Richter plays the Britten Piano Concerto, Aldeburgh 1967

Richter would make a commercial recording of Britten’s Piano Concerto with the English Chamber Orchestra under the baton of the composer in 1970, but this live recording dates from three years earlier and was made at a concert at the Maltings Snape on June 18 1967, in the opening weekend of that year’s Aldeburgh Festival.  The orchestra was the New Philharmonia.  The hall had been officially opened by the Queen on June 2 and this concert demonstrated its warm and vibrant acoustic to its new audience.

The concert also testified to the close collaboration and artistic friendship between Richter and Britten.  The composer had been introduced to Mstislav Rostropovich at a concert in London in 1960 and a warm friendship quickly developed.  When Richter made his first appearance in Britain in 1961 Britten got to know him too and after that the pianist became a frequent guest at the Aldeburgh Festival.  Britten and Richter famously gave joint recitals playing music for two pianos.  The inclusion of the Piano Concerto in the inaugural weekend of the new Maltings is a tribute to the importance for Britten of the presence of Richter, whom he considered one of the supreme musical minds of the era.  Richter would play the concerto in Moscow later in that year in the Moscow Conservatory, with the USSR State Academy Symphony Orchestra under Evgeni Svetlanov.

This performance of the Piano Concerto—a work Britten wrote in 1938 and revised in 1954—demonstrates their extraordinary creative synergy. Richter approaches the solo part not merely as a vehicle for bravura display, but with a fierce, mercurial intensity and a profound understanding of the work’s structural ironies and darker undercurrents.  This live recording preserves the raw adrenaline, spontaneous nuance, and electricity of their very first public performance of the work together. It stands as a definitive document of the Aldeburgh Festival’s golden age and a testament to a transcendent musical friendship.

Originally conceived as a brilliant, youthful display piece, the concerto balances bravura writing with a sharp, satirical edge that reflects the tense geopolitical atmosphere of the late 1930s. In the opening movement (Toccata) Richter delivers the opening chords with commanding rhythmic drive, effortlessly navigating the percussive leaps and percussive dialogue with the orchestra.  The second movement is an ironic Waltz, played here with a deliberate, haunting dance-like grace that avoids sentimentalism.  The third movement (Impromptu) was added by Britten in his revision of the piece in 1954 and is the emotional core of the piece. Richter’s voicing of the passacaglia theme possesses a stark, searching poetry.  The finale is propelled forward by Britten’s taut conducting, building to a thrilling, percussive climax where Richter’s legendary powerhouse technique is on full display.

The recording was made at a concert given on June 18 1967 at the Maltings Snape.

The recording is in the Harewood Collection at Music Preserved