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Gesvllschaft 138 076 ( ST033 ) SLPM

SVJATOSLAV RICHTER: RACHMANINOFF

Klavierkonzert Nr. 2 in c-molb Piano-Concerto No. 2 in C minor

6 Preludes

GRAND PRIX DU oisauE

PARIS Wi?

SERGEI RACHMANINOFF

A-SEITE

2. Konzert fiir Klavier und Orchester c-moll op. 18 1. Satz: Moderato • 2. Satz: Adagio sostenuto

B-SEITE

3. Satz: Allegro scherzando

Svjatoslav Richter, Piano

Sinfonie-Orchester der Nationalen Philharmonie Warschau

Dirigent: Stanislaw Wislocki

6 Preludes Nr. 12 C-dur op. 32 Nr. 1 ■ Nr. 13 b-moll op. 32 Nr. 2

Nr. 3 B-dur op. 23 Nr. 2 • Nr. 5 D-dur op. 23 Nr. 4

Nr. 6 g-moll op. 23 Nr. 5 • Nr. 8 c-moll op. 23 Nr. 7

Svjatoslav Richter, Piano

STANISLAW WISLOCKI

Foto: Paul Moor, Berlin

SVJATOSLAV RICHTER

Der russische Pianist Svjatoslav Richter zahlt

heute zu den prominentesten Kiinstlern der

Gegenwart. Er wurde 1915 in Shitomir in

der Ukraine geboren und entstammt einer

Musikerfamilie deutscher Abstammung.

Der Vater, am Wiener Konversatorium

ausgebildet, war ein geschatzter Pianist und

Musiklehrer, der sich auch im Komponieren

versuchte; die Mutter eine gebildete Musik-

dilettantin. Die kiinstlerische Atmosphare

dieses Elternhauses hatte entscheidenden

Einfluss auf die Entwicklung des begabten

Jungen, der schon mit acht Jahren ein aus-

gezeichneter Klavierspieler war. Der Neun-

zehnjahrige gab seinen ersten Klavierabend

in Odessa, wo er voriibergehend als Korre-

petitor beschaftigt war, ging aber drei Jahre

spater nach Moskau und vervollstandigte

seine Ausbildung bei einem der fiihrenden

Klavierpadagogen Russlands, Heinrich

Neuhaus. Viele Jahre hindurch erstreckte

sich die Tatigkeit des Pianisten ausschliess-

lich auf Russland und Osteuropa. Seit 1959

kam der Kunstler fiber Helsinki erstmalig

auch nach Westeuropa, wo einige wenige

Schallplatten bereits eine Legende um

seinen Namen gebildet hatten. Seine

Konzerte bildeten monatelang die Sensation

der westlichen Welt, und seine grossten

Triumphe feierte der Kunstler bei seiner

USA-Tournee 1960, die ihn bis nach

Los Angeles und San Francisco fiihrte.

SVIATOSLAV RICHTER

The Russian pianist Sviatoslav Richter is now

regarded as one of the most outstanding

artists of the present day. He was born in

1915 at Zhitomir in the Ukraine, the son of a

musical family of German extraction. His

father, who had been trained at the Vienna

Conservatoire, was a highly regarded

pianist and music teacher, who also did

some composing; his mother was a gifted

amateur musician. The artistic atmosphere

of the family house had a decisive influence

on the development of the brilliant boy,

who was an excellent pianist by the time he

had reached the age of eight. Ten years later,

he gave his first piano recital in Odessa,

where he worked for a time as a chorus

repetiteur. At the age of 22, he went to

Moscow, where he completed his training

under one of Russia’s foremost piano

teachers, Heinrich Neuhaus. For many

years Richter confined his activities as a

piano soloist to Russia and eastern Europe.

In 1959, however, he travelled by way of

Helsinki to western Europe, where a few

recordings had already made his name a

legend. His concerts in the western world

were sensational successes whose reper¬

cussions were felt for months afterwards,

and he celebrated his greatest triumphs of

all during his tour of the U.S.A. in 1960,

travelling right across the continent to

Los Angeles and San Francisco.

SVJATOSLAV RICHTER

Le pianiste russe Svjatoslav Richter compte

aujourd’hui parmi les artistes les plus

eminents de notre temps. II est ne en 1915 a

Shitomir en Ukraine dans une famille de

musiciens d’origine allemande. Son pere

forme au Conservatoire de Vienne etait lui-

meme un pianiste et pedagogue estimes qui

s’etait aussi essaye dans la composition; sa

mere etait une femme cultivee et musicienne

a ses heures. L’atmosphere artistique du

foyer paternel eut une influence decisive sur

le developpement du jeune gar£on qui, des

l’age de huit ans, etait un excellent pianiste.

