Richter pianist biography

More From encyclopedia. About this article Sviatoslav Richter All Sources. Updated Aug 08 About encyclopedia. Svetlova, Marina —. Svetlov, Pavel Iakovlevich. Svetlov, Mikhail. Svetlanov, Yevgeny Fyodorovich. Svetlanov, Evgeny Feodorovich. Svetla, Caroline — Svet, Mateja —. Sverdrup, Johan. Sverdrup, Harald Ulrik. Sverdrup, Harald. Sverdrup Islands.

Sverdrup Corporation. Sverdlov, Yakov Mikhailovich. Sverdlik, Oded. Svenvold, Mark For more than thirty-five years I have been listening to and worshiping Richter. I idolized his touch especially the quiet pianoand failed to appreciate the loose freedom of his movements I took it for affectation. It was only about eight or nine years ago that I had the opportunity to listen to him again.

I was surprised at the change. The feeling of unattainability increased even more, although he turned out to be the most modest and delicate person in conversation. The repertoire has changed, it has become strictly thematic, its romantic base has faded into the background, and there has been more and more chamber music. The temperament is still of the same strength, but of a different quality — not subjective-romantic, but spontaneously-objective.

However, this objectivity is not classicistic, not retrospective, but new and genuine. Whether from weakness or laziness I have no talent for thinking. I know only how to reflect: I am a mirror.

Richter pianist biography: Richter enjoyed early success in the

Logic does not exist for me. I float on the waves of art and life and never really know how to distinguish what belongs to the one or the other, or what is common to both. Life unfolds for me like a theatre presenting a sequence of somewhat unreal sentiments; while the things of art are real to me and go straight to my heart. Hamburger icon An icon used to represent a menu that can be toggled by interacting with this icon.

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It is said that after one such concert, the members of the audience, who had never before heard classical music performed, gathered in the middle of the hall and started swaying from side to side to celebrate the performer. In his last years, Richter gave a few concerts for students that were free of charge February 14, Teatro Romea, Murcia, Spain, also March 1, matinee concert in Teatre Municipal, Girona, Spain.

An anecdote illustrates Richter's approach to performance in the last decade of his life. After reading a biography of Charlemagne he was an avid readerRichter had his secretary send a telegram to the director of the theater in AachenCharlemagne's favoured residence city and his burial place, stating "The Maestro has read a biography of Charlemagne and would like to play at Aquisgrana Aachen ".

Richter pianist biography: Richter, who was born years ago

The performance took place shortly thereafter. Richter's last recorded orchestral performance was of three Mozart concerti in with the Japan Shinsei Symphony Orchestra conducted by his old friend Rudolf Barshai. The program consisted of two Haydn sonatas and Reger 's Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Beethovena piece for two pianos, which Richter performed with pianist Andreas Lucewicz.

As Richter once put it, "My repertory runs to around eighty different programs, not counting chamber works. Richter worked tirelessly to learn new pieces. Central to his repertoire were the works of Schubert, SchumannBeethoven, J. Bach, Chopin, Liszt, Prokofiev and Debussy. He gave the premiere of Prokofiev's Sonata No. Richter also conducted the premiere of Prokofiev's Symphony-Concerto for cello and orchestra.

This was his sole appearance as a conductor. The soloist was Rostropovich, to whom the work was dedicated.

Richter pianist biography: – August 1, )

Prokofiev also wrote his Cello Sonata in C for Rostropovich, and he and Richter premiered it in Richter himself was a passable cellist, and Rostropovich was a good pianist; at one concert in Moscow at which he accompanied Rostropovich on the piano, they exchanged instruments for part of the program. Richter explained his approach to performance as follows: "The interpreter is really an executant, carrying out the composer's intentions to the letter.

He doesn't add anything that isn't already in the work. If he is talented, he allows us to glimpse the truth of the work that is in itself a thing of genius and that is reflected in him. He shouldn't dominate the music, but should dissolve into it. I know only how to reflect: I am a mirror Logic does not exist for me. I float on the waves of art and life and never really know how to distinguish what belongs to the one or the other or what is common to both.

Life unfolds for me like a theatre presenting a sequence of somewhat unreal sentiments; while the things of art are real to me and go straight to my heart. Richter's belief that musicians should "carry As a matter of fact, through forty years — and no musician or technician ever pointed it out to him — he played 'F-sharp' rather than 'F'. The same mistake can be found in the previous recording made by Maestro Richter in the fifties.

Despite his large discography, Richter disliked making studio recordings, [ 46 ] and most of his recordings originate from live performances. Despite his professed aversion for the studio, Richter took the recording process seriously. According to Falk Schwartz and John Berrie's article "Sviatoslav Richter — A Discography", [ 51 ] in the s, Richter announced his intention of recording his complete solo repertoire "on some 50 discs".

That recording is still considered a landmark despite Richter's dissatisfaction with it[ 52 ] as are his studio recordings of Schubert's Wanderer FantasyLiszt's two Piano Concertos, Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto and Schumann's Toccata, among many others. Bruno Monsaingeon interviewed Richter in two years before his death and the documentary The Enigma [ 54 ] [ 55 ] was released in The Italian richter pianist biography Piero Rattalino has asserted that the only pianists comparable to Richter in the history of piano performance were Franz Liszt and Ferruccio Busoni.

Glenn Gould called Richter "one of the most powerful communicators the world of music has produced in our time". Nathan Milstein described Richter in his memoir From Russia to the West as the following: "Richter was certainly a marvellous pianist but not as impeccable as he was reputed to be. His music making was too dry for me.

Richter pianist biography: Though initially a composer, by age

In Richter's interpretation of Ravel 's Jeux d'eauinstead of flowing water you hear frozen icicles. Van Cliburn attended a Richter recital in in the Soviet Union. He reportedly wept during the recital and, upon returning to the United States, described Richter's playing as "the most powerful piano playing I have ever heard". Arthur Rubinstein described his first exposure to Richter as follows: "It really wasn't anything out of the ordinary.

Then at some point I noticed my eyes growing moist: tears began rolling down my cheeks. Heinrich Neuhaus described Richter as follows: "His singular ability to grasp the whole and at the same time miss none of the smallest details of a composition suggests a comparison with an eagle who from his great height can see as far as the horizon and yet single out the tiniest detail of the landscape.

Dmitri Shostakovich wrote of Richter: "Richter is an extraordinary phenomenon. The enormity of his talent staggers and enraptures. All the phenomena of musical art are accessible to him. Vladimir Sofronitsky proclaimed that Richter was a "genius", prompting Richter to respond that Sofronitsky was a "god". Pierre Boulez wrote of Richter: "His personality was greater than the possibilities offered to him by the piano, broader than the very concept of complete mastery of the instrument.

Marlene Dietrichwho was Richter's friend, wrote in her autobiography, Marlene : "One evening the audience sat around him on the stage. While he was playing a piece, a woman directly behind him collapsed and died on the spot. She was carried out of the hall. I was deeply impressed by this incident and thought to myself: "What an enviable fate, to die while Richter is playing!

What a strong feeling for the music this woman must have had when she breathed out her life! Gramophone critic Bryce Morrison described Richter as follows: "Idiosyncratic, plain-speaking, heroic, reserved, lyrical, virtuosic and perhaps richter pianist biography all, profoundly enigmatic, Sviatoslav Richter remains one of the greatest recreative artists of all time.

On listening to Bach : "It does no harm to listen to Bach from time to time, even if only from a hygienic standpoint. On Scriabin : "Scriabin isn't the sort of composer whom you'd regard as your daily bread, but is a heavy liqueur on which you can get drunk periodically, a poetical drug, a crystal that's easily broken.