Svyatoslav Richter is from Odessa, although he was born on March 20, 1915 in Zhitomir, where he spent his early childhood. The grandfather of the future pianist was a music master and piano tuner. He had twelve children. One of them, Theophilus, became a professional musician, studied at the Vienna Academy of Music, and spent about twenty years in Vienna. In the memory of Svyatoslav it has been preserved for the rest of his life how his father “played the piano well, especially romantic pieces - by Schumann, Chopin. In his youth, as a pianist, he gave concerts. But he was terrified of the stage and because of this he never became a concert pianist. He had an excellent command of the organ, often improvising on it. Many people came to listen to his improvisations ... ”. Svyatoslav's mother, Anna Pavlovna Moskaleva, “was gifted artistically, painted well, loved theater and music. By its nature, it resembled one of the characters in Bulgakov's play "Days of the Turbins" - Elena Turbina. In general, when I watched this performance, I associated a lot with childhood, ”Richter recalled. In Zhitomir and another Ukrainian city - Sumy, little Svyatoslav lived in the family of his grandfather for five years, and then, until 1937, his childhood, youth and youth were spent in Odessa. Here he graduated from a seven-year school, his musical hobbies began. In the Richter's house, they often gathered to play trios and quartets. On Thursdays, home music evenings were held in the apartment of B. Tyuneev, a professor at the Odessa Conservatory.

First of all, Svyatoslav studied music under his father, a pianist and organist. Formally not having a musical education, he worked as an accompanist of the Odessa Opera Choir.

Richter recalled the beginning of his musical life: “The fact that I became a musician, I owe mainly to my father - he created a musical atmosphere in the family. It came out quite naturally: he was a pianist, he graduated from the Vienna Conservatory - a very long time ago! He was quite old, much older than his mother, by many years. My father had students. As a musician, he enjoyed authority, but I myself could not study with him at all. He did not enjoy authority with me - probably precisely because I was his son. We tried three times, and each time he ended up refusing to study with me. My father was a very gentle person, but for some reason I did the opposite ... My father was still playing the piano, but when I was fifteen years old (1930), he had already stopped playing it, now he was an organist ... From the age of fifteen I began to work for free as a trainee accompanist in an amateur circle at the Palace of Sailors, where mostly losers-artists gathered. With them I practiced operatic roles. Of course, it was all awful, they sang awful! There are a lot of comic memories ... After that, at the age of sixteen or seventeen, I performed as an accompanist at concerts of the Odessa Philharmonic. Accompanied in group concerts, in which violinists, magicians and jugglers could participate. I was there for one year (until 1933), then I quarreled and I was fired. The next year there was an agreement that they would take me again, but I never returned to the Philharmonic. I entered the Odessa Opera House as an accompanist, but not opera, but ballet. And for a whole year (until 1934) I accompanied in ballet. At that time I had already developed my own pianistic style, somewhat orchestral ... The next year I switched to opera. For three years (until 1937) he worked in the opera ... Even when I entered the ballet as accompanist, I had a very bold idea - to give my own concert, in one year of work on the piano, maybe in one and a half to two years. I was in Odessa, where I decided to give a concert from the works of Chopin. Of course it was a strange concert! It was very crowded and passed with great success (February 19, 1934) ... "

At the age of 22 (1937), actually being self-taught, Svyatoslav entered the Moscow Conservatory, where he studied with Heinrich Neuhaus. This is how the contemporaries describe the arrival of Richter: “... From the very beginning, the appearance of Richter was like a miracle. This wonderful fact is captured in the memoirs of Heinrich Gustavovich Neuhaus: “Students asked to listen to a young man from Odessa who would like to enter the conservatory, in my class. "Has he already graduated from music school?" I asked. "No, he did not study anywhere." I confess that this answer was somewhat puzzling ... A man who had not received a musical education was going to enter the conservatory! It was interesting to look at the daredevil. And so he came. A tall, thin young man, fair-haired, blue-eyed, with a lively, surprisingly attractive face. He sat down at the piano, put his big, soft, nervous hands on the keys and began to play. He played very restrained, I would say, even emphatically simple, strictly. His performance captivated me. 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 compositions, read from the sheet. And all those present wanted him to play again and again ... From that day on, Svyatoslav Richter became my student. "

