Life story
The Unconquered Demon of Music
He didn't receive any music education, did not study anywhere, and they told me that such a young man wants to enter the conservatory. He played Beethoven, Chopin, and I whispered to those around me: “I think he’s a genius.”
Heinrich Neuhaus
Svyatoslav Teofilovich Richter always avoided interviews. And, it seems, he changed this custom only once. A few months before his death, he gave an interview to French television. TV movie in different countries Europe went under different names: somewhere - “Richter. Unconquered”, somewhere - “Richter’s Secret”. Both of them, each in their own way, fully reflect the essence of the film, with which the amazing legendary musician, as it were, summed up his life, with incredible frankness telling the world about its details, to which he never let anyone come close.
On the eve of the maestro’s 90th birthday, we bring to your attention a small part of his monologue, only occasionally allowing ourselves to interrupt the great master.
Such a nasty memory
“I have a good, but terribly nasty memory. I remember all the people I met when I went on tour, my acquaintances, their acquaintances, I traveled a lot... I don’t remember the numbers, I don’t remember the address, although I clearly remember my address in Odessa: Nezhinskaya, building 2, apartment 15... When I was 16 years old, in 1931, my dad introduced me to the Semenov sisters - these were his fans: Olga Vasilievna, Vera Vasilievna, Maria Vasilievna, there were eight sisters. They were called “eccentrics”; they lived and dressed as if there had been no revolution, everything was like in the old days. This was my first publication. At the age of 16, in their house, I played Schumann’s first concerto... I was a success with them... I wanted to become a pianist... I hate my memories, but I remember everything...
I was born in Zhitomir. My father was pure German. He studied in Vienna, sat on a bench with Franz Shaker, and studied as a pianist and composer. Dad lived in Vienna for 22 years. My mother is Russian, Moskaleva, her father was a landowner, and my mother became my father’s student when he came to Zhitomir in the summer. Dad was a very talented pianist. After graduating from the conservatory in Vienna, he came to Zhitomir, got married, and was offered a place in Odessa at the conservatory. At that moment I fell ill with typhus, and I could not be taken to Odessa, but my mother went to my father. I stayed in Zhitomir with Aunt Mary and saw my mother only four years later. My mother was a very brilliant lady, very secular, even too much so, since those years I have not liked secularism...
At the age of 8-9 I started playing. I had never played scales, never, and immediately began to learn Chopin’s First Nocturne... Dad was horrified, and my mother said: let him practice as he wants, and I played whatever I wanted: “Tannhäuser”, “Lohengrin”.
I had a terrible craving for the theater, and at the age of 15 I began to accompany in group concerts, went to clubs, began to earn money, once I even earned a bag of potatoes. I worked at the Sailors' Palace for three years, and then they took me to the opera. I was brought up on opera. At first he was a ballet tutor. Then I was in Odessa good theater. They staged "Turandot", and I wanted to conduct "Raymonda". The main conductor was Stolerman - a very good musician, although not a very pleasant person. He shot his wife out of jealousy, she burned all his works, he wrote music...
Dad gave lessons, he even taught the children of the German consul and took me with him... At the age of 19, I came up with the idea of playing a Chopin concerto. In the hall of the engineers' club (the hall was small) there were a lot of people, acquaintances, of course. I finished playing Chopin's Fourth Ballade, and played the Fourth Etude as an encore.
It was a very difficult time. In 1933, the domes of all churches were removed and the cathedral was destroyed. First, the bell was thrown down, and in the place of the cathedral they put some kind of school, a meager one, it was like that everywhere... Odessa was hostile to me. I remember there was fear in both 1935 and 1936 - from doorbells, fear of the bell. And then it was time to go military service, and I left for Moscow.
My teachers: dad, Neuhaus and Wagner. Neuhaus was wonderful person. He was like my father as a type, only much lighter.”
Farewell to a legend
“They accepted me on the promise that I would pass all the exams. But I didn’t give up anything... Neuhaus was like a father to me. I lived with Neuhaus. It freed my sound and gave me a feeling of pauses... There is a lot of theater in pianism. The most important feeling is surprise, it is the only thing that makes an impression. Neuhaus himself played unevenly. I remember his concert from the works of Schumann. The sonatas were played terribly, he played like a shoemaker, there were false notes in every bar, and the Kreisleriana was a miracle, no one had ever played like that. From Neuhaus I have the manner of sitting high...”
