Pianists

[Scarpia]

Interesting. It's not often that I hear Richter described as too poetic. Most often it's the opposite: his extremes are too wide or too harsh.

It's hard to know where to begin with Richter, really. His recorded legacy is comprised of so many bootlegs and unauthorized issues that it's hard to know which Richter will turn up on any given recording. Or if he's hitting on all cylinders the audio side of the release is sorely lacking (take the Helsinki recital, for example). Though the majority seem to catch him in at least decent form.

The law of averages at least seems to be in our favor, with so many of his CDs out there.

Oh, well, maybe one day for you, Scarps.

I don't do bootleg/live recording thing.  I have the EMI box set (couldn't resist, 14 CDs and I think it was 5 pounds on amazon.co.uk at one point).  I also have a fair number of his DG recordings.  But there is so much music I don't have time to listen to, it takes me a while to get around to anything in particular.  Thank god my i-Deals order was cancelled.  : )