C’est a dix-neuf ans que le jeune Richter

donna son premier recital de piano a

Odessa ou pendant quelque temps il

remplit les fonctions de repetiteur des

choeurs, mais trois ans plus tard il se rendait

a Moscou pour y parfaire sa formation

pianistique avec Heinrich Neuhaus, l’un des

premiers professeurs de piano de Russie.

Pendant de longues annees son champ

d’activite de pianiste se limita exclusivement

a la Russie et a l’Europe orientale. C’est en

1959 seulement que l’artiste, en passant par

Helsinki, vint pour la premiere fois aussi en

Europe occidentale ou quelques rates

enregistrements avaient deja fait naitre une

veritable legende autour de son nom. Ses

concerts furent pendant de longs mois la

grande attraction du monde musical occi¬

dental et ce fut au cours de sa tournee aux

U.S.A. en 1960, qui le conduisit jusqu’a

Los Angeles et San Francisco, que l’artiste

sovietique remporta ses plus grands triom-

phes.

Printed in Germany • Imprime en Allemagne • Impreso en Alemania 3/66

SERGEI RACHMANINOFF

SIDE A:

Concerto No. 2

for Piano and Orchestra in C minor.

Op. 18 1. Moderato • 2. Adagio sostenuto

SIDE B :

3. Allegro scherzando

Svjatoslav Richter, Piano

Symphony Orchestra of The National Philharmonia Warsaw

Cond. Stanislaw Wislocki

6 Preludes No. 12 in C major, Op. 32 No. 1 • No. 13 in B flat minor. Op. 32 No. 2

No. 3 in B flat major. Op. 23 No. 2 • No. 5 in D major, Op. 23 No. 4

No. 6 in G minor, Op. 23 No. 5 • No. 8 in C minor, Op. 23 No. 7

Svjatoslav Richter, Piano

PIANO CONCERTO NO. 2

in C minor, Op. 18

6 PRELUDES from Op. 23 and Op. 32

Sergei Wassiliewitsch Rachmaninoff was born on the 1st April 1873 at Onega—to the north¬ east of what was then St. Petersburg on the shores of the White Sea—the son of a landowner. Young Sergei soon showed unusual enthusiasm and talent for music, a talent which developed during his training at the two greatest musical

establishments in the country, the conservatoires of St. Petersburg (now Leningrad) and Moscow. In St. Petersburg he studied principally the piano, from 1882 until 1885, under Damjanski;

in Moscow he continued his studies under Alexander Siloti, a distinguished pupil of Liszt. At the same time he learned composition from Taneiev and Arensky. Sergei Taneiev had been

a pupil of Tschaikowsky, and succeeded him in his position at the Moscow Conservatoire. Anton Arensky, although coming from the

school of Rimsky-Korsakoff, may also be

Photo: Paul Moor, Berlin

considered an enthusiastic follower of Tschai¬ kowsky.

The direction which his teachers’ interests thus took was to be of great significance in its influence on the development of Rachmaninoff the composer. First he won success as a pianist, but soon also made a name for himself with works of his own. In 1912 Rachmaninoff, who had lived for several years in his favourite town Dresden, became conductor at Mamontow and later at the Court Opera in Moscow. The October Revolution of 1917 drove him from his native land. He fled, almost penniless, through Scandinavia to the United States, which he had earlier visited during his world-wide concert tours.

There he laid the foundations of a new career, soon becoming one of the most sought-after concert pianists, particularly renowned for his playing of Chopin and Liszt. As a composer he wrote in many forms, his most important works, however, being those for piano. His Prelude

in C minor. Op. 3 No. 2, in particular, soon became famous all over the world.Also often performed are his popular piano concertos,

although his operas have never achieved any lasting success. He lived near Hollywood toward the end of his life, and there he died after a short

illness in 1943.

Rachmaninoff was one of the last of the romantic artists who were at the same time successful as creative and as interpretive musicians. Chopin and Liszt were the most eminent of these

composer-virtuosi, among whom is also to be numbered the Russian Anton Rubinstein, founder of the St. Petersburg Conservatoire and teacher of Tschaikowsky. Rubinstein’s fame as a pianist, when at the height of his career, was little less than that of the great Liszt. As a composer he remained untouched by changing trends in western European musical styles. His

many-sided creative activity was to be the point of departure for the so-called “New Russian” school of Rimsky-Korsakoff, Borodin and Moussorgsky, with their nationalistic aspirations which differentiated their music strongly from that of western Europe.