Upon graduating from the conservatory, Svyatoslav Richter was supposed to receive a diploma with honors. However, this was hampered by poor performance in Marxism-Leninism.
In an exam in this subject, teachers were asked to ask Richter the easiest question. He was asked: “Who is Karl Marx?” Richter answered uncertainly: “It seems like a utopian socialist...”
“...No one ever writes that my father was shot before the Germans came to Odessa, but I didn’t know anything, I lived in Moscow then. This is a dark page in my biography. There was a man named Kondratyev, he was the son of a very high official of German origin under the tsar, and after the revolution he changed his German surname. He worked at the conservatory in Odessa, was sick a lot, lay with bone tuberculosis, my mother looked after him, but it was all untrue, it was a simulation that lasted twenty years. He stood up when the Germans arrived.
When the war began, the parents were asked to evacuate, but my mother refused. Kondratyev moved in with us, I think that dad understood everything. They left under the Germans in 1941, Kondratiev and my mother managed to leave, and then he took the surname Richter and was considered my father. I was angry when they told me: “We saw your father”... I came to my mother shortly before her death in Germany. She was in the hospital. The worst thing was my concert in Vienna. I just arrived, and on the day of the concert Kondratiev came to my room, he was very unpleasant person, specially flew in and said: “My wife is dying.” I couldn't play and failed, of course. The newspapers wrote: “Farewell to a legend.” I really played terribly..."
My career began with the war
“The first time I played in the large hall of the conservatory was on December 30, 1941, a Tchaikovsky concert. And in March - even before the war - Prokofiev’s Fifth Concerto was played in the Tchaikovsky Hall, the author conducted - this was significant, I had previously played his Sixth Sonata. Prokofiev heard me for the first time. He was a sharp, dangerous man, he could “hit you against the wall” like that... He wrote to order - he was an unprincipled man, but a brilliant composer. He has a work called “Zdravitsa” about Stalin, they don’t play it anymore, it contains words praising Stalin. The writing is absolutely brilliant. Prokofiev seemed to say: “I can do this too.”
I remember my first solo concert in the small hall of the conservatory in the summer of 1942. I played Prokofiev and six preludes by Rachmaninov. Prokofiev always scolded Rachmaninov, but why? Was under his influence. Prokofiev's style came from Rachmaninov. Such clarity comes from him...
My whole career began with the war. Traveled a lot: Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, Transcaucasia - in 1942. I played in Leningrad for the first time on January 5, 1944. I arrived there on December 31st and was completely alone. So I met one New Year. I looked out the window, there were still traces of devastation and destruction everywhere. The day after the concert they looked at my passport and said: “You need to leave immediately.” “German, German,” and the Germans say “Russian, Russian.” I remember the audience at the concert in Leningrad sat in fur coats, the windows were broken, and I wasn’t cold, if I play, I’m not cold. It was very good concert... I learned Prokofiev's seventh sonata in four days. Prokofiev loved the pianist Maximilian Schmidthoff, dedicated the Second Sonata to him, and the Second Concerto to his memory. He dedicated the Eighth Sonata to Gilels, he played it very well, and he said to me: “And for you I am writing the Ninth Sonata”...
I played a lot at funerals back then. I remember some clarinetist died and there was a memorial service. Igumnov and Neuhaus played, the orchestra was conducted by Anosov, Gena Rozhdestvensky’s father, and then a singer came out, I really liked her and looked like a princess. She sang wonderfully, and only then I realized that it was Nina Dorliak.”
Richter approached Dorliak and said: “I would like to give a concert with you.” She did not understand him, thinking that he wanted to play a concert with her in half, one part - he, the other - she, it never occurred to her that he wanted to accompany her, because he was already very famous...
I play for myself
“I didn’t have an apartment, and in 1946 I moved in with Nina Lvovna. The apartment was communal, there were many neighbors, but, as Nina says, “he was unpretentious, he slept under the Neuhaus’s piano.”
Much later, in the 60s, Richter built a house near Tarusa. While the house was being built, Richter lived in the beacon's hut. Without waiting for the end of construction, he first brought his piano there. And... that's it. So he lived - a piano and nothing else.
