On March 20, 1915, in the city of Zhitomir (Russian Empire), one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century was born, whose virtuoso technique was combined with a huge repertoire and depth of interpretation. The name of this genius was Richter Svyatoslav Teofilovich.
Today we want to recall the main milestones of creative and life paths great musician and display them in our classic photo selection.
Svyatoslav Richter was born into the family of pianist, organist and composer Teofil Danilovich Richter, a teacher at the Odessa Conservatory and organist of the city church; mother - Anna Pavlovna Moskaleva - from Russian nobles of German origin.
Svyatoslav Richter with his parents
In 1922, the family moved to Odessa, where Richter began studying piano and composition. Richter recalled that in childhood and adolescence he was greatly influenced by his father, who was his first teacher and whose play young Svyatoslav constantly listened to.
From 1930 to 1932, Richter worked as a pianist-accompanist at the Odessa Sailor's House, then at the Odessa Philharmonic. First solo concert Richter, compiled from the works of Chopin, took place in 1934, and soon he received a position as an accompanist at the Odessa Opera House.
Svyatoslav Richter with his grandfather P. P. Moskalev
In 1937, Richter entered the Moscow Conservatory in the piano class of Heinrich Neuhaus, but was expelled from it in the fall ( after refusing to study general education subjects) and went back to Odessa. Soon, at the insistence of Neuhaus, Richter was reinstated at the conservatory, and received his diploma only in 1947. The pianist's Moscow debut took place on November 26, 1940, when in the Small Hall of the Conservatory he performed Sergei Prokofiev's Sixth Sonata - for the first time since the author. A month later, Richter performed with the orchestra for the first time.
With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Richter remained in Moscow. His father was arrested Soviet authorities and was soon shot, and his mother, after the liberation of Odessa from the fascist occupation, left the city along with the retreating troops and settled in Germany. Richter himself considered her dead for many years.
During the war, Richter was active concert activities, performed in Moscow, toured other cities of the USSR, and played in besieged Leningrad. The pianist performed a number of new works for the first time, including Sergei Prokofiev's Seventh Piano Sonata.
In 1943, Richter first met singer Nina Dorliak, who later became his wife. Richter and Dorliac often performed together in concerts. Despite the marriage, rumors about Richter’s homosexuality never subsided in some circles of musicians. The musician himself preferred not to comment on his personal life.
After the war, Richter gained wide fame by winning the Third All-Union Competition of Musicians and Performers, and became one of the leading Soviet pianists. Richter's concerts in the USSR and Eastern Bloc countries were very popular, but he was not allowed to perform in the West for many years. This was due to the fact that Richter maintained friendly relations with Boris Pasternak, Sergei Prokofiev and other “disgraced” cultural figures.
Richter and his wifeNinoy Dorliak
Richter's concerts in New York and other American cities in 1960 became a real sensation, followed by numerous recordings, many of which are still considered standard. In the same year, the musician was awarded a Grammy Award ( he became the first Soviet performer to receive this award) for a performance of Brahms's Second Piano Concerto.
In 1960-1980, Richter continued his active concert activity, giving more than 70 concerts a year. He toured extensively in different countries, preferring to play in intimate venues rather than in large concert halls. The pianist recorded relatively little in the studio, but a large number of “live” recordings from concerts have been preserved.
Richter's performance is distinguished by technical perfection, deeply individual approach to the work, a sense of time and style. Considered one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century.
Richter is the founder of a number of music festivals, including the annual summer festival Musical Celebrations in Touraine (held since 1964 in a medieval barn in Mel near Tours, France), the famous “December Evenings” at the Pushkin Museum (since 1981), within which he performed with leading musicians of our time. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Richter never taught.
Towards the end of his life, Richter often canceled concerts due to illness, but continued to perform. During the performance, at his request, there was complete darkness on the stage, and only the notes on the piano stand were illuminated by a lamp. According to the pianist, this gave the audience the opportunity to concentrate on the music without being distracted by minor moments.
IN last years lived in Paris, and shortly before his death, on July 6, 1997, he returned to Russia. Last concert pianist competition took place in 1995 in Lübeck.
Svyatoslav Richter died on August 1, 1997 in the Central Clinical Hospital from a heart attack, and the great Soviet musician was buried at Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.
Original message Art_Kaleidoscope
Thank you! Very interesting!“I can’t have a family, only art,” he said. He went into art as if into a monastery.
“Svetik had a feeling that nothing would happen to him. It was as if he was in friendship with all the elements of nature. And even the terrible episodes of his life, which crushed faith in the most beloved person - his mother, and the death of his father, could not extinguish the inner light in him. Unfortunately, I know quite exactly how it all happened. In 1937, Slava came from Odessa to Moscow to enter the conservatory under Heinrich Neuhaus. Although Svetik did not study anywhere (his father only taught him at home), Neuhaus said: “This is the student I have been waiting for all my life.” Then Heinrich Gustavovich will write in one of his letters: “Richter is a brilliant man. Kind, selfless, sensitive and capable of feeling pain and compassion."
And Slava began studying at the conservatory. At first he lived with friends, and then he was registered with Neuhaus, and he moved there
ODESSA – THE CITY WHERE THE WAR CAUGHT RICHTER’S PARENTS
His parents remained in Odessa. The father was 20 years older than the mother. Slava said that he was a wonderful musician, played the organ and even composed something himself. He taught at the conservatory and played in the church.
His mother was Russian - Anna Pavlovna Moskaleva. Very beautiful woman Karenin type - plump, with graceful movements. She was absolutely red.
When they asked her what she used to dye her hair, Anna Pavlovna called Slava over, and he ran out “as red as an orange.”
While his father was perhaps somewhat distant from him, his mother was everything to Slava. She cooked very well and sewed wonderfully. The family basically lived on the money that Anna Pavlovna earned with her skills. She sewed in the morning, cleaned and cooked during the day, and in the evening she took off her robe, put on a dress, combed her hair and received guests.
Among the friends at home was a certain Sergei Dmitrievich Kondratyev.
This was a man who looked very similar to Lenin. A disabled person who could only move around the apartment. Anna Pavlovna brought him lunch.
Kondratiev was a theoretical musician and studied with Richter. Slava said that he could not stand this man, who gave him a lot in terms of music theory. Slava was irritated by his sweetness.
Kondratyev, for example, wrote to Sveta in Moscow: “Dear Slavonka! Now we have winter-winter, the little frost is tapping with its ice stick. How good is the Russian winter, can you compare it with the overseas one?
On June 23, 1941, Slava was supposed to fly to Odessa. Due to the outbreak of war, all flights were cancelled.
But Svetik managed to receive several letters from his mother. Anna Pavlovna wrote that everything is fine with dad, but she goes to Sergei Dmitrievich and is thinking of moving him to them, since moving around Odessa is becoming more and more difficult every day.
Svetik admired his mother: “She walks 20 kilometers to care for the sick.”
Then Odessa was captured by the Germans, and correspondence stopped.
All this time, Svetik talked about his mother, dreaming about how she would come to visit him. When we were preparing potato peelings - there was no other food, he said: “It turns out delicious. But mom will come and teach you how to cook even more deliciously.”
Svetik lived with the hope of meeting his parents. Mom was everything to him. “I’ll just say it, and my mother will already laugh. “I just think about it, and my mother is already smiling,” he said. Anna Pavlovna was his friend, adviser, and the basis of morality.
