Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Sviatoslav Richter playing Chopin, and interviewed - "Richter, the Enigm...



Sviatoslav Richter. The "Enigma"..

Born: 20.3.1915 - Zhitomir, Russia
Died: 1.8.1997   - Moscow, Russia

Sviatoslav Teofilovich Richter was a Soviet pianist of a German father.
He was widely recognized as one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century,
and as sometimes proposed as the greatest of all.
He was well known for his vast repertoire, effortless technique and poetic phrasing.
Probably the most celebrated pianist to emerge in the Soviet Union in the last 60 years.
With assistance from his father, who was an organist and composer, he taught himself
the piano and gave his first recital in 1934. He then entered the Moscow Conservatoire
to become a pupil of Heinrich Neuhaus.

During a long and distinguished career, Richter has been regarded as a legend in his time
thanks to his gramophone recordings.
Long before he appeared in the West he had built up a large following of devoted admirers.
His unique reputation is built on the supreme musicalitiy of his pianistic technique, which
has enabled him to offer his public a wide repertoire in magisterial performances.

Richter's personal preference was for the music of the 19th century romantics -
Chopin, Schubert, Schumann - but his name was also associated with Russian music.
Indeed, he had long been an exponent of music of Sergei Prokofiev, having given the
first performances of the Sixth, Seventh and Ninth Sonatas.
For long heaped with honours in his own country - he was awarded the Stalin Prize in 1949 -
Richter made his fist foreign tour (to Finland and the U.S.A.) only in 1960.

His visits have always been keenly awaited in the West, but have often been fraught with
cancellations, to the great disappointment of his fans.
In recent times Richter had preferred to perform in more intimate circumstances at such
occasions as the Aldeburgh Festival (he became a close friend of Benjamin Britten) and
the Spoleto Festival and he had been very involved in the "Fetes musicales" near Tours,
France, since 1964.
Richter had farreaching cultural interests: he was a linguist, a lover of Shakespeare, an
amateur painter and a collector of fine art; he was an artist " par excellence".

Der wohl ueberragendste Pianist, den die Sowjetunion jemals hervorbrachte, war der
1915 in Zhitomir (Ukraine) geborene Swjatoslaw Richter.
Mit Hilfe seines Vaters, ein Organist und Komponist, lernte er im Selbststudium Klavier.
Er gab 1934 sein erstes Konzert, worauf er ans Moskauer Konservatorium ging, um
Schueler von Heinrich Neuhaus zu werden.

Im Laufe seiner langen und hervorragenden Karriere ist Richter schon zu Lebzeiten eine
Legende geworden, nicht zuletzt durch seine Schallplattenaufnahmen.
Lange bevor er erstmals im Westen erschien, hatte er dort eine grosse Gefolgschaft eifriger
Verehrer. Sein einzigartiger Ruf baut sich auf der unuebertroffenen Musikalitaet seiner pianistischen
Technik, die es ihm ermoeglicht, seinem Publikum in mitreissenden Interpretationen ein breites
Repertoire anzubieten.

Persoenlich bevorzugt Richter die Musik der Romantiker des 19. Jahrhunderts
- Chopin, Schubert, Schumann - aber sein Name wird auch mit der russischen Musik verknuepft:
er tritt beispielsweise seit langem fuer die Musik von Sergej Prokofiew ein, dessen sechste,
siebente und neunte Sonaten er zur Urauffuehrung brachte.

In seiner Heimal war er schon lange mit Auszeichnungen ueberhaeuft worden
- er bekam bereits 1949 den Stalinpreis - bevor er 1960 seine erste Auslandstournee
(nach Finland und den USA) unternahm.
Seine Besuche wurden im Westen stets mit Begeisterung erwartet, aber seine Anhaenger wurden
haeufig durch Absagen schwer enttaeuscht.

In juengerer Zeit hat Richter es vorgezogen, in intimerer Umgebung aufzutreten.
Als Beispiele koennen das Festival in Aldeburgh (wo er mit Benjamin Britten gut befreundet wurde)
und das Festival in Spoleto erwaehnt werden; seit 1964 hat er sich um die "Fetes musicales" bei Tours
in Frankreich besonders bemueht.

Richter interessierte sich fuer viele Gebiete: als Linguist, Liebhaber von Shakespeare, Amateurmaler
und Kunstsammler war er ein Kuenstler "par excellence".

13 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for this clip, Monika! Beautiful playing by the maestro, and a fascinating glimpse of the man...

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  2. Perfect!

    Bravo! Bravo!

    Postman
    http://postcardsinthewind.blogspot.com/

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  3. Hi monika, yes this is so beautifull, thank for posting!

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  4. Monika - This was a wonderful post.
    Thank you for sharing.

    ~robert

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  5. A visit to a crystal palace!!!!


    Aloha from Honolulu

    Comfort Spiral

    ><}}(°>

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  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  7. Liebe Monika,

    auch ich habe mich hineingefühlt;-)

    herzlichst deine Rachelako

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  8. Once more you proved your artistic diposiotion and your love for classical music. Your German heredity speaks...

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  9. Dear friends,
    thank you all for your wonderful comments!
    In all this time I have been visiting your
    blogs as well.
    I love very much to share with you not only
    photographs but also musical (mostly classical) pieces.

    ReplyDelete