: The Well-Tempered Clavier. Live Innsbruck, 1973, Sviatoslav Richter. II part of IV.

This recording (: The Well-Tempered Clavier. Live Innsbruck, 1973, Sviatoslav Richter) is one of the greatest rarities in the Richter discography. It was issued in Japan as a memorial tribute to Richter shortly after his death. When the company which published it discovered that the contract they had received from Russia was fraudulent, they deleted the entire memorial series, ten discs, in a matter of weeks. During that brief time it circulated only within Japan. There’s a prevailing sense of power and personality in these readings that is a hallmark of Richter no matter what the repertoire. Old-fashioned would be a tag that is at once accurate and misleading—the accuracy refers to how seldom anyone today would dare to inject such Romanticism into Bach, while what is misleading is to believe that joyous, highly personal music-making ever goes out of date. Richter is also notable for not applying a uniform style to his Bach. Some preludes are stately, some fugues are lightning fast. Sometimes h