“In 1948, Nina Lvovna and I played a concert: the first movement was by Rimsky-Korsakov, the second by Prokofiev. Nothing passed, although it was a terrible time, the resolution of the Central Committee and so on...
I played abroad for the first time in Prague, and then I didn’t go anywhere or anything, I traveled a lot - I played in Siberia, everything is interesting to me.
I didn’t leave until 1953, and in 1953 Stalin became an “aufiderzein”; I was in Tbilisi at that time. They tell me: “You need to fly to Moscow and play at Stalin’s funeral.” But it was impossible to fly out, so I flew on a small military plane, which was carrying wreaths from Georgia. I played the piano and saw up close the dead Stalin, Malenkov and all the leaders. I played and went outside. Moscow was in mourning, but I was not. But I was always far from politics, it didn’t interest me... I didn’t want to fly to the USA, I know that Yurok was always told that Richter was sick, he couldn’t.”
Famous musicians went to the Central Committee and asked that Richter be allowed to leave, which is inconvenient: Americans always ask why Richter doesn’t come?
“The issue was finally decided by Khrushchev at the request of Furtseva. Two people traveled with me, guarded me...” By the way, since we are talking about the Minister of Culture of the USSR Furtseva. There is such an anecdotal episode associated with her in Richter’s life. Talking with Svyatoslav Richter, Furtseva began to complain to him in her hearts about Mstislav Rostropovich’s bad behavior: “What does he allow himself to do! Why does this nightmare Solzhenitsyn live in his dacha?! What a disgrace! “I completely agree with you! - Richter suddenly supported her with fervor. - Of course, it’s a disgrace! It’s so crowded there, let Solzhenitsyn live better with me!” It was not a demarche, Richter was simply fantastically far from politics...
Svyatoslav Teofilovich left for the West. First in May 1960 to Finland, then in October of the same year to the United States. He was already forty-six years old. Then he went to Europe: he visited England, France, Germany, Italy, and Scandinavia. However, Richter did not follow the pre-arranged schedule of foreign concerts for long. So, after four tours in the United States, he rejected all new offers to perform in this country, which inspired him with a feeling of disgust, with the exception, as he himself said, of “museums, orchestras and cocktail parties.” “America is the standard, I didn’t like it...”
At the age of over seventy, Richter left Moscow in a car and returned only six months later. During this time, he traveled the distance to Vladivostok and back, not counting a short foray to Japan, and in conditions that are simply scary to think about, he gave a good hundred concerts in cities and the most remote villages of Siberia...
“...I don’t play for the public, I play for myself, and the better I play for myself, the better the audience perceives the concerts. The most difficult and important thing in music is pianissimo. I usually played three hours a day, studied, well, when I urgently needed to learn something, I played for 10-12 hours, but this is not often. It's not true that I studied a lot. I had 80 concert programs, I played them by heart, and one day I thought: you need to look at the notes carefully, then you will play as written, and I began to play according to the notes.
Now in concert life everything has changed, plans are made in advance, and I hate all this planning. Now you are in shape, and tomorrow everything will fall apart... I’m ready to play in school without a fee, I play in small halls without money, I don’t care...
Now I an old man. I would like to play Scarlatti, Schoenberg, but I no longer have the strength. Prokofiev loved Haydn most of all. Me too: it’s somehow fresh, I love Haydn more than Mozart. I have little strength, although I recently learned the Second Concerto of Saint-Saëns, I was very afraid of it. Not bad for an old person. I am a cold person, despite all my temperament. I know myself well - there are things that interfere not in music, but in life. I don't like myself. All".
Material from the site http://event.interami.com/index.php?year=2005&issue=11&id=1564
Svyatoslav Richter, one of greatest pianists XX century, born March 20, 1915 in the city of Zhitomir Russian Empire(currently Ukraine).
His name is inscribed in the history of music as the name of a pianist who not only masterfully performed classical musical works, but also created their author’s interpretations, which in turn became classics.
Svyatoslav Richter. short biography
1915 - born into the family of a German pianist and composer, teacher at the Odessa Conservatory, Theophilus Richter, and Russian noblewoman Anna Moskaleva.
1930-1932 - Svyatoslav Richter worked as a pianist-accompanist at the Odessa Sailor's House, and after that at the Odessa Philharmonic.
