You are expressing YOUR opinion, subjective as it is. There would be many agreeing and many disagreeing. It’s impossible to judge objectively, except we all agree Richter belong to Olympus of piano gods, presiding over the rest of them. The verdict on the XX century pianists is in with Schnabel, Horowitz, Richter, Arrau, Gilels, Sokolov, to name a few.

Yes; I suppose I got a little overboard - the artists you mentioned are also my favorites!

А я полностью с Вами согласна, и пусть мне никто не пеняет на объективность или что угодно, и я не претендую на неё! Для меня Рихтер лучший!

@@stonefireice6058 Stop lecturing everyone, asshole.

Not forgetting Kondrashin, a little too underrated!

Beautiful passage 15:32

I love your review. Absolutely. Like the greatest opera Singers of the past. Always thinking in advance before sing a note or a phrase.

Mravinsky almost destroyed the orchestra of Leningrad Philharmonic at the end of his conducting carrier with ruthless micro- management, stale performances and unyielding grip on the musicians. Thanks god, Yuri Temirkanov finally replaced him, reviving the Orchestra and its performances.

@@stonefireice6058 Evidence?

Cats were sacred in the ancient Aegypt.

my cat loves it too !

Tell your cat she knows her music!

Why do I feel like I must meet your cat?

Describing this pianist completely.

The Greatest pianists are Really=Emil Gilels Grigory Sokolov Sviatoslav Richter Artur Rubinstein Wihelm Kempff Radu Lupu Maurizio Pollini!

Siempre Glenn... Gould.

Richter is regarded as one the greatest pianists ever. He is naturally superb here. He was a singularity. I also heard him perform a solo recital in Toronto in the early 1960s. I also heard Emil Gilels there. Both were absolutely stunning artists.

Lucas Jussen did a really great job of this recently too. Well worth listening to=his approach is more delicate, lighter, more closely suiting the Saint Saens spirit.

Absolutely agreed..so do I..Richter is my preferred pianist :)

Me too!

Ian Sutton Couldn't agree with you more,Ian.We all have those composers and interpretations that are firmly in our minds and hearts,but as i become older (and hopefully wiser...?) I try more now to keep a completely open mind. I remember listening to one recital Richter gave where he was distinctly below form,then learned afterwards that he had a stinking cold but went ahead anyway,so as not to disappoint. that said as much about the man as ever one of his finest performances could

+Matthew Coldicutt yes, you are also wiser:-) kind regards,,Peter

Thank you Peter,for your kind words. I have been running down the list of your musical interests and it seems we have much in common.However,there are evidently areas where you have far more experience ( such as lieder) and I shall be paying much attention to the pieces you know and love. Hope that's okay?! Matt

+Matthew Coldicutt Thank you! I am flattered:-). I am a professional pianist and over the last 30 years I am a composer also. Since I started composing I have a totally different approach to music and one of the most important aspects is ,that you realise that there is no "best performer". As a young man I was very opiniated:-) Now I am 61 and still learning new music ,new composers and an open mind makes music more more interesting, I can assure you! kind regards, Peter

Hello Peter I have just spent coffee time watching you play and sing- I'm entranced! Running down some of the composers and and performers that interest you I can see that there is a whole new world out there. I'm so pleased you like the great (but compact!) pianist Shura .One of my close friends from school went to work for his uncles who ran (and I believe still do) the Nimbus recording business near Ross on Wye. As you doubtless know, Nimbus were one of the pioneers of the CD,recording music in a very natural ambience. Back in the eighties they had Shura on their books and Martin worked closely with him. You are quite correct,he was a magical pianist and a real character. Part of his preparation for a recording was to go through the piece at about a quarter of the tempo it would be played,as if mapping out every nuance. When I next speak to Martin we can have an in depth discussion about the pianist and if anything of note crops up (which it surely will ) I shall pass it on. Matt

Gould would thoroughly disagree. His often-repeated and oft-explained philosophy was to make the pianist as small a presence as possible. He was thoroughly opposed to all kinds of virtuosic techniques--and hated Horowitz precisely for his showmanship. In an interview, Gould credits Richter with being one of the finest interpreters, b/c as you say he go out of the way of the music. Gould felt he was doing that too. And his interpretations were, in his view, true expressions of the composer's intent. And when I listen to his Bach, I think he might well be right---perhaps everyone else had it wrong playing Bach far too fast. Anyway, mostly wanted to point out that Gould was not idiosyncratic for the sake of it but b/c he considered what he was doing to be a faithful interpretation. One more point worthy of consideration: in Richter's notebooks, the only complaints he ever makes about Gould is that he's frustrated that Gould does not play all the repeats.

