Richter, unlike his childood friend Guillels, was not an ardent fan of Brahms’repertoire. He treated him as if he were a poet in romantic osmosis with Chopin and Schumann, rather than a timid successor of Beethoven. In 1948 Richter performed only the famous Concerto in B flat, Op. 81.This rare recital makes the young pianist Brahms come across as an intuitive, even prophetic composer rather than merely discursive. ED.