From 1937 to 1941 Svyatoslav came to Odessa several times to visit his parents. However, after the start of the war, Richter's connection with Odessa was interrupted, and, as it turned out, forever. Here is how Anatoly Wasserman tells about it: “... just before the departure of Soviet troops from Odessa in early October 1941, the security agencies managed to shoot the church choir director and organist, professor of the Odessa Conservatory and the accompanist of the Odessa Opera House, German Teofil Danilovich Richter, the father of the outstanding pianist of the 20th century Svyatoslav Richter. Together with him, 23 other members of the "German" church were shot. A memorial plaque in the church reminds of this. Svyatoslav Teofilovich, who traveled all over the world and gave more than 70 concerts a year, never toured in Odessa ... "

With students, Kiev, 1948

Richter's father was shot at the entrance to Odessa by German troops just because he was a German. Mother left Odessa together with the retreating German troops. Because of this, Richter was not allowed to go to the West for many years, fearing that he would not return. His mother called him from Germany.

Here is what Vera Ivanovna Prokhorova, a friend of the Richter family, recalled about this:
“… [Vera Ivanovna] mentions the difficult relationship between Svyatoslav Richter and his mother, whom he considered guilty of the death of his father at the beginning of the war. The pianist's parents lived in Odessa, and in the last days before the Germans came to the city, they were offered to evacuate. But the mother refused to do this, since otherwise her lover - a certain Sergei Kondratyev - would have been forced to stay in the city. Richter's father, a German by birth, was arrested and killed by the NKVD along with thousands of his fellow tribesmen, who were believed to be sympathetic to the Nazis. His mother, when the German troops retreated, left with them and subsequently lived in Germany. Throughout his life, Richter was terribly upset by this story and, although he met and communicated with his mother, he was incredibly traumatized by what happened. "

Svyatoslav Richter at work

Svyatoslav Teofilovich Richter

Dedicated to the memory of the great 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 XX century.

Farewell wave of the Genius hand - departure of the pianist Svyatoslav Richter from Kharkov, Kharkov-Moscow train
Date 25 May 1966, Source own work Author Shcherbinin Yuri

Svyatoslav Richter - Sviatoslav Richter - V.O.-story about Richter

The pianist's unusually wide repertoire encompassed works from baroque music to 20th century composers; he often performed entire cycles of works, such as Bach's The 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, 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), teacher of the Odessa Conservatory and organist of the city Kirkha, mother - Anna Pavlovna Moskaleva (1892-1963), from the nobility. During the Civil War, the family was divided and Richter lived in the family of his aunt, Tamara Pavlovna, from whom he inherited a love for painting, which became his first creative passion.

In 1922 the family moved to Odessa, where Richter began studying piano and composition, being mostly self-taught. During this time, he also wrote several theatrical plays, became interested in the opera house and has plans to become a conductor. From 1930 to 1932, Richter worked as a pianist-accompanist at the Odessa Seaman's House, then at the Odessa Philharmonic. Richter's first recital, composed of works by Chopin, took place in 1934, and soon he received a place as an accompanist at the Odessa Opera House.

His hopes of becoming a conductor did not materialize, 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 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 after 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 concert, performed in Moscow, toured other cities of the USSR, played in besieged Leningrad. The pianist performed for the first time a number of new compositions, including the Seventh Piano Sonata by Sergei Prokofiev.

S. T. Richter in Kharkov (1966. Photo by Y. Shcherbinin)

After the war, Richter became widely known, having won the Third All-Union Competition of Music Performers (the first prize was shared 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 he was not allowed to perform in the West for many years. 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 unspoken ban on the performance of 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 (soloed by Mstislav Rostropovich)

Richter's concerts in New York and other cities in America in 1960 became a real sensation, followed by numerous recordings, many of which are still considered benchmarks. In the same year, the musician was awarded the 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 a lot in different countries, preferring to play in chamber rooms than in large concert halls. In the studio, the pianist recorded little, but a large number of "live" recordings from concerts have survived.

Great pianist Richter was honored in Russia

The famous classical music festival takes place in the provincial town of Tarusa, a hundred kilometers west of Moscow. It is named after the world famous pianist Svyatoslav Richter, almost a 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), within the framework of which he performed with leading musicians of our time, including violinist Oleg Kagan, violist Yuri Bashmet, cellists Mstislav Rostropovich and Natalia 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, the stage was completely dark, and only the notes on the piano's music 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 secondary moments.