By far the most important personality among the Russian composers was Rubinstein’s great pupil Tschaikowsky, who was destined, by virtue of his mixed Slav and Romanic blood, to act as an artistic bridge between the Russian and western styles. Rachmaninoff followed in his footsteps. In Rachmaninoff’s music, too, heterogeneous elements are mixed, but the specifically Russian element is seldom the most prominent. Nevertheless the Slav accent is generally unmistakable in the background. The examples of Rachmaninoff’s shorter piano works such as the Preludes, 24 in all, published under the opus numbers 23 and 32, are referred to particularly in Alexander von Andreevsky’s

description of his fellow-countryman’s music: “All Rachmaninoff’s works have about them the elegiac tone of romantic nostalgia, the swan¬ song of the doomed Russian upper classes at the end of the nineteenth century, with echoes of Chopin’s poetic pathos”. Heavy sorrow and virtuistic brilliance are the contrasting charac¬ teristics of his music, which has more of dark-

toned, elegiac lyricism than of dramatic conflict about it. It is no mere chance that so many of his works are in minor keys: his three best-

138076 @@ SLPM

known piano concertos are in F minor, C minor and D minor; the most popular of these is No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18, composed in 1901.

The first movement (Moderato) is preceded by an eight-bar Introduction, a succession of deep chords of menacing and increasing power. The principal subject, characteristic of Rachmaninoff with its emphasis on near intervals and relentless melodic flow, is then played by the strings against bravura passage work of the soloist. The second subject is introduced by the soloist alone; this is a calm, lyrical melody which increases in strength but which then relaxes. The return of these themes after the mighty climax of the Development is highly original: the principal subject appears as a splendid triumphant march (“Alla marcia maestoso”),

the second subject lyrically transfigured, played by the solo horn against string tremoli.

The second movement (Adagio sostenuto), an extended, lyrical intermezzo, is also preceded by a few bars’ introduction, whose mixed colouring of string, woodwind and horn tone is to exercise a considerable influence on the music which follows. The elegiac principal subject is played first by the flute, is then taken over by the clarinet, and finally given to the soloist in dialogue with the orchestra. A second theme, as a counter-subject to the piano’s melody, appears in the bassoon. This movement, full of atmosphere, is rounded off by a cadenza of the soloist and by a short coda.

The third movement (Allegro scherzando) is constructed round a temperamental, high- spirited dance theme of pronouncedly Russian colour, which appears in various widely different guises during the course of the movement. A contrasting, gentle subsidiary subject, first played by the oboe, alternates with the dance theme, and reappears toward the end of this colourful movement full of contrasting elements in a noble, hymnlike form. A last energetic episode brings the work to a brilliant conclusion.

Svjatoslav Richter was born in 1915 in the Ukrainian town of Shitomir, the son of a musical family. His father, who had been trained at the

Vienna Conservatoire, was a respected music teacher and pianist, who also did some com¬ posing. The mother, who had excellent musical taste, was one of the first people in remote Shitomir to appreciate the music of Debussy and Scriabin. The atmosphere of the family house had a significant influence on the develop¬ ment of the highly gifted young artist, who was already an excellent pianist at the age of eight, with an extraordinary ability in playing at sight. The opera house in Odessa engaged him as chorus repetiteur, and he soon won fame as an outstanding accompanist and master of the art of improvisation. At the age of nineteen he gave his first piano recital at Odessa, playing a Chopin programme. Three years later Richter went to Moscow, and completed his training at the Musical Academy there under Heinrich Neu-

haus. He began his sensationally successful career in 1942, and has come to be regarded, in the West as well as in his native land, as one of the world’s foremost pianists of our time.

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Sergei Rachmaninoff 2. Konzert fiir Klavier und Orchester

c-moll op. 18 3. Satz: Allegro scherzando

6 Preludes fc> Nr. 12 C-dur op. 32 Nr. 1 / Nr. 13 b-moll op. 32 Nr. 2

Nr. 3 B-dur op. 23 Nr. 2 / Nr. 5 D-dur op. 23 Nr. 4 S' j » o; Nr. 6 g-moll op. 23 Nr. 5/Nr. 8 c-moll op. 23 Nr.7 £ ^ ^ Svjatoslav Richter, Klavier WV ^ Sinfome-Orchester der Nationalen

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