Sviatoslav Richter plays Schubert opera 42

A surprising performance where the suspension of time is the discovery of a dreamlike and surreal dimension.

In a letter to his family written the 25th of July 1825 Schubert wrote: "The variations of my new two hands Sonata were very appreciated. I performed them alone and not without merit. Some people assured me that the piano keys became singing voices under my fingers, and that, if true, makes me very pleased as I can't stand that damned hammering to which even distinguished pianists indulge and that delights neither the ear nor the mind."

Schubert and his dear friend the singer Michael Vogl, during their first and only visit outside Vienna, were visiting some small Austrian holiday villages for a series of concerts. 

The richness of the contrasts and the vividness of the themes of the a-minor Sonata op. 42 D 854 (1825-1826) for long times represented to performers and critics the meeting point between the second style Sonatas of Beethoven and those of Schubert. 

The richness of the contrasts and the vividness of the themes of the a-minor Sonata op. 42 D 854 (1825-1826) for long times represented to performers and critics the meeting point between the "second style" Sonatas of Beethoven and those of Schubert. 

The interpretation of Sviatoslav Richter (Zytomir, 1915 - Mosca, 1997), recorded in 1952 but published in the western countries in 1959 , had the role and merit to bring back this Sonata into a schubertian poetry: petrified tragedy in the first movement, captivating melancholy in the second (the variations of which Schubert wrote in the mentioned letter), shadowy humor in the third, absent-minded wander in the final.

Schubert became the revelation of an unimaginable poetry that Richter detached from Beethoven. 

We are introduced into an absolutely new world, totally undiscovered. 

Richter's surprising performance arose from a sense of static, petrified drama: the suspension of time was the discovery of a dreamlike and surreal dimension.

The rereading that culture made of Schubert's Sonatas really started from here, discovering in them the antithesis of Beethoven, the antithesis that complete and conclude the great age of the viennese classicism, an age that died with him.


Sviatoslav Richer plays Schubert Sonata Op. 42 

• Part 1  Moderato 

• Part 2  Andante, poco mosso 

• Part 3   Scherzo. Allegro vivace 

• Part 4  Rondo.   Allegro vivace 


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