Wife - opera singer, People's Artist of the 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 unconquered / Richter l "insoumis

Year of issue: 1998
Country: France
Genre: Documentary

Director: Bruno Monseingeon

Description: Bruno Monsenjon, a French violinist and filmmaker, gained international fame for his films about Glen Gould, Yehudi Menuhin, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, David Oistrakh and others.
One of his most recent films, Richter the Unconquered, won several awards, including the 1998 FIPA Gold Award.
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 issue: 1978
Director: A. Zolotov, S. Chekin

Description: A film about Svyatoslav Richter. Includes performance of the following pieces:
Bach: 5 Brandenburg concerto - cadenza, 6 clavier concerto - rehearsal
Debussy: Suite Bergamas, 1 movement
Hindemith: Violin Sonata
Mozart: 18 concert
Prokofiev: 5 concert

Sviatoslav Richter playing Chopin, and interviewed - "Richter, the Enigma" - medici.tv

Rachmaninoff: Study-painting op. 39 number 3
Schubert: A Musical Moment Op. 94 number 1, landlers
Schumann: Vienna Carnival, Parts 1, 2 and 4
In addition: interviews with Milstein, statements by Gould, Rubinstein, Cliburn, Mravinsky about Richter, etc.

I plan to watch these documentaries this weekend. I wish you to find these pictures about the great Richter and see them. Of course, they went on the Culture channel, but it's still better to have them in your collection.

Richter Svyatoslav Teofilovich

Richter Svyatoslav Teofilovich

The largest Soviet pianist of the twentieth century. Much has been written about this outstanding pianist. And on the Internet there is a huge amount of material about him. It makes no sense to copy the material. I offer only a brief overview. For a more complete understanding of the biography and the creative path of the pianist, I offer a selection of the articles about Richter that I liked the most that I found on the Internet. By following the links, reading the articles, you can get the most complete picture of the pianist.

1. Biographical sketch to the 100th anniversary of the birth of the pianist: S. Richter
2. Igor Izgarshev: "Unknown Richter"
3. Analysis of creative biography: G. Tsypin Svyatoslav Richter (1990)
4. In 2012, the memoirs of a close friend of S. Richter Vera Prokhorova "Four friends against the backdrop of a century" were published. Unfortunately, the book cannot be purchased at the moment - it is not on sale in any online store (data as of January 2017). And it is not in electronic form, tk. reprinting is prohibited by the copyright holder. But you can search in bookstores in your city or leave a request in an online store to inform you about the arrival of a book for sale.

So, a short biographical overview: Svyatoslav Richter. People's Artist of the USSR (1961). Hero of Socialist Labor (1975). Laureate of Lenin (1961), Stalin (1950) and State Prizes of the RSFSR named after Glinka (1987) and Russia (1996). The first winner of the Grammy award in the USSR (1960).

Svyatoslav Richter was born into a family of pianist, organist and composer Teofil Danilovich Richter (1872-1941), teacher of the Odessa Conservatory and organist of the city church; mother - Anna Pavlovna Moskaleva (1892-1963), after mother von Reinke, from Russian noblemen of German origin. During the Civil War, the family was separated, Richter lived in the family of his aunt Tamara Pavlovna, from whom he inherited a love for painting, which became his first creative passion.

In 1922 the family moved to Odessa, where Richter began studying piano and composition. Richter recalled that in childhood and adolescence, his father, who was his first teacher and whose play the young Svyatoslav constantly listened to, had a tremendous influence on him. Some sources indicate that Richter was mostly self-taught, however, this is rather related to the fact that he did not take a standard piano course, playing scales, exercises and etudes. The first piece that Svyatoslav began to play was F. Chopin's nocturne. During this time, he also wrote several theatrical plays, became interested in the opera house and has plans to become a conductor. From 1930 to 1932, Richter worked as a pianist-accompanist at the Odessa Seaman's House, then at the Odessa Philharmonic. Richter's first recital, composed of the works of Chopin, took place in 1934, and soon he got a job as an accompanist at the Odessa Opera House.