Before the war, she came to Moscow and charmed us all - both young and old. We all started writing letters to her. One of Slava’s acquaintances wrote to Anna Pavlovna that Richter did not return the book to her. And she added that, probably, “all talents are like that.” Anna Pavlovna immediately sent her son a letter: “How ashamed you will be if they begin to value you only as a talent. A person and talent are two different things. And a scoundrel can be talented.” This is how their relationship was
In the photo: SVYATOSLAV RICHTER WHEN VISITING HIS MOTHER
ANNA PAVLOVNA WENT WITH THE GERMANS
When Odessa was liberated, Svetik’s acquaintance, an engineer by profession, went there to assess the condition of the city. Through him, Svetik gave his mother a letter, and we also wrote to her.
This was in April. Svyatoslav went on tour, and we were waiting for the return of this engineer friend. The deadline has already passed when he was supposed to return, but our man never showed up.
Then I went to see him out of town myself. I found his house and saw that he was doing something in the garden. And I had this feeling that it would be better for me not to approach him. But I pushed these thoughts away.
“Bad news,” the man greeted me. – Svetik’s father was shot. And Anna Pavlovna, having married Kondratyev, left with the Germans.”
It turned out that this Kondratiev was a great man before the revolution and his real name almost Benckendorff. In 1918, with the help of a conductor Bolshoi Theater Golovanov and his wife, singer Nezhdanova, he managed to change his passport and become Kondratiev.
For more than twenty years he pretended to be disabled. And the mother, whom Svetik admired so much, had an affair with him. And in the end she even moved him to her place.
It turned out that Anna Pavlovna went not to see her sick friend, but to her lover. And she betrayed both her husband and son. She gave her husband up to die. Svetik said: “This has not been proven, but they say that Kondratyev himself denounced his father.” A week before the surrender of Odessa, Richter’s parents were asked to evacuate. But since Kondratyev was not taken with them, Anna Pavlovna refused to leave. Thus, signing the husband’s death warrant.
“Mom and dad were asked to evacuate,” Svetik later said. - But Kondratyev was not taken. And mom refused. I think dad understood everything.”
When the Germans entered the city, Kondratiev revealed who he really was. Moreover, he married Anna Pavlovna and took her last name. When many years later Svetik came to his mother in Germany and saw the inscription “S. Richter,” he felt sick. “I couldn’t understand what I had to do with it,” he told me. - And only then I realized that “S.” – this is “Sergey”.
Svetik was often told abroad: “We saw your father.” He answered: “My father was shot.” Like this…
On the way from Tbilisi, where he was touring, Svetik stopped in Kyiv with his friend, the wife of the famous eye doctor Filatov, and she told him everything about the fate of his parents. She was his father's closest friend. Her last name is Speranskaya. “I couldn’t imagine that a person could change so much before my eyes,” she later recalled. “He began to melt, lost weight, collapsed on the sofa and sobbed. I sat with him all night."
When my sister and I met Slava at the station, his face was absolutely sick. He got out of the car, as if he had fallen out, and said: “Vipa, I know everything.” We didn’t touch this topic until 1960.
In the photo: TEOFIL DANILOVICH RICHTER AND ANNA PAVLOVNA RICHTER WITH LITTLE SVYATOSLAV
IT'S ALL ABOUT HYPNOSIS
As a result of long conversations, Svetik and I decided that it was all about hypnosis. After all, Anna Pavlovna experienced a complete personality change. The fact that hypnosis could have affected her is evidenced by one episode. She herself told me how, as a young girl from Zhitomir, where she lived then, she went to visit her friend in a neighboring town. During the return journey, in the compartment opposite her sat a young man, intelligent, with interesting person, casually dressed, middle aged. And he looked at her intently.
“And suddenly I realized,” said Anna Pavlovna, “that he was giving me some instructions. The train slowed down as we approached the station in front of Zhitomir. The man stood up, and I also stood up and followed him. I felt that I simply could not help but go. We went out into the vestibule. And at that time, my friend appeared from the next compartment and turned to me: “Anya, you’re crazy! Zhitomir is the next station!” I turned in her direction, and this man disappeared as if into thin air, and I never saw him again. Meanwhile, the train moved on.” Then, when after everything that happened, my sister and I were in Odessa, we met with Anna Pavlovna’s friend.
“She waited for Svetik throughout the war,” this woman told us. “But when the Germans were leaving, she came to me with a small suitcase, completely pale, looking somewhere into the distance and saying: “I’m leaving.” Her friend tried to reason with her, but Anna Pavlovna stood her ground: “I’m leaving.”
MEETING WITH MOTHER
In October 1962, the magazine Musical Life published a translation of an article by Paul Moore from the American High Fidelity. In it, the American talks about how he witnessed Richter’s meeting with his mother.
It so happened that it was Moore, who was the first to write about Richter in the Western press in 1958, and did everything to ensure that this meeting took place. Having learned that a certain Frau Richter lived in the small German town of Schwäbisch Gmünd, who called herself the pianist’s mother, he immediately got into the car and went to see her. Before this, in all conversations, Richter himself answered questions about his parents that “they died.” That’s why the foreign journalist and musicologist wanted to figure out for himself what kind of Frau Richter he was.
Having found a small two-storey house, one of the apartments in which that same lady and her husband occupied, Moore prepared to explain who he was and why he had come. But as soon as he appeared on the threshold, the mistress of the house herself recognized him.
“My confusion was cleared up,” recalled Paul Moore, “when she told me that a relative living in America had sent her the October 1958 issue of High Fidelity, which contained my article on Richter. Frau said: “Ever since we saw her, we have been praying all the time to meet you. We had not had any contact with Slava since 1941, so even the opportunity to see someone who saw him himself was a real sensation for us.”
Anna Pavlovna told the American about the circumstances of her departure from Soviet Union: “Slava’s father was arrested along with about six thousand other Odessa residents who bore German surnames. This was the order received from Beria. My husband did nothing wrong, nothing. He was just a musician, and so was I; most of our ancestors and relatives were either musicians or artists, and we were never involved in political activities. The only thing he could be accused of was that long ago, in 1927, he gave music lessons at the German consulate in Odessa. But under Stalin and Beria, this was quite enough to arrest him and put him in prison. Then they killed him.
When the Axis troops reached Odessa, the city was occupied, mainly by the Romanians; then they began to retreat, my second husband and I left with them.
It was impossible to take much with me, but I took everything I could related to the memories of Slava. After leaving Odessa, we lived in Romania, in Hungary, then in Poland, then in Germany.”
That meeting between Moore and Anna Pavlovna did not last long.
“Frau Richter mainly tried to extract from me any, the most insignificant news about Slava, or, as she sometimes called him, Svetik, which translated means “little light.” At the same time, Anna Pavlovna conveyed through a journalist a short note for his son, which began with the words “Mein uber alles Geliebter!” (“My most beloved!”) and ended with “Deine Dich liebende Anna” (“Anna who loves you”). Through a mutual friend, Paul Moore managed to send a note to Richter in Moscow.
And the pianist’s first meeting with his mother took place in the fall of 1960 in New York, where impresario Solomon Hurok organized a Richter concert.
Anna Pavlovna later recalled that she had to prove to Yurok for so long that she was Richter’s mother that she felt like she was being interrogated by the police. At the same time, Richter was asked whether he was going to seek his father’s rehabilitation. To which Richter replied: “How can you rehabilitate an innocent person?”
