Vinyl Record

Sviatoslav Richter - Beethoven: Sonatas Nos.

Sviatoslav Richter - Beethoven: Sonatas Nos. on 2LP vinyl. A 2025 record available from Kilmorna Collection in Listowel, Ireland.

2LP · 2025

Available from Kilmorna Collection in Listowel.

Buyer notes: 2025 2LP, currently available from the Kilmorna Collection vinyl shelf. Pay for pickup in Listowel or ship within Ireland for EUR 5.50.

Beethoven: Sonatas Nos. 18, 27, 28 & 31 - The Lost Tapes is a 2025 Sviatoslav Richter release built from recordings made in 1965 at the Tours and Lucerne festivals and held for decades in archive. That time gap is the whole drama of the album. Richter's Beethoven reputation was never based on completing a tidy cycle; it rests on a fiercely individual relationship with particular works, live risk and an ability to make structure feel volatile from inside. These performances place him in four sonatas that cover very different Beethoven landscapes: the extroverted and mercurial No. 18 in E-flat major, Op. 31 No. 3; the compressed late-middle world of No. 27 in E minor, Op. 90; the lyrical breadth of No. 28 in A major, Op. 101; and the late contrapuntal and spiritual intensity of No. 31 in A-flat major, Op. 110. The 2025 release context matters because it adds fresh 1960s Richter to an already vast recorded legacy, not as a historical footnote but as a live encounter with Beethoven at high voltage. The value is in the tension between archive recovery and immediate performance danger.

This release matters because it expands Richter's Beethoven discography with previously unavailable 1965 festival performances. For a pianist whose live recordings often reveal the most extreme and searching sides of his art, newly surfaced Beethoven sonatas are not routine archival tidying.

For collectors, The Lost Tapes is a major Richter archival title: 1965 performances issued in 2025, centred on Beethoven sonatas rather than anthology fragments. It belongs with listeners who value live classical documents, late Beethoven interpretation and Richter's risk-taking authority.

Live solo Beethoven with commanding piano tone, sudden dynamic risk, severe concentration, lyrical inwardness, structural tension and the charged atmosphere of mid-1960s festival performance.

Recommended for: Classical collectors focused on Sviatoslav Richter live recordings; Listeners interested in Beethoven sonatas outside complete-cycle presentation; Fans of archival releases that add meaningful performances to a major pianist's legacy.

What performances are included on this Richter release? It presents Beethoven piano sonatas Nos. 18, 27, 28 and 31 from 1965 festival recordings. Why is it called The Lost Tapes? The recordings were made in 1965 and remained in archive for decades before their 2025 release. Is this a complete Beethoven sonata cycle? No. It is a focused archival release of four sonatas, valuable because of Richter's live interpretations and the newly surfaced material.