His hopes of becoming a conductor were dashed; in 1937, Richter entered the Moscow Conservatory in the piano class of Heinrich Neuhaus, but in the fall he was expelled from it (after refusing to study general subjects) and went back to Odessa. Soon, however, at the insistence of Neuhaus, Richter returned to Moscow and recovered at the conservatory, receiving 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.

During the Great Patriotic War, Richter remains in Moscow. In August 1941, his father, who lived in Odessa, was arrested by the Soviet authorities on false charges of treason, and in October, even before the occupation of the city by the German army, he was shot. In 1962 he was rehabilitated .. After the liberation of the city from occupation, Richter's mother left the city together with the retreating German troops and settled in Germany. Richter himself considered her dead for many years. During the war, Richter was active in concert, performed in Moscow, toured other cities of the USSR, played in besieged Leningrad. The pianist performed for the first time a number of new compositions, including the Seventh Piano Sonata by Sergei Prokofiev.

Richter's great friend and mentor was Anna Ivanovna Troyanovskaya (1885-1977), in her house in Skatertny Lane he studied Medtner's famous piano. In 1943, Richter first met the singer Nina Dorliak, who later became his wife. Richter and Dorliak often performed together in concerts.

After the war, Richter became widely known, having won the Third All-Union Competition of Music Performers (the first prize was shared between him and Viktor Merzhanov), and became one of the leading Soviet pianists.

Richter's concerts in the USSR and the countries of the Eastern Bloc 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 disgraced cultural figures, among whom were Boris Pasternak and Sergei Prokofiev. During the years of the unspoken ban on the performance of the composer's music, the pianist often played his works, and in 1952, for the first and only time in his life, performed as a conductor, conducting the premiere of the Symphony-Concerto for Cello and Orchestra (soloed by Mstislav Rostropovich). Prokofiev's Ninth Sonata is dedicated to Richter and performed for the first time by him.

Richter's concerts in New York and other cities in America in 1960 became a real sensation, followed by numerous recordings, many of which are still considered benchmarks. In the same year, the musician was awarded the Grammy Prize (he became the first Soviet performer to receive this award) for his performance of Brahms's Second Piano Concerto.

In 1952, Richter played the role of Franz Liszt in the film by G. Aleksandrov "The Composer Glinka".

In 1960-1980, Richter continued his active concert activity, giving more than seventy concerts a year. He toured a lot in different countries, preferring to play in chamber rooms, rather than in large concert halls. In the studio, the pianist recorded relatively little, but a large number of "live" recordings from concerts have survived.

Richter's unusually wide repertoire spanned works from baroque music to 20th century composers, and he often performed whole cycles of works, such as Bach's The 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, 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 Festivals in Touraine (held since 1964 in the premises of a medieval barn in Mele near Tours, France), the famous "December Evenings" at the Pushkin Museum (since 1981), in within which he performed with leading musicians of our time, including the violinist Oleg Kagan, violist Yuri Bashmet, cellists Mstislav Rostropovich and Natalia 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, the stage was completely dark, and only the notes on the piano's music 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 secondary moments. In recent years he lived in Paris, and shortly before his death, on July 6, 1997, he returned to Russia. The pianist's last concert took place in 1995 in Lübeck. Svyatoslav Richter died on August 1, 1997 in the Central Clinical Hospital from a heart attack. Buried at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.

Information about Svyatoslav Richter is taken from Wikipedia.

Video film "Unconquered Richter (in two parts)":

(1915-1997) Russian pianist

The life of Svyatoslav Teofilovich Richter bears little resemblance to the biographies of other artists. He went to success in a very special way. The childhood years of the future pianist were spent in Odessa. His father, Teofil Danilovich, taught at the conservatory and was a famous musician in the city. At one time he graduated from the Vienna Academy of Music, and it was he who gave his son his first piano lessons even when the boy was only five years old.

However, the father could not constantly study with his son, since he was forced to devote all his time to classes with students. Therefore, from the age of nine to ten, Svyatoslav was practically left on his own. Only for a short time did he take lessons from the pianist A. Atl, one of his father's students. And the boy used this freedom of action in a very original way: he began to play all the notes that were in the house. He was especially interested in opera claviers. Gradually, Richter learned to play any music from sight and became a skilled accompanist.