After that first meeting, Anna Pavlovna, on behalf of the Soviet Minister of Culture Furtseva, was invited to Moscow - for a visit or for good. But the woman refused. And, in turn, she invited her son to visit. This visit became possible two years later.
Paul Moore left detailed memories of the meeting, which he also attended. “The modest two-room apartment, in fact, turned out to be the museum of Svyatoslav Richter. All the walls were covered with photographs of him from childhood to adulthood. One of them showed him made up as Franz Liszt, whose role he once played in a Soviet film about Mikhail Glinka. Colored watercolors of the Richter houses in Zhitomir and Odessa, as well as the corner in the Odessa house where his bed stood, hung there.
One of the photographs of young Slava at the age of sixteen proves that in his youth, before his blond hair began to gradually disappear, he was truly strikingly handsome.
The mistress of the house said that her son had mixed Russian, Polish, German, Swedish and Hungarian blood...
Frau Richter took her son around the apartment and showed him the paintings that she had saved from their old nest in Odessa. Richter looked absent-mindedly at a pencil drawing of his old house in Zhitomir and another in Odessa.”
Along with Richter in Germany was his wife, Nina Lvovna Dorliak. Their train arrived from Paris. Richter and Dorliac were met at the station by Paul Moore. “The couple arrived on time, carrying with them a large luggage, including a cardboard box, in which, as Nina Dorliak explained with a grin, rested an excellent top hat, without which, as Slava decided, he simply could not appear in London (the next point of the tour after Germany Richter - I.O.). With the same friendly mockery, Richter showed a long round package wrapped in brown paper: according to him, it was a floor lamp that Nina intended to carry with her from London to Moscow via Paris, Stuttgart, Vienna and Bucharest.
They stayed in Germany for a total of several days.
The same Paul Moore recalled how during the way back to the station, from where Richter and Dorliak were supposed to go to London, “Frau Richter’s husband” behaved. “He chuckled nervously and chatted non-stop the whole way. Suddenly he unexpectedly asked: “Svetik, does your passport still say that you are German?” Richter, a little warily, as if not knowing what he was driving at, answered: “Yes.”
“Oooh, that's good! – the satisfied old man laughed. – But next time you come to Germany, you should definitely have German name, - for example, Helmut, or something like that.” Richter smiled condescendingly, but, having quietly exchanged glances with his wife, he said decisively: “The name Svyatoslav suits me quite well.”
At the station, while they were waiting for the train, everyone decided to have tea and cakes. We sat down at the table and made an order. But Richter last moment I changed my mind about drinking tea and went to wander around the city. He appeared on the platform at the same time as the train.
Then “Frau Richter tried to impress upon her son how important it was for her to receive news from him. But I doubted the effectiveness of her requests: Nina once told me with a laugh that in all these years that they knew each other, Slava sent her many telegrams, but never wrote a single letter, not even a postcard.”
Paul Moore does not know what the last conversation between mother and son was about, since he deliberately left them alone. He approached Frau Richter only when the train started moving. “Frau Richter, smiling sadly, whispered, as if to herself: “Well, my dream is over.”
“FOR ME, MOTHER DIED A LONG TIME AGO”
“When Svetik returned and I asked him how the meeting went,” says Vera Ivanovna, “he replied: “Mom is not there, there is a mask instead.”
I tried to ask him about the details, because so many years had passed. “Kondratiev did not leave us for a minute,” said Slava. - And instead of mom there is a mask. We were not alone for a single moment. But I didn't want to. We kissed and that was it."
Nina Dorliak tried to distract Anna Pavlovna's husband by coming up with all sorts of tricks, for example, asking to show the house. But he did not give in. After that, Svetik traveled to Germany several more times. The newspapers wrote: “Richter is going to his mother,” everything looked very nice. But they only talked about art.
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. He learned about his mother’s death from Kondratiev a few minutes before the start of his concert in Vienna. This was his only unsuccessful performance. “The end of a legend,” the newspapers wrote the next day. He also went to funerals.
He sent me a postcard: “Vipa, you know our news. But you also know that for me, my mother died a long time ago. Maybe I'm insensitive. I’ll come and talk..."
Richter’s teacher, Heinrich Gustavovich Neuhaus, once spoke about the first meeting with his future student: “The students asked to listen young man from Odessa, who would like to enter my class at the conservatory.
“Has he already graduated from music school?” I asked.
- No, he didn’t study anywhere.
I admit, this answer was somewhat puzzling. A man who had not received a musical education was going to the conservatory!.. It was interesting to look at the daredevil.
And then he came. A tall, thin young man, fair-haired, blue-eyed, with a lively, surprisingly attractive face. He sat down at the piano, placed his large, soft, nervous hands on the keys and began to play.
He played very restrainedly, I would say, even emphatically simple and strict. His performance immediately captivated me with some amazing insight into the music. I whispered to my student: “In my opinion, he is a brilliant musician.” 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...
From that day on, Svyatoslav Richter became my student" (Neigauz G. G. Reflections, memories, diaries // Selected articles. Letters to parents. P. 244-245.).Thus, the path in great art of one of the greatest performers of our time, Svyatoslav Teofilovich Richter, began in an unusual way. In general, in his artistic biography there was a lot that was unusual and there was not much that was quite common for most of his colleagues. Before meeting Neuhaus, there was no everyday, sympathetic pedagogical care, which others feel from childhood. There was no firm hand of a leader or mentor, no systematically organized lessons on the instrument. There were no daily technical exercises, painstakingly and long-term study programs, or methodical advancement from step to step, from class to class. There was a passion for music, a spontaneous, uncontrolled search for a phenomenally gifted self-taught person at the keyboard; there was endless sight-reading of a wide variety of works (mainly opera scores), persistent attempts to compose; Over time, he worked as an accompanist at the Odessa Philharmonic, then at the Opera and Ballet Theater. Was cherished dream to become a conductor - and an unexpected break in all plans, a trip to Moscow, to the conservatory, to Neuhaus.
In November 1940, 25-year-old Richter made his first performance in front of a capital audience. It was a triumphant success, experts and the public started talking about a new, bright phenomenon in pianism. The November debut was followed by more concerts, each more remarkable and successful than the other. (For example, Richter’s performance of Tchaikovsky’s First Concerto at one of the symphony evenings in Great hall conservatory.) The pianist’s fame expanded and his fame grew stronger. But unexpectedly, war entered his life and the life of the entire country...
The Moscow Conservatory was evacuated, Neuhaus left. Richter remained in the capital - hungry, half-frozen, depopulated. To all the difficulties that befell people in those years, he had his own: he had neither a permanent shelter nor his own instrument. (Friends came to the rescue: one of the first to be named was the long-time and devoted admirer of Richter’s talent, the artist A.I. Troyanovskaya). And yet it was precisely at this time that he worked at the piano more persistently, harder than ever before.
In musicians' circles it is believed that five or six hours of exercise every day is an impressive norm. Richter works almost twice as hard. He would later say that he “really” started studying in the early forties.
