There are certain recordings that are simply the best. I can listen to no other version of the 3rd movement of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata than that by Daniel Barenboim. Similarly, Yehudi Menuhin‘s interpretation of Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata is the best to me, and I have heard a few.
And in the video below the photos of the Pulpit Rock in Norway are arranged to Sviatoslav Richter‘s playing the first part of the Piano Concerto in A Minor by Edvard Grieg. He brings to Grieg’s concert the passion, introspection, and intensity I have not always noticed before in other recordings.
Sviatoslav Richter in Wikipedia. In June 2012, the Sviatoslav Richter Piano Forum will be held in Moscow. There are no age limit and no jury, and all selected participants will perform in solo recitals at the Great and Small Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. Deadline for entry submissions is February 2012.
Piano Concerto in A Minor, premiered in 1869 in Copenhagen by Edmund Neupert, was composed by Grieg at the age of 24 and was to become the only piano concert he had ever completed. Although it is widely compared to Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto, it also carries distinct references to Norwegian folk music. And you can try your hand at playing Grieg’s Concert by the full scores.