From the age of fifteen, he already helped his father, and soon began to work independently: he became an accompanist in a music circle at the House of the Sailor. After leaving school, he worked for several years as an accompanist at the Odessa Philharmonic. At this time, Svyatoslav traveled with concert teams, accompanying various musicians, and gained experience.

In 1932 he went to work at the Odessa Opera House and became assistant conductor S. Stolerman. Svyatoslav Richter helps him at rehearsals and in working with singers, gradually expanding his own repertoire. In May 1934, the pianist gives the first clavarabend - a solo concert - in the Odessa House of Engineers, performing works by Frederic Chopin. The concert was a great success, but at that time the young man had not yet thought about studying music professionally.

Only five years later, in the spring of 1937, Svyatoslav Richter finally went to Moscow to enter the conservatory. This was a rather bold step, since the young performer did not have any musical education. At the entrance examination he was heard by the outstanding pianist of our time G. Neuhaus. From that day on, Richter became his favorite student.

Neuhaus accepted Svyatoslav Richter into his class, but never taught him in the generally accepted sense of the word. As Neuhaus himself later wrote, there was nothing to teach Richter - it was only necessary to develop his talent. Richter remained reverent for his first teacher throughout his life. It is interesting that, having replayed almost all of the world's piano classics, he never included Beethoven's Fifth Concerto in the program, believing that he could not play it better than his teacher.

In November 1940, Richter made his first public appearance in Moscow. At this first concert in the Small Hall of the Conservatory, he performed with his teacher. A few days later he gave his own recital in the Great Hall of the Conservatory, and from that time began his long life as a musician-performer.

During the war, Svyatoslav Teofilovich Richter was in Moscow. At the slightest opportunity he gave concerts. And he did not stop studying for a day. Since June 1942, he resumed concert activity and literally begins to "shower" the audience with new programs. At the same time, he began his tour of various cities. During the last two military years, he traveled almost the entire country. He even passed the state exam at the Conservatory in the form of a concert in the Great Hall of the Conservatory. After this speech, the commission decided to engrave Richter's name in gold letters on a marble board in the foyer of the Small Hall of the Conservatory.

In 1945 Svyatoslav Richter became the winner of the All-Union Competition of Music Performers. It is curious that for a long time he did not want to declare his participation in it. The fact is that Richter has always considered the concepts of music and competition to be incompatible. But he began to participate in the competition in order to strengthen the teaching reputation of his teacher G. Neuhaus. In the future, he did not participate in any competitions. In addition, he has always refused to chair the jury of many international competitions.

In the postwar years, Svyatoslav Teofilovich Richter continues to tour constantly, and his fame as a performer is growing. In 1950 he went on his first foreign tour to Czechoslovakia. Then travels to other countries follow. Only after that does the management "release" Richter to Finland. His concerts are held, as always, with triumph, and in the same year the pianist makes a big trip to the USA and Canada. And everywhere crowded concert halls applaud him.

The secret of Richter's meteoric rise should be seen not only in the fact that he had a unique breadth of repertoire (he played Bach and Debussy, Prokofiev and Chopin with equal success), but also in the fact that from any piece of music he created a unique and integral image. Any music sounded in his performance as if he had composed it in front of the audience.

Unlike other pianists, Svyatoslav Richter knew how to dissolve in the music he performed. It fully revealed his genius. The maestro himself said when journalists asked him for an interview (and he was very, very reluctant to contact the press): "My interviews are my concerts." And the musician considered it a sacred duty to perform in front of an audience.

For many years, his wife, singer Nina Lvovna Dorliak, was next to Svyatoslav Richter. Once she performed with her own concerts, but left the stage and became a famous music teacher. Richter himself never had students. Probably, he simply did not have time, or maybe the reason is that genius cannot be taught.

The versatility of talent, reminiscent of the geniuses of the Renaissance, was reflected in Richter's passion for painting. All his life he collected paintings and even painted in oils himself. The Museum of Private Collections contains several of Richter's works. As for the main collection, most of it has also been donated to the museum. It must also be said that in the sixties and seventies Svyatoslav Richter organized art exhibitions of representatives of informal movements in his house. The expositions of E. Akhvlediani and V. Shukhaev turned out to be especially interesting.