Since July 1942, Richter's meetings with the general public have resumed. One of Richter’s biographers describes this time as follows: “The life of an artist turns into a continuous stream of performances without rest or respite. Concert after concert. Cities, trains, planes, people... New orchestras and new conductors. And again rehearsals. Concerts. Full halls. Brilliant success..." (Delson V. Svyatoslav Richter. - M., 1961. P. 18.). Surprising, however, is not only the fact that the pianist plays a lot of; it's surprising how much much brought to the stage by him during this period. Richter's seasons - if you look back at initial stages The artist's stage biography is a truly inexhaustible, dazzling fireworks show of programs. The most difficult pieces of the piano repertoire can be mastered by a young musician literally in a matter of days. So, in January 1943 he performed open concert Prokofiev's Seventh Sonata. Most of his colleagues would have taken months to prepare in advance; some of the especially gifted and experienced ones could probably have done it in weeks. Richter learned Prokofiev's sonata in... four days.
By the end of the forties, Richter was one of the most prominent figures in the magnificent galaxy of masters of Soviet pianism. Behind him is a victory at the All-Union Competition of Performing Musicians (1945), and a brilliant graduation from the conservatory. (A rare case in the practice of the capital music university: Richter’s state exam included one of his many concerts in the Great Hall of the Conservatory; The “examiners” in this case were the masses of listeners, whose assessment was expressed with all clarity, certainty and unanimity.) Following all-Union fame comes world fame: in 1950, the pianist began traveling abroad - to Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania , later to Finland, USA, Canada, England, France, Italy, Japan and other countries. Music criticism is looking more and more closely at an artist’s art. There are increasing attempts to analyze this art, to understand its creative typology, specificity, main features and features. It would seem that nothing could be simpler: the figure of Richter the artist is so large, relief in outline, original, unlike the others... Nevertheless, the task of “diagnosticians” from music criticism turns out to be far from simple.
There are many definitions, judgments, statements, etc. that could be made about Richter as a concert musician; true in themselves, each separately, they - if you put them together - form, no matter how surprising, a picture devoid of any character. The picture “in general”, approximate, vague, inexpressive. Portrait authenticity (this is Richter, and no one else) cannot be achieved with their help. Let's take this example: reviewers have repeatedly written about the pianist's huge, truly boundless repertoire. Indeed, Richter plays almost all piano music, from Bach to Berg and from Haydn to Hindemith. However, is he alone? If we start talking about the breadth and richness of the repertoire funds, then Liszt, Bülow, Joseph Hoffmann, and, of course, the latter’s great teacher, Anton Rubinstein, who performed in his famous “Historical Concerts” over thousand three hundred(!) works belonging to seventy nine to the authors. Some of them are capable of continuing this series. modern masters. No, the very fact that on the artist’s posters one can find almost everything intended for a piano does not make Richter a Richter, does not determine the purely individual nature of his work.
Doesn’t the performer’s magnificent, impeccably polished technique, his exceptionally high professional skill reveal his secrets? Indeed, a rare publication about Richter does not contain enthusiastic words regarding his pianistic skill, complete and unconditional mastery of the instrument, etc. But, if we think objectively, similar heights are achieved by some others. In the age of Horowitz, Gilels, Michelangeli, and Gould, it would be difficult to single out an absolute leader in piano technicism. Or, above, it was said about Richter’s amazing diligence, his inexhaustible, breaking all the usual ideas of efficiency. However, even here he is not the only one of his kind; there are people in the musical world who can argue with him in this regard. (It was said about the young Horowitz that even when visiting, he never missed the opportunity to practice at the keyboard.) They say that Richter is almost never satisfied with himself; Sofronitsky, Neuhaus, and Yudina were always tormented by creative hesitations. (And what about the famous lines - it’s impossible to read them without emotion - contained in one of Rachmaninov’s letters: “There is no critic in the world, more doubting me than I myself...") What then is the solution to the “phenotype” (Phenotype (phaino - I show type) is a combination of all the characteristics and properties of an individual formed in the process of its development.), as a psychologist would say, Richter the artist? In what distinguishes one phenomenon in musical performance from another. In Features spiritual world pianist In his warehouse personalities. In the emotional and psychological content of his work.
Richter's art is the art of powerful, gigantic passions. There are many concert performers whose playing is soothing to the ear, pleasing with the graceful precision of their designs and the “pleasantness” of sound colors. Richter's performance shocks and even stuns the listener, takes him out of the usual sphere of feelings, and moves him to the depths of his soul. So, for example, the pianist’s interpretations of Beethoven’s “Appassionata” or “Pathétique”, Liszt’s B minor sonata or “Transcendental Etudes”, Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto or Tchaikovsky’s First, Schubert’s “The Wanderer” or Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” were amazing in their time , a number of works by Bach, Schumann, Frank, Scriabin, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, Szymanowski, Bartok... You can sometimes hear from regulars of Richter’s concerts that they experience a strange, not quite usual state at the pianist’s performances: music that has long been and is well known, seems to be enlarged, enlarged, or changed in scale. Everything becomes somehow bigger, more monumental, more significant... Andrei Bely once said that people, listening to music, get the opportunity to experience what the giants feel and experience; Richter's audience is well aware of the sensations that the poet had in mind.
This is how Richter was from his youth, this is how he looked in his heyday. Once upon a time, back in 1945, he played at the All-Union competition “Wild Hunt” by Liszt. One of the Moscow musicians who was present recalls: “...Before us was a titanic performer, it seemed created to embody a mighty romantic fresco. Extremely rapid tempo, flurries of dynamic build-ups, fiery temperament... I wanted to grab the arm of my chair to resist the devilish onslaught of this music...” (Adzhemov K. X. Unforgettable. - M., 1972. P. 92.). Several decades later, Richter played in one of the seasons a series of preludes and fugues by Shostakovich, Myaskovsky's Third Sonata, Prokofiev's Eighth. And again, as in the old days, it would be fitting to write in a critical report: “I wanted to grab the arm of the chair...” - so strong and furious was the emotional tornado that raged in the music of Myaskovsky, Shostakovich, in the finale of the Prokofiev cycle.
At the same time, Richter always loved, instantly and completely transformed, to take the listener into the world of quiet, detached sound contemplation, musical “nirvanas,” and concentrated thoughts. To that mysterious and inaccessible world, where everything purely material in performance - textured covers, fabric, substance, shell - already disappears, dissolves without a trace, giving way only to the strongest, thousand-volt spiritual radiation. Such is Richter’s world of many preludes and fugues from Bach’s “Good Tempered Clavier,” Beethoven’s last piano creations (primarily the brilliant Arietta from opus 111), the slow movements of Schubert’s sonatas, the philosophical poetics of Brahms, the psychologically sophisticated sound design of Debussy and Ravel. The interpretations of these works gave rise to one of the foreign reviewers to write: “Richter is a pianist of amazing inner concentration. Sometimes it seems that the entire process of musical performance occurs within himself.” (Delson V. Svyatoslav Richter. - M., 1961. P. 19.). The critic chose really apt words.
So, the most powerful “fortissimo” of stage experiences and the bewitching “pianissimo”... From time immemorial it has been known: a concert artist, be it a pianist, violinist, conductor, etc., is interesting only insofar as his interesting - broad, rich, varied - the palette of his feelings. It seems that the greatness of Richter the concert singer lies not only in the intensity of his emotions, especially noticeable in his youth, as well as in the period of the 50-60s, but also in their truly Shakespearean contrast, the gigantic scale of changes: frenzy - deep philosophicality, ecstatic impulse - calm and daydreaming, active action - intense and complex introspection.