1934 - first solo concert Richter, on which the pianist performed works by Chopin, after which he received a position as an accompanist at the Odessa opera house.
1937-1947 - studied at the Moscow Conservatory in the piano class of Heinrich Neuhaus, was expelled after refusing to study general education subjects, but was subsequently reinstated, receiving a diploma in 1947.
1940 - first performance Svyatoslav Richter in Moscow, in the Small Hall of the Conservatory - Richter played Sergei Prokofiev's Sixth Sonata, for the first time since Prokofiev himself.
1960 - tour in the USA, Grammy Award (first Soviet pianist, awarded a Grammy).
1960-1980 - numerous tours in different countries, more than 70 concerts a year.
1990s - lived in Paris.
1997 - passed away.
Svyatoslav Richter - virtuoso pianist and master of piano interpretation
Execution Svyatoslav Richter It is distinguished by ease and technical perfection, the author's approach to the work, and a subtle musical sense.
Quite a few studio recordings survive Richter, however, there are many regular recordings from concerts, including quite a few that can be listened to and seen on Youtube. The recordings, at first glance, give the impression of being deeply amateur and even of poor quality, and the reason for this is the darkness on stage during the performances Richter, when the lamp illuminated only the notes on the piano stand. According to the pianist, this gave the audience the opportunity to concentrate on the music without being distracted by minor moments.
in the photo: portrait Svyatoslav Richter
Svyatoslav Richter together with the legendary director of the Pushkin Museum in Moscow came up with music Festival“December Evenings”, which has been held at the museum since 1981. A special feature of the festival is the holding of concerts and art exhibitions united by one theme in the halls of the museum.
“He loved cinema very much,” recalls Irina Antonova, president of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. - He knew cinema very well. I have a letter where he writes from Paris: “Something unusual happened this month. I saw 40 films.” That is, there were days when he went to the cinema twice. He visited theaters a lot. He was always seen in theaters."
A piano once given as a gift Richter, stands now at Pushkin Museum. At one time, a heavy instrument did not fit through the doorway of the pianist’s apartment. It was possible to use a crane, but in the end they made it easier - Richter I donated it to the museum, since I still played there often.
Svyatoslav Richter photography
...they admired him
ONCE a fan came into Richter’s dressing room and started kissing his hands. The pianist, according to the recollections of relatives, almost screamed in horror. And in response, he rushed to kiss the man’s hands. He was mortally afraid of admiration. Hearing them, he closed himself off and only smiled politely in response. And he was offended by his friends who fell on their knees in front of him and began to applaud. Why are they behaving this way? - he said. - This makes me so sick!
When one of the critics said that the concert was brilliant, Richter replied: Only a creator can be a genius. But a performer can be talented and reach the top only when he fulfills what the artist intended.
...asked about mother
Richter's MAIN tragedy was his mother's betrayal. The musician's family lived in Odessa. My father worked at the opera house, my mother was an excellent sewer. When the Germans approached Odessa, the family was asked to evacuate. But the mother, Anna Pavlovna Moskaleva, unexpectedly refused. According to wartime laws, Svyatoslav Teofilovich’s father was arrested and shot. Since he - a German by nationality - does not want to leave the city before the Nazis arrive, it means he is waiting for them. This is what the security officers reasoned.
And the musician’s mother unexpectedly married a certain Kondratiev, whom she courted before the war. Only many years later Richter learned that this Kondratiev was only in words a seriously ill person. In fact, he, a descendant of an influential tsarist official, was only pretending to be disabled and waiting for Soviet power the end will come.
Before Odessa was retaken by Soviet troops, Kondratiev and the Germans fled the city along with his wife. But Richter, who was studying in Moscow at that time, knew nothing. And he kept waiting for letters from his mother, who was the closest person to him.
Best of the day
Throughout the war years, he lived in anticipation of meeting his mother. “You can’t imagine what kind of mother I have,” he told his friends. - As soon as I say something, she’s already laughing. I just think about something - she’s already smiling.
Anna Pavlovna was not only for him best friend and advisor. She was the basis of morality for him. Once Svyatoslav, as a boy, did not return the book to a girl he knew, and she complained to the musician’s mother: Of course, all talents are the same. And the woman immediately scolded her son: How ashamed you will be if people begin to value you only as a talent. Your talent was given to you by God, it’s not your fault. But if you don’t respect people as a human being, that’s a shame.
