Svyatoslav Teofilowitsch Richter

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Svyatoslav Richter in Kharkov , 1966
Svyatoslav Richter

Svyatoslav Teofilowitsch Richter ( Russian Святослав Теофилович Рихтер ., Scientific transliteration Sviatoslav Teofilović judge ; born March 7 . Jul / 20th March  1915 greg. In Zhitomir , Russian empire ; † 1. August 1997 in Moscow ) was a Soviet - Russian pianist of German-Russian Origin.

life and work

Even his father Theophil Richter was a talented pianist who came from a German merchant family in today's Ukrainian town of Zhitomir . His mother was a Russian merchant's daughter. The family moved to Odessa in 1916 , where the father took over the position of organist and choirmaster of the German Lutheran St. Pauls Church . From the age of three onwards, his parents ensured his son had a solid musical education.

Richter was already working as a répétiteur at the Odessa Opera House at the age of 15, and four years later he made his debut as a pianist. In 1937 he was accepted into Heinrich Neuhaus' piano master class at the Moscow Conservatory . Emil Gilels was one of his fellow students . The move to Moscow saved him from the repression to which the Lutherans of German origin in Odessa were exposed. His father was also arrested during the Stalin purges in 1937 and shot as an alleged German spy in 1941 shortly before the German occupation of Odessa . His mother then remarried and emigrated to Germany with her new husband, who was of German descent. In Moscow, Svyatoslav Richter met Sergei Prokofiev , whose 6th sonata he premiered in 1942. The first performances of the 7th and 9th sonata, which are dedicated to Richter, followed later. After he was already famous in his homeland, he was allowed to travel to the West for the first time in 1960. On October 19, 1960 he made his debut at Carnegie Hall in New York , which was followed by a major US tour. Appearances in Europe followed, and from 1971 also in Germany.

Richter initially played a lot by heart. After forgetting the musical text at a concert in Japan, Richter generally played from sheet music in his later years. He often did not have a sheet music turner , but turned several pages at once and played by heart in between.

His recordings in particular are legendary: recordings of Tchaikovsky's B flat minor piano concerto , the works of Schubert , Schumann and Liszt and the well -tempered piano by Johann Sebastian Bach . The interpretations of the Piano Concerto in C minor and many of Rachmaninov's preludes are also considered reference recordings. His early recordings are often extremely powerful and vehemently played. Like hardly any other pianist, he was able to give his interpretations of piano works from all epochs an individual note, but later on he was less the virtuoso who caused a sensation through technical brilliance - which was a matter of course for him - but showed the poetic, soft playing that he did often performed in poorly lit concert halls.

In addition to his solo activities, he also appeared as a chamber musician , for example with the violinist David Oistrach and the cellists Pierre Fournier and Mstislaw Rostropowitsch , but also in a piano duo with Benjamin Britten . Richter had also earned recognition as a conductor in previous years.

In 1986 Richter was awarded the Léonie Sonning Music Prize.

In 2015, concert recordings and recordings of Richter's 100th birthday were reissued by the music labels Decca , Sony and Warner Classic .

Movie

In 1998 Bruno Monsaingeon published his two-and-a-half-hour autobiographical documentary film "Richter - The Unyielding", shot with Richter's consent. In addition to a detailed interview with Richter and his long-time friend, the soprano Nina Dorliak , numerous concert excerpts can also be seen. Richter was dubbed by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau .

Honors

literature

  • Karl Aage Rasmussen: Svjatoslav Richter - pianist . Gyldendal , Copenhagen, 2007, ISBN 9788702034301 .
  • Karl Aage Rasmussen: Szvjatoszlav Richter - A zongorista . Rozsavolgyi es Tarsa, Budapest, 2010, ISBN 9789638776488 .
  • Karl Aage Rasmussen: Sviatoslav Richter - pianist . Northeastern University Press, Boston, 2010, ISBN 978-1-55553-710-4 .
  • Valentina Tschemberdschi: Svyatoslav Richter. A journey through Siberia . Residenz-Verlag, Salzburg and Vienna 1992, ISBN 3-7017-0744-8
  • Bruno Monsaingeon: Svyatoslav Richter. My life, my music . Staccato-Verlag, Düsseldorf 2005, ISBN 3-932976-27-4

Web links

Commons : Svyatoslaw Richter  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Biographical information on Teophil Richter from: St. Paul Odessa. Festschrift for the rededication of the church. Edited by Claus-Jürgen Roepke. Odessa / Munich 2010, pp. 80–81.
  2. ↑ Manuel Brug: This discreet Russian is the real piano genius. Die Welt , March 20, 2015, accessed October 28, 2015 .
  3. ^ Pianist portrait: Sviatoslav Richter - The Unyielding. In: YouTube . Naxos Deutschland GmbH, September 6, 2012, accessed on October 27, 2015 .
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h Svyatoslaw Richter on WarHeroes. Retrieved July 14, 2018 (Russian).
  5. ↑ See Richter on the Grammy Awards homepage
  6. ^ Winner of the Robert Schumann Prize
  7. ^ Document on bestowing the medal. Retrieved July 14, 2018 (Russian).
  8. ^ Honorary Doctors of Music University of Oxford
  9. ^ S. Richter in Gramophone Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on 20120407 ; Retrieved July 14, 2018 (Russian).
personal data
SURNAME Richter, Svyatoslav Teofilowitsch
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Soviet or Russian pianist
DATE OF BIRTH March 20, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Zhitomir , Russian Empire , today Zhytomyr, Ukraine
DATE OF DEATH August 1, 1997
Place of death Moscow