It is interesting to note at the same time that there are also colors in the spectrum of human emotions that Richter as an artist always alienated and avoided. One of the most insightful researchers of his work, Leningrader L. E. Gakkel once wondered: what is in Richter’s art? No? (The question at first glance is rhetorical and strange, but in essence it is quite legitimate, because absence something sometimes characterizes an artistic personality more clearly than the presence of such and such features in her appearance.) In Richter, writes Gakkel, “... there is no sensual charm, seductiveness; in Richter there is no affection, slyness, play, his rhythm is devoid of capriciousness...” (Gakkel L. For music and for people // Stories about music and musicians.-L.; M.; 1973. P. 147.). One could continue: Richter is not too inclined to that sincerity, trusting intimacy with which some performer opens his soul to the audience - let's remember Cliburn. As an artist, Richter is not one of the “open” natures; there is no excessive sociability in him (Corto, Arthur Rubinstein), no special quality- let's call it confessionalism - which marked the art of Sofronitsky or Yudina. The musician’s feelings are sublime, strict, they are both serious and philosophical; Something else - cordiality, tenderness, sympathetic warmth... - they sometimes lack. Neuhaus once wrote that he “sometimes, though very rarely,” lacked “humanity” in Richter, “despite all the spiritual heights of the performance.” (Neuhaus G. Reflections, memories, diaries. P. 109.). It is no coincidence, apparently, that among the piano pieces there are also those with which the pianist, due to his individuality, finds it more difficult than others. There are authors whose path has always been difficult for him; Reviewers, for example, have long debated the “Chopin problem” in Richter’s performance art.
Sometimes they ask: what dominates an artist’s art - feeling? thought? (As is known, most of the characteristics given to performers by musical criticism are tested on this traditional “touchstone.”) Neither one nor the other - and this is also remarkable for Richter in his best stage creations. He was always equally far from the impulsiveness of romantic artists and from the cold-blooded rationality with which “rationalist” performers construct their sound structures. And not only because balance and harmony are in Richter’s nature, in everything that is the work of his hands. There's something else here too.
Richter is an artist of a purely modern formation. Like most major masters musical culture XX century, his creative thinking is an organic synthesis of the rational and emotional. Just one important detail. Not the traditional synthesis of hot feeling and sober, balanced thought, as was often the case in the past, but, on the contrary, the unity of fiery, white-hot artistic thoughts with smart, meaningful feelings. (“Feeling is intellectualized, and thought is intensified to such an extent that it becomes an acute experience.” (Mazel L. About Shostakovich’s style // Traits of Shostakovich’s style. - M., 1962. P. 15.), - these words of L. Mazel, defining one of the important aspects of the modern worldview in music, sometimes seem to be spoken directly about Richter). To understand this apparent paradox is to understand something very significant in the pianist’s interpretations of works by Bartok, Shostakovich, Hindemith, and Berg.
And another distinctive feature of Richter’s works is their clear internal organization. It was said earlier that in everything that is done by people in art - writers, artists, actors, musicians - their purely human “I” always shines through; homo sapiens manifests itself in activities, shines through in her. Richter, as those around him know him, is irreconcilable to any manifestations of negligence, a sloppy attitude to work, and organically does not tolerate anything that could be associated with “by the way” and “somehow.” An interesting touch. He had thousands of public appearances under his belt, and each one was recorded by him and recorded in special notebooks: What was played where and when. The same innate tendency towards strict orderliness and self-discipline is in the pianist’s interpretations. Everything in them is planned in detail, weighed and distributed, there is absolute clarity in everything: in intentions, techniques and methods of stage implementation. Richter’s logic of organizing material is especially clear in the works of large forms included in the artist’s repertoire. Such as Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto (famous recording with Karajan), Prokofiev's Fifth with Maazel, Beethoven's First with Munsch; concerts and sonata cycles by Mozart, Schumann, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Bartok and other authors.
People who were well acquainted with Richter said that during his numerous tours, visiting different cities and countries, he did not miss the opportunity to look into the theater; Opera is especially close to him. He is a passionate film fan and a good film is a real joy for him. It is known that Richter is a long-time and ardent lover of painting: he painted himself (experts assure him that he was interesting and talented), stood for hours in museums in front of the paintings he liked; his house often served as a venue for vernissages and exhibitions of works by one or another artist. And one more thing: from a young age, his passion for literature did not leave him; he was in awe of Shakespeare, Goethe, Pushkin, Blok... Direct and close contact with various arts, a huge artistic culture, an encyclopedic outlook - all this illuminates Richter’s performance with a special light, makes him phenomenon.
At the same time - another paradox in the art of a pianist! - Richter’s personified “I” never claims to be the demiurge in creative process. In the last 10-15 years, this has been especially noticeable, which, however, will be discussed later. The most correct thing, I sometimes think at the musician’s concerts, would be to compare the individual-personal in his interpretations with the underwater, invisible part of the iceberg: it contains multi-ton power, it is the basis for what is on the surface; from outside eyes, however, it is hidden - and completely... Critics have more than once written about the artist’s ability to completely “dissolve” in what he is performing, about the “implicitness” of Richter the interpreter - this explicit And characteristic feature his stage appearance. Talking about the pianist, one of the reviewers once referred to famous words Schiller: the highest praise for an artist is to say that we forget about him behind his creations; they seem to be addressed to Richter - that’s who really makes you forget about to myself behind what he does... Apparently, here some natural features of the musician’s talent make themselves felt - typology, specificity, etc. In addition, there is a fundamental creative attitude here.
This is where another, perhaps the most amazing ability of Richter the concert performer originates - the ability for creative transformation. Crystallized in him to the highest degrees of perfection and professional skill, it places him in a special place among his colleagues, even the most eminent; in this area he has almost no equal. Neuhaus, who considered the stylistic transformations in Richter’s performances to be among the artist’s highest merits, wrote after one of his clavibends: “When he played Schumann after Haydn, everything became different: the piano was different, the sound was different, the rhythm was different, the character of expression was different; and so it’s clear for some reason that it was Haydn, or that it was Schumann, and S. Richter with the utmost clarity managed to embody in his performance not only the appearance of each author, but also his era.” (Neuhaus G. Svyatoslav Richter // Reflections, memories, diaries. P. 240.).
There is no need to talk about Richter’s constant successes, successes that are all the greater (the next and last paradox) because the public is not usually allowed to admire at Richter’s evenings everything that they are used to admiring at the evenings of many famous “aces” of pianism: neither in the instrumental virtuosity generous in effects , neither luxurious sound “decor”, nor brilliant “concert”...
This has always been characteristic of Richter's performing style - a categorical rejection of everything outwardly flashy and pretentious (the seventies and eighties only brought this trend to the maximum possible). Anything that could distract the audience from the main and most important thing in music - to focus attention on the merits performer, but not executable. To play the way Richter plays - for this, stage experience alone is probably not enough - no matter how great it may be; artistic culture alone - even unique in scale; natural talent - even a gigantic one... Here something else is required. A certain complex of purely human qualities and traits. People who know Richter closely speak unanimously about his modesty, selflessness, and altruistic attitude towards his surroundings, life, and music.
For several decades now, Richter has been moving forward non-stop. He walks, it would seem, easily and with inspiration, but in reality he makes his way through endless, merciless, inhuman labor. The long hours of exercise described above continue to be the norm in his life. Over the years, little has changed here. Except that even more time is spent working on the instrument. For Richter believes that with age one should not reduce, but increase creative loads - if one sets oneself the goal of maintaining the performing “form”...