When the musician found out about his mother's betrayal, he withdrew into himself. It was the most terrible disaster his life, which he was never able to survive. “I can’t have a family,” he decided for himself. - Only art.
And the mother, having married Kondratyev and settled abroad, gave her consent for her husband to bear her last name. The musician recalled with horror how many years later he saw the S. Richter sign on the door of his mother’s house. What did I do? - thought Svyatoslav Teofilovich and only then remembered that Kondratyev’s name was Sergei. It also happened that my stepfather gave interviews to foreign journalists on behalf of the father of the great pianist. Richter himself, hearing the phrase from correspondents: “We saw your father,” interrupted them dryly: “My father was shot.”
The meeting with his mother took place many years later, when, thanks to the efforts of Ekaterina Furtseva and Lyubov Orlova, the musician was finally released abroad. But communication, alas, did not work out. “Mom is no more,” Richter told his loved ones. - Only a mask. We just kissed and that's it.
But when Anna Pavlovna became seriously ill, Richter spent all the money he earned on tour on her treatment. His refusal to hand over his royalties to the state caused a big scandal at the time.
The musician learned about the death of his mother from Kondratiev a few minutes before the start of his concert in Vienna. This was the pianist's only unsuccessful performance. The end of the legend, the newspapers wrote the next day.
...created special conditions
RICHTER was a surprisingly unpretentious person. Having arrived to enter the Moscow Conservatory, he lived for some time in the apartment of his teacher Heinrich Neuhaus, where he slept... under the piano. Throughout his life, his favorite food was fried potatoes.
The musician was distinguished by a feeling of absolute equality with people. When he saw a woman mopping the floors, he immediately rushed to help her. And if his neighbors in a communal apartment invited him to visit, Svyatoslav never refused. Your fried potatoes are incredibly delicious,” he thanked for the treat.
One day, after taking a walk, he decided to take a swim. And while he was swimming, his shirt was stolen. There was nothing to do - I got out of the water, put on my trousers and went to the station. And there were some workers sitting and drinking. Why are you walking around naked? - one of them turned to Richter. - Come have a drink with us. And take my vest. How are you going to go to Moscow? And Svyatoslav put on the vest, went to Moscow in it, and then was very worried when it was thrown away.
According to the recollections of friends, it was easy for him to do what seemed almost impossible to others. One day big company Richter went on foot to the monastery, which was about 50 kilometers away. Having reached their destination, everyone literally collapsed to the ground from fatigue. And Richter, as if nothing had happened, went to see the sights.
And he was not afraid of anything. During a tour in Tbilisi, when he was already the world-famous Richter, he was placed in the same room with a flutist. Before the rehearsal, Svyatoslav Teofilovich went for a traditional walk, and when he returned, he could not get into the room. Then he went into the next room and calmly walked along the sixth floor cornice to his window. Weren't you scared? Still, the sixth floor, they asked him later. “Not at all,” Richter answered. - My neighbor was scared. He was with some lady, and when I appeared from the window, he was terribly scared.
...hurt animals
EXCEPT music, Richter adored nature more than anything else. The most beautiful places on Earth he considered Oka and Zvenigorod. When one of the German journalists asked him a question: You are probably pleased, being in your homeland, Germany, to see great river Rhine?, Richter replied: My homeland is Zhitomir. And Rain is not there.
Upon learning that director Andrei Tarkovsky burned a live cow for filming one of his films, the pianist was horrified. “I don’t want to hear the name of this man anymore,” said Svyatoslav Teofilovich. - I hate him. If he cannot do without such cruelty, then he lacks talent.”
Coming to visit and seeing a sleeping cat on the chair offered to him, Richter never decided to take the place favored by the animal. No, you can't wake her up. “I’d rather sit somewhere else,” he said.
Shortly before his last departure abroad, Richter, as usual, strolled along the boulevards. Suddenly his gaze fell on a dead pigeon lying on the sidewalk. The musician picked up the bird’s carcass, buried it, and only then moved on...
Six days before his death, Richter recalled the beginning of the war, the night when Moscow began to be bombed. Together with other residents, the musician climbed to the roof of the house to extinguish the lighters dropped by the enemy. The engines of fascist planes sounded ominously over the capital. And Richter looked admiringly at the intersecting beams of the spotlights. “This is Wagner,” he said. - Death of gods.
