For all sorts of reasons Richter's London debut concerts in July 1961 were the sensation of the season - a season in which the Liszt piano concertos at the Royal Albert Hall were the climax. It's possible to understand why reviewers found Richter's sculpted Chopin two days earlier not entirely to their taste, accustomed as they were to more heart-on-sleeve poetic approaches. Yet today his Andante spianato seems a marvel of sustained singing line, and the Grande polonaise concludes in a flourish of noble phrasing, greeted by torrents of applause.
It's immediately obvious why the Liszt concertos had the critics reaching for their superlatives. The vehemence of the opening bars of the E flat is already enough to set most spines tingling, and by the end of the A major the adrenalin count is off the scale. Hardly a phrase in either concerto is not delivered at white heat, and some are right at the edge of Richter's grasp, if not fractionally beyond it. Nothing is ever predictable, yet somehow there's a sense of inevitability about the whole thing. 'One might well believe that Liszt had written his piano concertos with Richter in mind, 'was Donald Mitchell's spot-on assessment in The Daily Telegraph. And Kondrashin is the joint hero, constantly goading his soloist and orchestra on to new heights.
The Hungarian Fantasia makes the perfect encore, not least because it is one of the few concertante pieces which actually sound better with a slightly detuned piano. The quasi-cimbalom effects combine with fabulous rhythmic poise to produce irresistible excitement.
Allowances have to be made for the recorded sound. The soft piano treble has a satisfying bloom to it, but the bass growls somewhat, and there's not much depth or breadth to the orchestral panorama. Solos are miked very close by today's standards. Only in this respect, however, do the Liszt concertos yield to the famous Philips studio versions, made a little later during the same London visit, and the atmosphere of the live event more than compensates. The BBC booklet-note is mine, but in case anyone is wondering, I get no percentage on sales.'