In the eighties in creative life a lot has happened to the artist interesting events and achievements. First of all, one cannot help but recall “December Evenings” - this one-of-a-kind arts festival (music, painting, poetry), to which Richter devotes a lot of energy and strength. “December Evenings”, held since 1981 at the State Museum fine arts named after A.S. Pushkin, have now become traditional; Thanks to radio and television, they found the widest audience. Their themes are varied: classic and modern, Russian art and foreign. Richter, the initiator and inspirer of the “Evenings,” delves into literally everything during their preparation: from drawing up programs and selecting participants to the most seemingly insignificant details and trifles. However, little things practically do not exist for him when it comes to art. “Trifles create perfection, and perfection is not a trifle” - these words of Michelangelo could become an excellent epigraph to Richter’s performance and to all his activities.
At “December Evenings,” another facet of Richter’s talent was revealed: together with director B. Pokrovsky, he took part in the production of B. Britten’s operas “Albert Herring” and “The Turn of the Screw.” “Svyatoslav Teofilovich worked from early morning until late at night,” recalls the director of the Museum of Fine Arts I. Antonova. “He conducted a huge number of rehearsals with musicians. I worked with the lighting technicians and checked literally every light bulb myself, down to the smallest detail. I myself went with the artist to the library to select English engravings for the design of the performance. I didn’t like the costumes - I went to television and rummaged through the dressing room for several hours until I found something that suited him. The entire production was thought out by him.”
Richter still tours a lot both in the USSR and abroad. In 1986, for example, he gave about 150 concerts. The number is downright staggering. Almost twice the usual, generally accepted concert norm. Exceeding, by the way, the “norm” of Svyatoslav Teofilovich himself - previously, as a rule, he did not give more than 120 concerts a year. The routes of Richter’s tours in 1986 also looked extremely impressive, covering almost half the world: it all started with performances in Europe, then followed by a long tour of the cities of the USSR (the European part of the country, Siberia, the Far East), then Japan, where Svyatoslav Teofilovich had 11 solo clavirabends - and again concerts in his homeland, only now in the reverse order, from east to west. Something of this kind was repeated by Richter in 1988 - the same long series of large and not very big cities, the same chain of continuous performances, the same endless travel from place to place. “Why are there so many cities and just these?” Svyatoslav Teofilovich was once asked. “Because I haven’t played in them yet,” he answered. “I want, I really want to see the country.” [...] Do you know what attracts me? Geographical interest. Not “wanderlust,” but exactly that. In general, I don’t like to stay in one place, anywhere... There is nothing surprising in my trip, no feat, it’s just my desire.
To me Interesting, this has movement. Geography, new harmonies, new impressions are also a kind of art. That's why I'm happy when I leave some place and something will happen next new. Otherwise it’s not interesting to live” (Richter Svyatoslav: “There is nothing surprising in my trip.”: From the travel notes of V. Chemberdzhi // Soviet music. 1987. No. 4. P. 51.).
Chamber-ensemble music-making has recently played an increasingly important role in Richter’s stage practice. He was always an excellent ensemble player and loved performing with singers and instrumentalists; in the seventies and eighties this became especially noticeable. Svyatoslav Teofilovich often plays with O. Kagan, N. Gutman, Yu. Bashmet; among his partners one could see G. Pisarenko, V. Tretyakov, the Borodin Quartet, youth groups led by Yu. Nikolaevsky and others. A kind of community of performers of various specialties was formed near him; critics began to talk, not without some pathos, about “Richter’s galaxy”... Naturally, the creative evolution of musicians close to Richter takes place largely under his direct and strong influence - although he most likely makes absolutely no effort for this . And yet... His colossal dedication to his work, his creative maximalism, his determination cannot help but infect, as the pianist’s relatives testify. Communicating with him, people begin to do things that seem to be beyond their strengths and capabilities. “He has blurred the line between practice, rehearsal and concert,” says cellist N. Gutman. “Most musicians would consider at some stage that the piece is ready. Richter is just starting to work on it at this moment.”
There is much that is striking about the “late” Richter. But perhaps most of all, his inexhaustible passion for discovering new things in music. It would seem that with his huge repertoire accumulations, why look for something he has not previously performed? Is it necessary?... And yet, in his programs of the seventies and eighties one can find a number of new works that he had not played before - for example, Shostakovich, Hindemith, Stravinsky, and some other authors. Or this fact: for over 20 years in a row, Richter participated in a music festival in the city of Tours (France). And not once during this time did he repeat himself in his programs...
Has the pianist's playing style changed recently? His concert and performing style? Yes and no. No, because in the main Richter remained himself. The foundations of his art are too stable and powerful for any significant modifications. At the same time, some of the trends characteristic of his play in past years have today received further continuation and development. First of all, that “implicitness” of Richter the performer, which has already been mentioned. That characteristic, unique feature of his performing style, thanks to which listeners have the feeling that they are directly, face to face, meeting with the authors of the performed works - without any interpreter or intermediary. And it makes an impression as strong as it is unusual. No one here can compare with Svyatoslav Teofilovich...
At the same time, one cannot help but see that Richter’s emphasized objectivity as an interpreter - the uncloudedness of his performance by any subjective admixtures - also has a side effect. A fact is a fact: in a number of interpretations of the pianist of the seventies and eighties, one sometimes feels a certain “distillation” of emotions, some kind of “impersonality” (perhaps it would be more correct to say “transpersonality”) of musical statements. Sometimes the internal detachment from the audience and the perceiving environment makes itself felt. It happened that in some of his programs Richter looked a little abstract as an artist, not allowing himself anything - at least it seemed from the outside - that would go beyond the scope of a textbook accurate reproduction of the material. We remember that G. G. Neuhaus once lacked “humanity” in his world-famous and renowned student - “despite all the spiritual heights of his performance.” Justice requires us to note: what Genrikh Gustavovich spoke about did not disappear over time. Quite the contrary...
(It is possible: everything that we are talking about now is a consequence of Richter’s many years of continuous and super-intense stage activity. This could not even affect him.)
In fact, even before, some of the listeners openly admitted that at Richter’s evenings they experienced the feeling that the pianist was somewhere away from them, on some kind of high pedestal. And before, Richter seemed to many like a proud and majestic figure of a “celestial” artist, an Olympian, inaccessible to mere mortals... Today these feelings are perhaps even stronger. The pedestal looks even more impressive, grander and... more distant.
And further. On the previous pages, Richter’s penchant for creative self-absorption, introspection, and “philosophy” was noted. (“The entire process of musical performance occurs within himself.”...) In recent years, he has been soaring in such high layers spiritual stratosphere, that it is quite difficult for the public, at least some part of it, to grasp direct contact with them. And enthusiastic applause after the artist’s performances does not change this fact.
All of the above is not criticism in the usual, commonly used sense of the word. Svyatoslav Teofilovich Richter is too significant a creative figure, and his contribution to world art is too great to be approached with standard critical standards. At the same time, there is no need to turn away from some special, inherent features of the performer’s appearance. Moreover, they reveal certain patterns of his long-term evolution as an artist and a person.
At the end of the conversation about Richter of the seventies and eighties, one cannot help but notice that the pianist’s Artistic Calculation has now become even more accurate and verified. The edges of the sound structures he built became even clearer and sharper. A clear confirmation of this is the latest concert programs of Svyatoslav Teofilovich, and the recordings he made, in particular plays from Tchaikovsky’s “The Seasons”, Rachmaninov’s etudes-paintings, as well as Shostakovich’s Quintet with the Borodino players.
