Sviatoslav Richter plays Liszt

The great Russian classical pianist Sviatoslav Richter (not to be confused with his contemporary, the great Russian classical pianist Karl Richter) died on this date in 1997. Here's a piece from a 1958 recital that he gave in Sofia, Bulgaria. The recording is a little rough, but the performance is excellent.

The entire recording (The Sofia Recital 1958) is worth seeking out. It begins with a complete "Pictures at an Exhibition," then continues with works from the nineteenth-century piano repertoire -- Schubert, Chopin, Liszt -- before finishing with a short piece by Rachmaninoff. The technique is magnificent but not flawless, which if you love this kind of stuff just makes it better, because then you know that the difficult passages that are perfectly executed were in fact actually executed, and not created by a recording engineer after the fact. And the passion that Richter brings to the entire performance -- no recording engineer could create that at all.