German by father, who endlessly loved Russia. A "homeless child" who has chosen the whole world as his home. An obstinate proud man who could not be broken by either war, or the threat of arrest, or the roar of enemy guns almost outside the windows of the concert hall.

Pianist Svyatoslav Richter became one of the most famous Russian musicians, having almost entirely lived with his country in the turbulent 20th century.

The son of a musician, composer of the Zhytomyr Conservatory, Svyatoslav was born in 1915. That same year, when Russia's victory in the First World War still seemed possible, the soldiers of the empire marched without fear to the German trenches with a bayonet, laying down under machine-gun fire, and on the horizon of the composer, the terrible events of the revolution collaborated.

The father of the future pianist was a talented musician of German origin, his mother was a Russian noblewoman. Not the best combination for a country in which, during the first three years of Svyatoslav's life, the Germans were first hated, and then the nobles began to be destroyed.

In the early years of his life, Richter was not favored with special attention: his parents had to work hard, and even find a way to survive the attacks of the agents of the young Soviet Cheka, who could not help but pay attention to the noblewoman and the German in the former stronghold of the counter-revolution - Odessa.

Miraculously or with great difficulty, the Richter family still managed to survive the revolution and the Civil War, to be able to survive when explosions rumbled around and rifles of firing squads rattled around.

But little Svyatoslav, perhaps, managed to survive the terrible times quite easily: there was already music in his life then.

obstinate student

Speaking of Richter, many researchers claim that he was self-taught. Allegedly, the brilliant pianist Svyatoslav Richter did not learn anything, but comprehended the great secret of music at the snap of his fingers. This is not entirely true.

Svyatoslav's first teacher was his own mother, a talented student of Richter's father, who was a composer, pianist and also played the organ.

For a short time, even his father Theophilus tried to teach his child music. But they didn't get along. The student was caught obstinate: he completely refused to play scales, exercises, etudes.

The child declared that scales and exercises had nothing to do with music. For which he was repeatedly flogged by his beloved papa, who knew how to teach music only in this way, worked at the conservatory, where he had already learned more than one musician, and besides, he was distinguished by German formalism.

Misunderstood by his father, but encouraged by his mother, Svyatoslav spat on the scales and began to play everything that came across in the house. Any sheet of music left unattended became the fair prey of the young virtuoso.

Impressing his father and surprising his mother, the young Richter, who never received a full education, managed to become a quite capable accompanist in the Odessa House of Sailors by the age of fifteen, which is not difficult to expect from a child who managed to play Chopin's nocturne at the age of ten.

Again and again refuting his father's beliefs, Richter becomes an assistant conductor, begins to give recitals, showing excellent pianist skills, is interested in theater and opera, and writes plays of his own composition.

In 1937 Richter entered the Moscow Conservatory. A brilliant and caustic teacher, also a German, by the name of Neuhaus, who was widely known in musical circles, taught at the conservatory. Thus began the true story of the pianist Svyatoslav Richter.

Here is what the teacher of a brilliant man himself said about this:

“And so he came. A tall, thin young man, fair-haired, blue-eyed, with a lively, surprisingly attractive face. He sat down at the piano, put his big, soft, nervous hands on the keys, and began to play. He played very reservedly, I would say, even emphatically simply and strictly. His performance immediately captured me with some amazing penetration into the music. I whispered to my student, "I think he's a brilliant musician."

And again, Richter showed himself to be an obstinate student, in 1937, in Moscow. Being descended from a German father and a noble mother, Svyatoslav refused to go to classes in political subjects, mandatory for students of the conservatory.

The twenty-two-year-old student declared that they had nothing to do with music; moreover, he called Marx "some kind of utopian socialist."

But at the insistence of Neuhaus, who had been waiting for such a student all his life, Richter was reinstated at school. Svyatoslav Richter was not an oppositionist or a dissenter, he was simply never afraid of anything, did not allow anyone to tell him and never did what he did not want to.