Svyatoslav Teofilovich Richter
Dedicated to the memory of the great Svyatoslav Richter.
Here is material about the great pianist: photographs, videos of performances, a video story about Richter, a biography, and about the documentaries “Richter the Unconquered” and “The Chronicles of Svyatoslav Richter”.
(German Richter; March 7 (20), 1915, Zhitomir - August 1, 1997, Moscow) - Soviet and Russian pianist, cultural and public figure, one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century.
Farewell wave of the hand of the Genius - departure of pianist Svyatoslav Richter from Kharkov, Kharkov-Moscow train
Date May 25, 1966, Source own work Author Shcherbinin YuriSviatoslav Richter - V.O.-story about Richter
The pianist's unusually wide repertoire covered works from Baroque music to 20th-century composers; he often performed entire cycles of works, such as Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. A prominent place in his work was occupied by the works of Haydn, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt and Prokofiev. Richter's performance is distinguished by technical perfection, a deeply individual approach to the work, and a sense of time and style.
Biography
Richter was born in Zhitomir, in the family of a talented German pianist, organist and composer Teofil Danilovich Richter (1872-1941), a teacher at the Odessa Conservatory and organist of the city church, his mother was Anna Pavlovna Moskaleva (1892-1963), from the nobility. During the Civil War, the family was separated and Richter lived with his aunt, Tamara Pavlovna, from whom he inherited a love of painting, which became his first creative hobby.
In 1922, the family moved to Odessa, where Richter began studying piano and composition, being largely self-taught. During this time, he also wrote several theater plays, became interested in opera, and harbored plans to become a conductor. From 1930 to 1932, Richter worked as a pianist-accompanist at the Odessa Sailor's House, then at the Odessa Philharmonic. Richter's first solo concert, composed of Chopin's works, took place in 1934, and soon he received a position as an accompanist at the Odessa Opera House.
His hopes of becoming a conductor were not justified; in 1937, Richter entered the Moscow Conservatory in the piano class of Heinrich Neuhaus, but in the fall he was expelled from it, refusing to study general education subjects, and went back to Odessa. Soon, however, at the insistence of Neuhaus, Richter returned to Moscow and was reinstated at the conservatory. The pianist's Moscow debut took place on November 26, 1940, when in the Small Hall of the Conservatory he performed Sergei Prokofiev's Sixth Sonata - for the first time since the author. A month later, Richter performed with the orchestra for the first time.
Sviatoslav Richter - Mozart piano concerto no.5
During the war, Richter was active in concerts, performed in Moscow, toured other cities of the USSR, and played in besieged Leningrad. The pianist performed a number of new works for the first time, including Sergei Prokofiev's Seventh Piano Sonata.
S. T. Richter in Kharkov (1966. Photo by Yu. Shcherbinin)
After the war, Richter gained wide fame by winning the Third All-Union Competition of Music Performers (the first prize was divided between him and Viktor Merzhanov), and became one of the leading Soviet pianists. The pianist's concerts in the USSR and the countries of the Eastern Bloc were very popular, but for many years he was not allowed to perform in the West. This was due to the fact that Richter maintained friendly relations with “disgraced” cultural figures, among whom were Boris Pasternak and Sergei Prokofiev. During the years of the unofficial ban on performing the composer’s music, the pianist often played his works, and in 1952, for the first and only time in his life, he acted as a conductor, conducting the premiere of the Symphony-Concerto for Cello and Orchestra (soloist Mstislav Rostropovich)
Richter's concerts in New York and other American cities in 1960 became a real sensation, followed by numerous recordings, many of which are still considered standard. In the same year, the musician was awarded a Grammy Award (he became the first Soviet performer to receive this award) for his performance of Brahms' Second Piano Concerto
In 1960-1980, Richter continued his active concert activity, giving more than 70 concerts a year. He toured extensively in different countries, preferring to play in intimate venues rather than in large concert halls. The pianist recorded little in the studio, but a large number of “live” recordings from concerts have been preserved.
The great pianist Richter was honored in Russia
Famous festival classical music takes place in the provincial town of Tarusa, a hundred kilometers west of Moscow. It is named after the world famous pianist Svyatoslav Richter, an almost sacred name for classical music lovers.
Richter is the founder of a number of music festivals, including the famous “December Evenings” at the Pushkin Museum (since 1981), during which he performed with leading musicians of our time, including violinist Oleg Kagan, violist Yuri Bashmet, cellists Mstislav Rostropovich and Natalya Gutman. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Richter never taught.
In the last years of his life, Richter often canceled concerts due to illness, but continued to perform. During the performance, at his request, there was complete darkness on the stage, and only the notes on the piano stand were illuminated by a lamp. According to the pianist, this gave the audience the opportunity to concentrate on the music without being distracted by minor moments.
Wife is an opera singer, People's Artist USSR (1990) Dorliak Nina Lvovna (1908 -1998).
The pianist's last concert took place in 1995 in Lübeck. He died in 1997 and was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.
Sviatoslav Richter - Mozart piano concerto no. 27
Now I’ll tell you about documentaries: Richter the unconquered / Richter l "insoumis
Year of manufacture: 1998
Country: France
Genre: documentaryDirector: Bruno Monsaingeon
Description: Bruno Monsaingeon, a French violinist and filmmaker, gained international fame thanks to his films about Glen Gould, Yehudi Menuhin, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, David Oistrakh and others.
One of his last films, Richter the Unconquered, received several awards, including a FIPA Gold Award in 1998.
In this film, the outstanding musician, for the first time overcoming his stubborn reluctance to talk about himself, spoke about his life entirely devoted to music.
And the second documentary: Chronicles of Svyatoslav Richter
Year of manufacture: 1978
Director: A. Zolotov, S. Chekin
Description: A film about Svyatoslav Richter. Includes performances of the following works:
Bach: 5 Brandenburg Concerto - cadenza, 6 keyboard concert- rehearsal
Debussy: Suite Bergamasco, 1st movement
Hindemith: violin sonata
Mozart: 18th concert
Prokofiev: 5th concert
Sviatoslav Richter playing Chopin, and interviewed - "Richter, the Enigma" - medici.tv
Rachmaninov: Study-Painting Op. 39 number 3
Schubert: Musical Moment Op. 94 number 1, landlers
Schumann: Vienna Carnival, parts 1, 2 and 4
In addition: an interview with Milstein, statements by Gould, Rubinstein, Cliburn, Mravinsky about Richter, etc.These documentaries I plan to watch this weekend. I wish you to find these paintings about the great Richter and watch them. Of course, they were broadcast on the Culture channel, but it’s still better to have them in your collection.
He dreamed of becoming a conductor, but ended up a brilliant pianist. Became the first Grammy Award winner in the USSR. Miraculously survived the crucible of Stalin's purges and survived the betrayal of himself loved one. He is still considered one of the most outstanding performers of the 20th century. He is Svyatoslav Richter.
Childhood and youth
Svyatoslav Teofilovich was born on March 20 (or 7, according to the old style) March 1915 in the city of Zhitomir into a family of Russified Germans. When the boy was one year old, the family moved to Odessa. My father taught at the Odessa Conservatory and was a talented musician - he played the piano and organ. Richter’s mother, Anna Pavlovna, bore the surname Moskalev as a girl and came from a noble family.