I'm probably too small
IN MARCH a woman called our editorial office. “My name is Galina Gennadievna,” she introduced herself. - I have letters from Richter, are you interested?
It turned out that Galina Gennadievna’s brother, Anatoly, a pilot by profession, was a close friend of the great musician. They met often, and when Svyatoslav Teofilovich left Moscow, they corresponded. Tolya often told me about Richter,” recalls Galina Gennadievna. - He said that Slava was a very unhappy person. And my brother wanted everyone to know that Richter’s life was not at all as cloudless and prosperous as they wrote about it.
In the early 90s, Anatoly died tragically. And only quite recently, in his belongings, Galina Gennadievna discovered letters from Richter, one of which, with her permission, we are publishing.
Dear Anatoly! Finally I was able to sit down to write a letter to you. I only received yours yesterday morning and therefore for a long time on Wednesday I observed the revival that reigned among the cheerful swimmers in the light of the sad twilight lamps; sat on the bench and was worried.
Your letter (second) both saddened me (selfishly) and reassured me (due to the fact that you will be resting in bed). You're really tired and you need rest. Your letter made me want to see and feel you even more.
I am so sorry and annoyed that I often cause impatience and annoyance in you, and I would really like to avoid this. You write that you won’t be enough for a long time, and again I feel very guilty.
Okay, please don't be annoyed with me. I want (and will do) so that everything is fine.
Everything on my journey was quite successful, beautiful and elegant. Apart from the most important thing - I am dissatisfied with my performance. Of course, this is natural, since I had a long break, but it’s still a pity (outwardly it was very big success, but you know that this is not the main thing for me).
On the way back, I stayed for one day in the capital of Ukraine, where I again sat at my instrument all day, preparing for the 28th (postponed May 30) in Moscow. I arrived on the 27th and found your first letter from the airport (it made me very upset, apparently, I’m really small if I don’t know how to do simple things). Please write to me how it turned out.
You'll probably stay until your son's birthday. And this is clear to me, this is how it should be. Now I’m very interested in when I’ll see you, because very soon I’ll be leaving again.
I ask you very much, if possible, rest and try not to get irritated - this is the main thing for you. You will say: Easy to say!, but you will be wrong. Although a lot of things are different for me, in terms of anxiety, nerves and work overload, it’s true that things will turn out this way...
I wish you that your worries in Kazan will be crowned with success, that you feel good, and most importantly, that you are always happy.
I hug you, your Slavkin 05.29.64
Dossier
SVYATOSLAV RICHTER
People's Artist of the USSR (1961), Hero Socialist Labor(1975), laureate of the State and Lenin Prizes.
He starred in the film “The Composer Glinka” (1952. The role of Franz Liszt).
Wife - singer Nina Dorliak (died in 1998).
Music is a melody, i.e. classic!
Eugene 22.03.2015 05:40:57
I listened to Comrade Richter S.T. in the early 60s in Minsk. Such performers are rare. Thanks to s/k Kulture, who showed on the 20th big concert this miracle musician!
The musical genius Svyatoslav Richter did not grow up with scales and etudes. His most powerful “fortissimo” and bewitching “pianissimo” are a gift from God, which at one fine moment declared itself.
Richter's first teacher was his father. Teofil Danilovich, a graduate of the Vienna Academy of Music, gave his first lessons to his son at the age of five. This was not a standard piano course. Just the basics.
Then Richter studied himself - from the works of the greats. I just played all the notes that were in the house. For example, he loved Chopin. Having learned to sight read masterfully, after graduating from school he worked as an accompanist at the Odessa Philharmonic. At the age of 19 he gave his first solo concert and only at 22 he decided to enter the Moscow Conservatory. Richter was considered self-taught... and accepted.
"I think he genius musician“,” the venerable Heinrich Neuhaus said about the beginning pianist, “after Beethoven’s Twenty-eighth Sonata, the young man played several of his works and sight-read. And everyone present wanted him to play again and again...”
And he played. Because there was nothing left to teach Richter. Neuhaus simply developed the talent of his favorite student.
