Schubert: Piano Sonatas Nos. 16 & 17, Impromptu No. 2

Richter's interpretations in these years had an elemental power, unselfconscious abandon that was refined and tempered in later life. These entirely unedited performances, given over more than three decades from the mid 1950s to late 1980s, feel not only live but somehow extraordinarily real. Not that Richter ever gives the impression of playing for the microphone, and his vision of musical structures remains constant whether in the studio or concert-hall.... The Schubert D major Sonata (studio recording 1956) is a tower of inner strength