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Sviatoslav Richter - A Gentle Brute

For good reason, Sviatoslav Richter is a giant of the art music world. Born in Russia in 1915 (now Ukraine), Richter was a complicated artist with a notorious stage persona. There are few more iconic scenes in piano culture than Sviatoslav's shining bare head and miserable, aggressive face digging into a Beethoven sonata under the weak light of a lamp on a dark stage. His aura was cripplingly romantic and heroic. Rubinstein bounced in a courtly fashion, Gould bobbed up and down drastically (and did bizarre things with spear hands when they weren't required on the piano), Richter attacked the piano, like an annoyed Victorian headmaster he commanded his body with vicious force and intent, threw about his head in despair. This translated into his sound which was huge and piercing, however as I will go on to explain, Richter was capable of a remarkably melodic and delicate sound.  Contrary to Richter's common stage persona, his recordings of gentler repertoire such as ...
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Beethoven Symphony No. 4 - A CD Guide

Introduction Beethoven's 4th symphony. Schumann called this piece "a slender Greek maiden between two Norse giants", of course referring the world changing Erocia and almost equally revolutionary 5th that sit either side. The 4th sits in the same group as the 1st, 2nd and 8th. Largely overlooked, and wrongly so. I can't for the life of me understand why, particularly in the case of the 4th. The 1st movement takes an awfully long time to actually start, and eventually drops in with a joyous melody.  It's 3rd movement is the best of any Beethoven symphony (excluding the 9th). The symphony is far from a mere bench-warmer for the 5th. Despite it being largely overlooked by the public (in the context of Beethoven's other hugely popular symphonies anyway), conductors seem to love it! I have no hard evidence, but in the past few years I have seen it on programs more than any other Beethoven symphony. I think this is due to the other more 'pop' Beethoven sym...
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