The young virtuoso played almost all the piano classics, except for Beethoven's Fifth Concerto. In this work, he recognized in advance the performing superiority of his teacher. Richter has already completed his studies famous performer. His state exam was a concert in the Great Hall of the Conservatory. And along with the diploma, the musician was awarded a “golden line” on a marble plaque in the foyer of the Small Hall.
At home - victory at the All-Union Performers Competition. In the West - a Grammy for Brahms' Second Piano Concerto.
First Soviet musician received this prestigious award. Richter toured a lot. He preferred chamber halls to huge halls. Soffits - darkness, in which a ray of light picks out only the notes, so as not to distract the viewer from the main thing - the music.
More than seventy concerts a year. The widest repertoire: from baroque to works of contemporaries.
“Last night I listened to Prokofiev. Richter played. It's a miracle. I still can't come to my senses. No words (in any order) can even remotely convey what it was. This almost couldn’t happen.”
Anna Akhmatova
Even during the period of the unofficial ban on Prokofiev’s music, Richter performed his works. Including the Ninth Sonata, which great composer dedicated to the great pianist.
Svyatoslav Richter. Franz Liszt Academy of Music. Budapest. 1954
“I have something interesting for you,” S. Prokofiev once said to Richter, and showed him sketches of the Ninth Sonata. This will be your sonata... Just don’t think, it won’t be effective... Not to amaze Big hall" But Richter still amazed... With his talent.
He was multifaceted. One of the pianist's first hobbies since childhood was painting. Already being famous musician, he took lessons from his friend Robert Falk, an artist at the intersection of modernism and avant-garde.
The result was Richter's airy pastels and December Evenings - a harmonious combination of fine art and music.
The pianist entrusted his unique collection of paintings and graphics to the Pushkin Museum. Many of the paintings were given to the pianist by his artist friends.
Universal recognition often weighed heavily on Richter. Despite world fame, famous musician remained a modest person. Having traveled all over Earth, considered Oka and Zvenigorod the most beautiful places. I loved fried potatoes. And he didn’t like the increased attention of journalists: “My interviews are my concerts.” And the maximum allowable praise for oneself: “It seems that this time something worked out...”
(March 7, old style) 1915 in Zhitomir (Ukraine). His father Theophilus Richter (1872-1941) was the son of a German colonist who lived in Russia. Mother, Anna Moskaleva (1892-1963), came from a Russian noble family.
Svyatoslav Richter spent his childhood and youth in Odessa, where he studied with his father, a pianist and organist who was educated in Vienna. In 1941, his father was repressed as a German spy, and his mother was forced to emigrate to Germany.
In 1932-1937, Svyatoslav Richter worked as a concertmaster at the Odessa Philharmonic, and from 1934 - in Odessa Theater opera and ballet.
In 1934 he gave his first concert.
In 1950, he made his first foreign tours to countries of Eastern Europe, and in 1960 and 1961 - to the USA, Canada and Western European countries.
Richter's performance was different, deeply individual approach to the work, a sense of time and style.
The musician’s personal collection included paintings and drawings of his friends and admirers, including Pablo Picasso, Oskar Kokoschka, Renato Guttuso, Vasily Shukhaev, Robert Falk, Dmitry Krasnopevtsev, Anna Troyanovskaya and others.
Richter's last public concert took place in March 1995 in Germany.
Svyatoslav Richter - National artist USSR (1961). He was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor (1975). Laureate State Prize USSR (1950), Lenin Prize (1961), State Prize of the Russian Federation for 1995. Awarded three Orders of Lenin (1965, 1975, 1985), the Order October revolution(1980), Order of Merit for the Fatherland, III degree, other orders and medals, including foreign ones. Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters (France, 1985).
Svyatoslav Richter was married to singer (soprano) and professor at the Moscow Conservatory Nina Dorliak (1908-1998), daughter famous singer Ksenia Dorliak.
Richter bequeathed most of his collection of paintings as a gift State Museum fine arts(Pushkin Museum) named after A.S. Pushkin. Currently, the paintings are in the Museum of Personal Collections.
In 1999, the Museum-Apartment of S.T. was opened on Bolshaya Bronnaya Street in Moscow. Richter - a branch of the Pushkin Museum.
In June 2013, a bronze bust of Svyatoslav Richter by sculptor Ernst Neizvestny was donated to the Moscow Conservatory.
The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources
