Schumann - Fantasie in C. Faschingsschwank aus Wien, Op 26. Papillons, Op 2

Sviatoslav Richter pf

EMI 575233-2 Buy now

(67’ · ADD) 

Recorded 1961-62.

Richter’s Schumann is unequalled. The Fantasia is arguably Schumann’s keyboard masterpiece and Richter plays it better than other pianists. Nobody can phrase as beautifully as he can, or produce those marvellously soft accompaniments beneath quietly singing tunes or toss off the middle movement with such speed and brilliance. There’s astonishing poetry in his playing. It almost amounts to a rediscovery of the work.

The same could be said of Faschingsschwank aus Wien and Papillons. (The way he plays the main theme of the latter should make you buy this disc if nothing else does – he seems to add stature to the work.) His assets in all these works are, first, an unusually musical sense of phrasing. Second, he can reduce an accompaniment to a mere murmur without any loss of evenness so that a tune above it can sing even when it’s soft. Third, he uses a great deal of rubato, but always with impeccable taste; his rubato in slow passages has a mesmeric quality only partly due to the fact that he usually plays such passages much slower than other pianists. Fourth, he has faultless technique. His superiority is apparent throughout. The recording is magnificent for its date. Classic performances which no pianophile should be without.