Yess! That’s why Soviets let him perform in the West- he made them rich!

C'est domage que vous pencez ca. Pauvre mec.

Saint-Saens c'est vraiment un grand composite, mais le plus grand de tous francais!

@@PaulJones-oj4kr Alvaro est libre de ses opinions et votre réponse nous dit qui est le pauvre mec.

Indeed

He is in fact imitating a famous middle eastern instrument frequently used in egyptian music, it's called Kanun: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rrJhhLWLltTKoqM.html

@@Mohabpiano Saint-Saens was an organist. My piano professor indeed demonstrated the stops on an organ. It doesn’t sound to me like the Kanun sound you shared.

@@TheModicaLiszt Remember it is the Egyptian concerto, he resided there often in winters and he must have heard this instrument. I cannot confirm as surely as your teacher did but it sounds much more like a Kanun. Maybe listen a second time ;)

​@@Mohabpiano it doesn't matter, you're probably both right as what's truly happening Saint Saëns was making use of harmonic series and laws of physics, namely interference. And that you can be sure he learned by his experience as an organiser far before he heard any Egyptian instrument. But afaik he composed this whole concerto while staying in Luxor and he incorporated in it many Egyptian themes, motives and atmosphere

+Ratzfourtyfour SaintSaens is worthy, absolutely,of a reexamination. So many great advocates of him. Could they be mistaken ? And this performance alone. Check out Gramophone Real GReat Composers issue on Saint Saens with Stephen Isserlis. Illiminating. And of course, there is the Hough set. kind regards

+Ratzfourtyfour I think one can certainly make a strong argument for classifying all of his piano concerti (except perhaps the 3rd) as truly first rate masterpieces.

Absolutely. I only mentioned the piano concerti because the original awe he expressed was regarding this piano concerto, but the cello concerto is certainly a masterpiece as well (though Dvorak's is No. 1 in my book), as are a ton of other pieces of all different musical types, forms, and instrumental arrangements.

BTW, on a KZfaq technical note, how does one make the name of the person I'm replying to appear at the start of my comments (e.g., the "+Ratzfourtyfour" in your last reply).

On the whole, I dislike almost all of Saint-Saens' solo piano output, but his contributions to the concerto repertoire is first-rate. Heck, even the admittedly frothy 'Wedding Cake' piece for piano and orchestra is just a lot of fun.

To magia Richtera. Mój ulubiony jedyny pianista, od czasów dziecka. Dziękuję Maestro za lata wspaniałej interpretacji.

совсем не всегда,далеко не всегда...

...По РИТМУ , мощи и контрастах звуковедения и главное, форме никого еще с тех пор в этом концерте ЛУЧШЕ не знаю!

....Сейчас Дебарга слушала--молодец,что сыграл,но....Где мощь ....финала ,в частности...? "Каверзный" Сен-Санс и гениальный! Не всем французам под силу...

@@zinam5795 так и Чайковского концерты не всякий русский пианист одолеет...Но дело - то не в этом.Рихтер, он и в Африке - Рихтер....

respectfully, one should take another look at Saint Saens - he’s very special - A wonderful item from Gramophone Really Great Composer series ( back in the early to mid 2000’s- Stephen Isserlis on Saint Saens - priceless and illuminating

@@laurencejames8108 I'm gonna definitely try that version, thank you for your recommendation!

Also Saint Saens used a the melody of a Nubian love song he heard Nile boatmen sing as one of the themes for the second movement.

Thibaudet is my pick also for its pace and fluidity.( maybe a French synergy thing?)