Svyatoslav Richter with his parents
The boy began to be taught music from the age of 3. Svyatoslav’s father first combined the position of a teacher with playing the organ in a Lutheran church, but then his colleagues accused Theophilus of “serving the cult,” which is not appropriate for a teacher in a country of victorious atheism. Richter Sr. had to leave the church and take private lessons.
There was no time left to educate my son, so in terms of musical education Svyatoslav was largely left to his own devices. A keen interest in music led to the fact that young Richter simply began to play all the parts for which he found notes at home.
The level of his talent did not require academic knowledge - after completing ten years, Svyatoslav, who had not studied a single year at a music school, became accompanist of the Odessa Philharmonic. During this period, he accompanied visiting teams a lot, expanding his own repertoire and gaining experience.
The young man gave his first concert in May 1934 at the age of 19. The performance program included works by the composer, whose nocturne was the first piece that Richter learned to play. Soon after his debut, Svyatoslav Teofilovich was admitted to Odessa Opera theatre for the position of accompanist.
Svyatoslav Richter performs Chopin's "Scherzo no. 2, op. 31"Despite objective successes, Richter did not think about professional skills. He arrived at the Moscow Conservatory only in 1937, and this step was a gamble - the young man still did not have any musical education. Heinrich Neuhaus, an excellent pianist with whom Svyatoslav later studied, was literally persuaded by students to audition the talented Odessa resident.
Richter's performing talent impressed the teacher - they say that he then admitted in a low voice to the student what he saw in front of him brilliant musician. Svyatoslav was accepted into the conservatory, but was expelled almost immediately - he refused to study general education subjects.
He recovered only after Neuhaus insisted on this, but studied intermittently - Svyatoslav received a diploma from the conservatory only in 1947. The teacher and Richter were very close - at first the young man even lived at the teacher’s house. Respect and admiration for the pianist turned out to be so great that even many years later Svyatoslav Teofilovich did not include the Fifth Concerto in the program - he believed that no one could play it better than Neuhaus.
Richter played his first concert in the capital on November 26, 1940. Then, in the Small Hall of the Conservatory, the musician performed the Sixth Sonata, which only the author himself had done before.
Svyatoslav Richter performs Sergei Prokofiev's Sonata No. 2Then the war began, and the pianist was forced to settle in Moscow, not really knowing anything about the fate of his parents who remained in Odessa. At every opportunity, the musician gave concerts, and in 1942 he resumed his activities. During the war, he traveled around almost the entire USSR with performances, even played in besieged Leningrad, and at that time the tragedy of his family was unfolding in Odessa.
Richter’s father and mother were asked to evacuate from the city - the enemy was advancing, and the occupation of Odessa was becoming a matter of time. Anna Pavlovna refused to leave. Subsequently, it turned out that the woman had an affair with a certain Kondratyev, whom she had been caring for even before the war - the man allegedly suffered from a form of bone tuberculosis and could not take care of himself.
In reality, everything was different - Kondratiev came from the family of a tsarist official and had many complaints against the Soviets, however, just like they did against him. The man planned to wait for the Germans and then leave with them. Theophilus Richter did not dare to leave his wife alone and also refused to evacuate. At that time, this meant one thing for the authorities: the German was waiting for the city to be captured by the Nazis and was aiming to become a collaborator.
Richter Sr. was arrested under Article 54-1a of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR for treason and sentenced to death and confiscation of property. 10 days before the capture of the city, Teofil Danilovich was shot. Svyatoslav’s mother stayed with Kondratyev and, when Odessa was liberated, she left with the occupiers. Then the woman left for Romania, then to Germany and for 20 years had no contact with her son.
Music
Music has always been the basis of the pianist’s life, perhaps thanks to it Svyatoslav Teofilovich, despite his biography and nationality, survived both waves of Stalin’s purges. The great leader was no stranger to music, and his daughter often played records with Richter performing. Respect for the artist could be the reason why Svyatoslav, both a German and an intellectual, was never arrested.
When the war ended, real popularity came to Richter. He won the Third All-Union Performers Competition, and his fame as a leading pianist was recognized throughout the USSR. It would seem that the time had come to perform in the West, but Svyatoslav was not allowed to do this - his friendship with people disliked by the state was taking its toll. For example, when Sergei Prokofiev fell into disgrace, Richter stubbornly continued to play the composer's plays.
Moreover, Richter’s only experience of performing as a conductor was dedicated to Prokofiev’s creation – the Symphony-Concerto for Cello and Orchestra.
Legendary concert Svyatoslav Richter in LondonThe Minister of Culture complained to Richter that a disgraced man was living in his dacha. Svyatoslav Teofilovich warmly supported her, agreeing that this was a disgrace - Mstislav had a terribly cramped dacha, Solzhenitsyn would be better off living with Richter himself. The pianist simply did not know what was going on and why such a statement was dangerous.
The musician's repertoire was huge - from works of the Baroque era to modern composers. Critics noted the amazing performance technique combined with a personal approach to creativity. Each piece that Richter performed turned into a solid, complete image. The audience listened to Richter with bated breath.
Personal life
ABOUT personal life Richter did not say anything, although there were rumors about his sexuality that were unsafe for a citizen of the USSR.
The musician was married to opera singer Nina Dorliak, whose relationship began when Svyatoslav invited her to perform together. Subsequently, they gave joint concerts more than once. A lot remains from these performances touching photos. Subsequently, the couple registered a marriage in which Richter and Dorliak lived for 50 years. However, this had no effect on the gossip.
Vera Prokhorova, with whom the musician was friends for many decades, claimed in her memoirs and interviews that the marriage was fictitious. These suspicions are justified - the relationship between the spouses was far from standard. They slept in different rooms, addressed each other exclusively as “you,” and they had no children.
Prokhorova spoke unflatteringly about Nina Lvovna, considering her a domestic tyrant. Allegedly, Dorliak took money from Richter, and when Svyatoslav Teofilovich wanted to help Elena Sergeevna, a widow, he allegedly had to borrow from friends.
Nevertheless, Richter walked hand in hand with his wife all his life and spoke about Nina with sincere warmth, calling him not a dictator, but a princess.
Svyatoslav’s personal tragedy was the betrayal of his mother, who was both his closest person and a moral and ethical standard. Having met Anna Pavlovna after 20 years of separation, he was never able to forgive her, although he did not refuse help. But I told my friends simply and unequivocally that my mother was no more - just a mask.
Death
In his old age, Richter was tormented by depression. The musician’s health failed him, preventing him from giving concerts and making music even for himself – the pianist did not like his own playing. After several years of living in Paris, in 1997 Svyatoslav Teofilovich returned to Russia.
Richter died at home on August 1, 1997, less than a month after returning. The cause of death was a heart attack, and the last words of the great pianist were the phrase:
The funeral took place at the Novodevichy cemetery.
Discography
- 1971 - “Bach J. S. (1685-1750). Well-tempered clavier. Part I."
- 1973 - “Bach J. S. (1685-1750). Well-tempered clavier. Part II"
- 1976 - “Mussorgsky M. P. (1839-1881). Pictures from the exhibition: Walk"
- 1981 - “Tchaikovsky P. I. (1840-1893). Concerto No. 1 for piano and orchestra in B flat minor, Op. 23"
- 1981 - “Schubert F. P. (1797-1828). Sonatas No. 9, 11 for piano"
