Swjatoslaw richter pianist biography children
She would wind his watch for him, remind him of appointments, and manage his professional commitments" Geffen The West first became aware of Sviatoslav Richter through recordings made in the 's. He was not allowed to tour the USA until , but when he did, he created a sensation, playing a series of sold-out concerts in Carnegie Hall. He preferred not to plan concerts years in advance, and in later years took to playing on very short notice in small, often darkened halls, sometimes with only a small lamp lighting his piano.
He died in Moscow while studying for a concert series he was to give. Sviatoslav Richter's repertoire spanned the major works of the piano repertoire, although with many omissions e. Among his noted recordings are works by Franz Schubert, L. Beethoven , J. In he traveled by car from Moscow to Vladivostok and back in six months, playing concerts, many in obscure little Siberian villages.
One day he might be in the best hotel enjoying Champagne, the next night he might sleep on a bench. It did not matter.
Richter died in August Had he lived longer, this would have been a very different film. Shortly before he died, Richter had left Paris and returned to Moscow. But Richter died the day before Monsaingeon was to arrive. I arrived only to attend his funeral. Richter did see a raw version of the film before he died. Monsaingeon had already started editing their interviews, boiling them down at that point to 3 hours and 20 minutes.
We looked at this together over a period of two days. An exhibit of photographs of Richter taken by Jacques Leiser over 30 years will also be on display. Hollywood Inc. De Los. Times Everywhere. In , even though he had a reputation for being "indifferent" to politics, Richter defied the authorities when he performed at Boris Pasternak 's funeral.
In , Richter gave recitals in Budapest , Hungary. In , he again toured Czechoslovakia, then in , he toured China , then again performed in Prague, Sofia , and Warsaw.
Richter pianist wikipedia: Sviatoslav Teofilovich Richter [note 1] (March 20 [O.S. March 7] – August 1, ) was a Soviet and Russian classical pianist. He is regarded as one of the greatest pianists of all time, [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] and has been praised for the "depth of his interpretations, his virtuoso technique, and his vast repertoire".
Thus the West first became aware of Richter through recordings made in the s. One of Richter's first advocates in the West was Emil Gilels , who stated during his first tour of the United States that the critics who were giving Gilels rave reviews should "wait until you hear Richter. Richter's first concerts in the West took place in May , when he was allowed to play in Finland, and on October 15, , in Chicago, where he played Brahms 's 2nd Piano Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Erich Leinsdorf , creating a sensation.
In a review, Chicago Tribune music critic Claudia Cassidy , who was known for her unkind reviews of established artists, recalled Richter first walking on stage hesitantly, looking vulnerable as if about to be "devoured" , but then sitting at the piano and dispatching "the performance of a lifetime". Richter disliked performing in the United States.
In , Richter played for the first time in London. His first recital, pairing works of Haydn and Prokofiev , was received with hostility by British critics. Neville Cardus concluded that Richter's playing was "provincial", and wondered why Richter had been invited to play in London, given that London had plenty of "second class" pianists of its own.
Following a July 18, , concert, where Richter performed both of Liszt 's piano concertos, the critics reversed course. In , after searching in the Loire Valley, France, for a venue suitable for a music festival, Richter discovered La Grange de Meslay, several kilometres north of Tours.
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The festival was established by Richter and became an annual event. In , Richter visited Japan for the first time, travelling across Siberia by railway and ship as he disliked flying. He visited Japan eight times. While he very much enjoyed performing for an audience, Richter hated planning concerts years in advance, and in later life took to playing at very short notice in small, most often darkened halls, with only a small lamp lighting the score.
Swjatoslaw richter pianist biography
Richter said that this setting helped the audience focus on the music being performed, rather than on extraneous and irrelevant matters such as the performer's grimaces and gestures. He had been suffering from depression due to an inability to perform caused by changes in his hearing that altered his perception of pitch.
In , Richter initiated the international December Nights music festival, held at the Pushkin Museum , which after his death in was renamed December Nights of Sviatoslav Richter. In , Richter embarked on a six-month tour of Siberia with his beloved Yamaha piano, giving perhaps recitals, at times performing in small towns that did not even have a concert hall.
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 reader , Richter had his secretary send a telegram to the director of the theater in Aachen , Charlemagne'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 ".
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 Beethoven , a 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, Schumann , Beethoven, 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. 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.
Sviatoslav richter pianist
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 Fantasy , Liszt'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 critic 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".
He could memorize music at sight, and by the age of eight was playing opera scores. As a teenager he became a rehearsal pianist. In he enrolled at the Moscow Conservatory, where he studied with the legendary teacher Heinrich Neuhaus. After hearing Richter play, Neuhaus pronounced the young pianist a genius and declared there was nothing he could teach him.
In Richter made his Moscow debut, giving the first-ever performance of Prokofiev's Sixth Sonata. The composer was so impressed, he gave Richter the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth sonatas to premiere, and dedicated the Ninth to him. In the s and s Richter won almost every major award for artists in the Soviet Union , including the Stalin Prize in He toured extensively in the s, but was only permitted to travel in Iron Curtain countries.
His recordings, however, became highly prized in the West. In he was on the jury of the Tchaikovsky Competition, then considered the world's top piano competition. Richter was so enthusiastic about the young Van Cliburn 's performance that he awarded him points out of a possible 10, an over-the-top gesture that won him no friends.
Swjatoslaw richter pianist biography wikipedia
In Richter was finally allowed to travel to the West to perform. His New York debut — which consisted of a marathon series of seven recitals in ten days at Carnegie Hall — was the sensation of the music season. A busy schedule of concerts and recordings followed, until, only a few seasons later, the pianist decided he did not like the concert lifestyle, and drastically cut back his schedule.
This, of course, only increased intense public interest in his playing. He established an annual festival in Tours, France , in and spent thirty summers there. He toured and recorded erratically. He disliked telephones and airplanes and preferred to travel by car or rail.