Svyatoslav Teofilovich Richter was the organizer and permanent participant of regular summer music festivals in France, as well as the famous December evenings at the Moscow Museum of Fine Arts. Alexander Pushkin, in whose Italian courtyard in August 1997 Moscow said goodbye to the greatest pianist of the 20th century.

Svyatoslav Teofilovich Richter

Dedicated to the memory of the great Svyatoslav Richter.

Here you can find material about the great pianist: photos, videos with 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 XX century.

Farewell wave of the Genius hand - departure of the pianist Svyatoslav Richter from Kharkov, Kharkov-Moscow train
Date 25 May 1966, Source own work Author Shcherbinin Yuri

Svyatoslav Richter - Sviatoslav Richter - V.O.-story about Richter

The pianist's unusually wide repertoire encompassed works from baroque music to 20th century composers; he often performed entire cycles of works, such as Bach's The 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, 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), teacher of the Odessa Conservatory and organist of the city Kirkha, mother - Anna Pavlovna Moskaleva (1892-1963), from the nobility. During the Civil War, the family was divided and Richter lived in the family of his aunt, Tamara Pavlovna, from whom he inherited a love for painting, which became his first creative passion.

In 1922 the family moved to Odessa, where Richter began studying piano and composition, being mostly self-taught. During this time, he also wrote several theatrical plays, became interested in the opera house and has plans to become a conductor. From 1930 to 1932, Richter worked as a pianist-accompanist at the Odessa Seaman's House, then at the Odessa Philharmonic. Richter's first recital, composed of works by Chopin, took place in 1934, and soon he received a place as an accompanist at the Odessa Opera House.

His hopes of becoming a conductor did not materialize, 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 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 after 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 concert, performed in Moscow, toured other cities of the USSR, played in besieged Leningrad. The pianist performed for the first time a number of new compositions, including the Seventh Piano Sonata by Sergei Prokofiev.

S. T. Richter in Kharkov (1966. Photo by Y. Shcherbinin)

After the war, Richter became widely known, having won the Third All-Union Competition of Music Performers (the first prize was shared 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 he was not allowed to perform in the West for many years. 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 unspoken ban on the performance of 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 (soloed by Mstislav Rostropovich)

Richter's concerts in New York and other cities in America in 1960 became a real sensation, followed by numerous recordings, many of which are still considered benchmarks. In the same year, the musician was awarded the 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 a lot in different countries, preferring to play in chamber rooms than in large concert halls. In the studio, the pianist recorded little, but a large number of "live" recordings from concerts have survived.

Great pianist Richter was honored in Russia

The famous classical music festival takes place in the provincial town of Tarusa, a hundred kilometers west of Moscow. It is named after the world famous pianist Svyatoslav Richter, almost a 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), within the framework of which he performed with leading musicians of our time, including violinist Oleg Kagan, violist Yuri Bashmet, cellists Mstislav Rostropovich and Natalia 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, the stage was completely dark, and only the notes on the piano's music 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 secondary moments.

Wife - opera singer, People's Artist of the 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 unconquered / Richter l "insoumis

Year of issue: 1998
Country: France
Genre: Documentary

Director: Bruno Monseingeon

Description: Bruno Monsenjon, a French violinist and filmmaker, gained international fame for his films about Glen Gould, Yehudi Menuhin, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, David Oistrakh and others.
One of his most recent films, Richter the Unconquered, won several awards, including the 1998 FIPA Gold Award.
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 issue: 1978
Director: A. Zolotov, S. Chekin

Description: A film about Svyatoslav Richter. Includes performance of the following pieces:
Bach: 5 Brandenburg concerto - cadenza, 6 clavier concerto - rehearsal
Debussy: Suite Bergamas, 1 movement
Hindemith: Violin Sonata
Mozart: 18 concert
Prokofiev: 5 concert

Sviatoslav Richter playing Chopin, and interviewed - "Richter, the Enigma" - medici.tv

Rachmaninoff: Study-painting op. 39 number 3
Schubert: A Musical Moment Op. 94 number 1, landlers
Schumann: Vienna Carnival, Parts 1, 2 and 4
In addition: interviews with Milstein, statements by Gould, Rubinstein, Cliburn, Mravinsky about Richter, etc.

I plan to watch these documentaries this weekend. I wish you to find these pictures about the great Richter and see them. Of course, they went on the Culture channel, but it's still better to have them in your collection.