Sviatoslav Richter, widely regarded as one of the finest Russian pianists
of the twentieth century, was born in Zhitomir, in the Ukraine, on March
20, 1915. His father, Theophile, was an pianist and gave the young Sviatoslav
his early musical training. Richter’s mother, Anna, was a talented
artist who loved music and was related to the Swedish soprano Jenny
Lind. The young Richter was essentially self-taught and developed his
exceptional technique by playing whatever music he liked. By the age
of eight he was playing opera scores, including the music of Richard
Wagner. He had the ability to memorize any music at sight.
Richter grew up in Odessa, where his father taught at the Conservatory.
Also growing up in Odessa at the same time were Emil Gilels and David
Oistrakh, who would later become Richter’s chamber-music partner.
During these years he was a “repetiteur,” or rehearsal pianist,
in Odessa. His debut as a soloist came on February 19, 1934, at the
Odessa House of Engineers. The program included the Chopin Ballade no.
4, Polonaise-fantaisie, and E Major Scherzo, as well as a selection
of Nocturnes, Etudes, and Preludes, all difficult pieces. The recital
was a great success and Richter’s career as virtuoso was under
way.
In 1937 Richter left Odessa for Moscow to study with the great pianist
and pedagogue Heinrich Neuhaus. Richter did not take the entrance exam
at the Conservatory. He simply asked Neuhaus to teach him. Neuhaus listened
to his playing and said, "Here is the pupil for whom I have waited
all my life. In my opinion, he is a genius." Neuhaus declared that
he had nothing to teach Richter but accepted him as a pupil anyway.
On November 26, 1940, while still a student at Moscow Conservatory,
Richter made his Moscow debut. Here he gave the first public performance
of the Prokofiev Sonata No. 6 and made a highly favorable impression
on both the audience and the composer. When Prokofiev completed his
Seventh Sonata in 1942, he gave it to Richter for the premiere. Richter
learned the piece in only four days, and performed it the following
January. Richter also gave the first performances of Prokofiev’s
Eighth and Ninth Sonatas, the last of which was dedicated to Richter.
Richter’s first competition victory came in 1945, in the All-Union
Contest of Performers. The jury was headed by Dmitri Shostakovich and
included Gilels. Richter took first prize. Shostakovich later wrote:
"Richter is an extraordinary phenomenon. The enormity of his talent
staggers and enraptures. All the phenomena of musical art are accessible
to him." Richter went on the win the Stalin Prize in 1949, as well
as every kind of official and unofficial recognition from the Soviet
government.
In 1945 Richter was accompanist to the Russian soprano Nina Dorliak
in a program that included songs by Rimsky-Korsakov and Prokofiev. This
was the first meeting in an association that would last the rest of
their lives. Richter and Dorliak were never officially married, but
they were constant companions. She was the practical counterbalance
to his impulsive nature. She would wind his watch for him, remind him
of appointments, and manage his professional commitments.
Listeners in the West had their first opportunity to hear Richter through
recordings in the 1950s, and his reputation among the cognoscenti grew
quickly. When Gilels toured the U.S. in 1955 his response to critics
who praised his performances was: "Wait until you hear Richter!"
The great impresario Sol Hurok tried to arrange a tour, but it was a
few more years before the Soviet government would permit it. During
the 1950s Richter toured the Communist countries of Eastern Europe,
but it was not until May 1960 that he was allowed to travel to the West.
Five months later he made his U.S. debut in Chicago. He played the Brahms
Second Concerto, with Erich Leinsdorf conducting. A recording was made
the following day, which remains in the catalog. His New York debut
consisted of a series of seven recitals in ten days at Carnegie Hall
in October 1960. The leading piano teacher at the Juilliard School,
Rosina Lhevinne, praised it: "Richter is an inspired poet of music
… an exceptional phenomenon of the twentieth century."
Richter quickly was established in the first rank of performers and
was very much in demand for recitals and recordings. He toured the world
and performed with major orchestras, but soon decided that he did not
want to continue this life style. It was against his nature to make
so many commitments years in advance. He preferred to follow his impulse
and explore new repertoire.
In 1964 Richter and EMI recording producer Jacques Leiser established
an annual festival, the Fetes Musicales en Touraine at Meslay, near
Tours. Richter would spend every summer in the French countryside and
give many concerts with fellow musicians, including Benjamin Britten,
David Oistrakh, and Pierre Fournier. Richter loved France and spent
thirty summers there.
In addition to his career as pianist, Richter pursued painting. He produced
many splendid watercolors. He also made one appearance as conductor,
in 1952. This was the result of a minor injury to a finger. Richter
was afraid that he would never play piano again and studied conducting
for some weeks. The finger recovered quickly, and after one performance,
the Prokofiev Symphony-Concerto with Mstislav Rostropovich, Richter
returned to the keyboard.
He loved the operas of Wagner, Tchaikovsky, and Verdi, and often played
them on the piano for friends. He disliked the telephone because he
could not see the person he was talking to. He also disliked airplanes
and preferred to travel by rail or car. But he loved to travel, and
in 1986 he set out by car from Moscow to Vladivostok, on the Pacific,
and gave concerts in many small towns along the way. During his later
years he acquired a reputation for canceling engagements at the last
minute, and for playing on very short notice, almost on a whim. In fact,
Richter followed his muse and lived a precarious life style. When he
needed money he would give a concert.
For most of his life, Richter was an excellent sight-reader and could
immediately play pieces he had never seen or heard. After 1980, following
an embarrassing memory lapse, he almost always played from the score.
In his last years he would go so far as to have all the lights in the
recital hall turned off, except for a small lamp on the music stand,
so the audience would be completely in the dark. This served to concentrate
the listener’s mind on the music.
Richter’s last concert was in Lubeck, Germany, at the end of March
1995. He was eighty years old and in poor health. On the program were
three Haydn Sonatas and the Beethoven Variations of Max Reger.
Richter died in Moscow on August 1, 1997.
|