Richter and war

In war, there are things no less important than a grenade thrown under the belly of an enemy tank, or an accurate bayonet strike that allows the enemy to die for his homeland. There is such a thing - fighting spirit, a state without which a soldier will not be able to fight, let alone win.

Beginning in the winter of 1941, pianist Svyatoslav Richter began to travel around the USSR, engulfed in war. With propaganda teams, he travels to the front, with concerts he appears in cities destroyed by bombs.

Wherever people hear music born from the fingers of a man of genius, they again find the strength to take up arms and fight for their freedom.

In Moscow, Novgorod, Bryansk, Tula - everywhere, Richter's music helps tired fighters regain faith in victory. In 1944, Svyatoslav's music was heard in Leningrad, devastated by the blockade.

There, in the concert hall, the windows are shattered, the walls are damaged from bomb explosions, it's cold, people are sitting in fur coats, and Richter is on stage only in a concert coat, he is not cold: he plays music - great classics for himself and for these people who survived hell, smiles on their faces again. He first brought to Leningrad the works of the "disgraced" Prokofiev.

In the war, Richter also meets his love - the singer Nina Dorliak, a woman with whom he will never part and who will outlive him by one year.

Unbreakable Music

According to Neuhaus, there was nothing to teach Richter, it was only necessary to develop his talent, because Svyatoslav was always with the piano for you. Knowing how to choose the right music for every occasion, Richter had an amazing sense of time, a unique style.

He combined the strength, soul, emotions invested in his works with such a level of technical performance that was unattainable for any other musician. Svyatoslav knew how to play each work in such a way that it would be remembered, that it would sink into the soul, become for a person a bright moment of musical revelation.

Unlike the Canadian virtuoso pianist who considered going on stage a duel, a struggle between the will of the musician and the audience, pianist and orchestra, Richter saw his flock in the public.

The brilliant pianist in his performance seemed to take the audience by the hand and lead along the waves of music to where its amazing sound is born. Not without reason, starting from the eighties, Richter ordered the hall to be plunged into complete darkness, leaving only the notes and the piano lit.

He believed that music should be seen and felt, and not looked at the pianist. Also, unlike Gould, Richter hated studio recordings.

Any of his concerts was unique: for each audience, whether it was a huge concert hall or a small “closet” of the stage in a village club, he chose exactly the music and the performance that allowed him to touch the audience for a living, to feel the classics just for himself.

A Grammy winner, a pioneer of music festivals in France and Japan, a man capable of playing an out-of-tune old grand piano somewhere in a restaurant at the station, if only he had an appreciative listener, Richter hated one thing - to be idolized. He did not play for fame, not for money, he played music for people.

Svyatoslav Richter was not only an outstanding pianist of the last century, but also a cultural figure, took an active part in public life, founded the December Evenings festival.

Great, brilliant, outstanding - this is how pianist Svyatoslav Richter is described by everyone who has ever heard his virtuoso performance of classical works. His repertoire includes works by Bach, Schubert, Chopin, Liszt, Prokofiev, Haydn.

He had his own, individual approach to music, he felt the time and style, and the performance technique was brought to absolute perfection.

Childhood

Svyatoslav Richter was born in Zhytomyr in Ukraine, although at that time it was the Russian Empire, on March 20, 1915. The boy's father is a talented German pianist, organist, composer Theophil Danilovich Richter (1872-1941), taught music at the Odessa Conservatory and played the organ in the local church. Svyatoslav's mother's name was Anna Pavlovna Moskaleva (1892-1963), a hereditary Russian noblewoman, von Reinke's mother. Throughout the Civil War, little Svyatoslav lived with his aunt Tamara, from whom his nephew inherited a love of painting, which later became one of the serious hobbies after music.

