moves between the lyrical early pieces and the volatile late works without ever flattening the distance the composer travelled.
What carries the disc is the playing. Richter treats Scriabin's shorter forms with the same weight he gave the largest sonatas — the Op. 11 preludes never feel like warm-ups, and the Sonata No. 9 ("Black Mass") arrives with the controlled intensity that made his live appearances events. The 74-minute program runs from quiet introspection to near-orchestral force.
This Parnassus edition presents the full Warsaw recital cleanly transferred, the kind of historic concert recording that rewards close listening rather than background play.
Interesting Facts
- Sviatoslav Richter (1915–1997) was among the most celebrated pianists of the twentieth century, famous for an enormous repertoire and a preference for unannounced, dimly lit concerts.
- Alexander Scriabin composed almost exclusively for the piano early in his career, and his preludes show the clear influence of Chopin before his harmonic language grew far stranger.
- The later Sonatas Nos. 5 and 9 abandon traditional key signatures and move toward Scriabin's "mystic" harmonies, built on his own synthetic chords.
- Sonata No. 9 carries the nickname "Black Mass," a title applied by the pianist Alexei Podgaietsky rather than by Scriabin himself.
- Parnassus Records, based in Woodstock, New York, specializes in historic recordings by major artists, often issuing performances unavailable on any other label.
- This recital was unavailable for over a decade before Parnassus reissued it in 2012.
Track Listing
1–12. 12 Preludes, from Op. 11 — 13:26 13–14. 2 Preludes, from Op. 13 — 3:17 15–18. 4 Preludes, from Op. 37 — 5:06 19–20. 2 Preludes, from Op. 39 — 1:44
- Prelude, Op. 59, No. 2 — 1:04 22–24. 3 Preludes, from Op. 74 — 3:28 25–26. Sonata No. 2, Op. 19, "Sonata-Fantasy" — 11:06 27–33. 6 Etudes, from Op. 42 — 10:56
- Sonata No. 5, Op. 53 — 10:47
- Sonata No. 9, Op. 68 — 7:59
- Poème, Op. 52, No. 1 — 2:29
Publishers
Released by Parnassus Records (Woodstock, NY) in 2012, catalog PACD 96053. Recorded live in Warsaw on October 27, 1972.
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