Aaaargh! If I ruled the world, I wouldn’t put out a four-disc set of Richter’s Beethoven from Prague and harness the great performances to the good ones, the first-rate recordings to the third-rate. I’d make it two discs, with the four latest sonatas – Opp. 90, 101, 106 and 110 – plus Op. 2 No. 3 and Op. 31 No. 3. That would be fine monument to some of the grandest, most truth-full Beethoven playing on record. Now if fuzzy, distant or cough-ridden recordings are no bother to you, or if you don’t mind the angle of a broken string (in the Diabelli Variations), then by all means buy the new package with confidence. But if you’d like just a selected memento of these extraordinary live recitals, I suggest you ask for the single disc of Opp. 90, 101 and 106 available on Praga (CD) CMX354003.
On the Revelation disc two of the last three sonatas live up to the company’s trademark. Richter’s Opp. 109 and 110 are characteristically sober, stoical affairs, with sculpted rather than moulded transitions and no concessions whatsoever to charm-school glamour. He was on top form at the time, and these accounts would be on my short-list for top recommendation. Only the very measured Allegro molto of the A flat Sonata is likely to raise eyebrows, but its rock-steady determination is inseparable from Richter’s far-sighted conception of the whole. Op. 111 is something of a disappointment though. It starts uneasily, with clipped rests and slight imperfections of sonority. Exciting though the following main Allegro is by most pianists’ standards, it fails to build a stable platform for the Arietta, which then lacks inner serenity – probably just a slight lapse of confidence on one specific occasion. Anyone allergic to the sound of audience presence, or to the contrived absence of applause, should again steer clear, but the recording is more acceptable than some from this source, on a level with the best of the Praga set.'