For most people the Sonata will presumably be the eye-catcher, and it is without doubt a wonderful performance, but personally I would be happy to buy the disc for the 'fill-ups' alone. ''Funerailles'' opens with a clangorous ringing of bells and proceeds via intense volcanic stirrings to positively electrifying climaxes. For the Fantasia Richter has an instrument adjusted so that full application of the soft pedal produces a thin cimbalom-effect which is perfect for the piece (and which unfortunately comes fitted as standard on so many present-day grands). This makes for another feast of extraordinary piano sounds and the whole performance, like that of ''Funerailles'', is blistering in its virtuosity.
The recording, it must be said, is primitive in the extreme, prone to wobble and distortion, with a constant accompaniment of what sounds like frying sausages, and with the first bar-and-three-quarters of the Fantasia entirely missing. There is also a fair amount of audience coughing and this is of epidemic proportions at the beginning of the Sonata—is there a touch of anger in the first octave outburst in response to this? Fine though the sweep of the early stages is, it is not until the second subject that Richter really gets into his stride. From this point on he has the audience in the palm of his hand, the coughing diminishes and only the rumble of treuns (or something like that) remains impervious to the spell of the music. It is a brilliant, daring, hypnotic account which sees deep into and far along the structure. There are a few spills as well as thrills, but the latter are of an order rarely even attempted; and everything is on a scale as grand and imposing as the music itself.'