In 1922, the boy and his family moved to Odessa, learning to play the piano. His father, a famous pianist, who received his musical education in Vienna, helps him at this time. Little Svyatoslav was very attracted to the opera house, he even begins to write theatrical plays and dreams of becoming a conductor. From 1930 to 1932, Svyatoslav gave two years to the Odessa Seaman's House, where he was accepted as a pianist-accompanist, after which he transferred to the local philharmonic society. In 1934, Richter gave his first recital, playing mainly Chopin's music. Soon after, he was accepted into the Odessa Opera House as an accompanist.

Conservatory

Richter's dream of conducting never came true. In 1937, the young man became a piano student at the Moscow Conservatory, having got to the famous Heinrich Neuhaus, but in the same autumn he was expelled. The reason - Svyatoslav flatly refused to engage in general education subjects.

The young man returns home - to Odessa. But Neuhaus managed to insist on his own and Richter agreed to return to Moscow, to the conservatory. The pianist's debut in Moscow was a performance in November 1940, held in the Small Hall of his native conservatory. The young pianist's repertoire included Prokofiev's Sixth Sonata, which had previously only been performed by its author. Just a month later, Svyatoslav gives his first concert accompanied by an orchestra. He graduated from the Richter Conservatory in 1947 with a gold medal.

War

During the war years, the pianist gave concerts not only in Moscow, but also in other cities of the Soviet Union. He also visited besieged Leningrad. He tried to please his compatriots, exhausted by the war, with beautiful music and perfect performance. In his repertoire, new compositions are increasingly heard, he indescribably played the Seventh Piano Sonata by S. Prokofiev.

Parents

In the biography of Svyatoslav Richter there was one tragedy that he carefully concealed from others - the betrayal of his own mother. Before the war, the family lived in Odessa, my father served in the opera theater, my mother was engaged in sewing. Just before the occupation of Odessa, their family was offered to evacuate, but the mother refused. The boy's father is arrested by the security officers, referring to the law of war, and shot, only because he was a German by nationality, which means a traitor waiting for the arrival of the Nazis. Mother at this time, unexpectedly for everyone, marries Sergei Kondratiev, a descendant of an official of Tsarist Russia, who fiercely hated the Soviet regime and even allows him to take the surname Richter.

Without waiting for Odessa to be occupied by Soviet troops, Anna and her newly-made husband flee abroad and settle in Germany. Svyatoslav at that time lives and studies in Moscow and knows nothing, all the war waiting for a meeting with his beloved mother, who was both an adviser and a friend for him. Upon learning of what had happened, the young man became isolated - it was a real disaster, the collapse of everything that used to be a shrine. He experienced this pain all his life, he even decided that he would never have a family - only creativity.

He had not seen his mother for twenty years. Their meeting took place when Furtseva and Orlova obtained permission for Svyatoslav to travel abroad. But alas, the closeness that was before, no longer happened. But nevertheless, when Richter found out about his mother's serious illness, he spent on her the entire fee that he earned on tour. Kondratiev informed Svyatoslav about her death just before the performance in Vienna - and the great pianist could not cope with the excitement and failed the concert. It was his only failure in his entire life.

Creation

Richter's name sounded after the war, the Third All-Union Competition brought him special fame, but in which he became the winner, sharing the first prize with V. Merzhanov. He was recognized as the best Soviet pianist. Then there were tours at home and in the socialist countries, but he was not released to the West. The reason for this was the pianist's friendship with those who fell into disgrace and Sergei Prokofiev. Prokofiev's music was tacitly banned, but this did not stop Richter from performing his works. In 1952, Richter's dream came true - he conducted for the first time at the premiere of the Symphony Orchestra. The solo part was played by M. Rostropovich. Prokofiev even dedicated his Ninth Sonata to Richter, and the pianist performed it brilliantly. Richter was the first performer in the Soviet Union to be awarded the prestigious Grammy Award. His concert life was very intense - up to 70 concerts a year.

The work of Svyatoslav Richter is kept by numerous recordings, both studio and concert, which were recorded in the period from 1946 to 1994.

Social activity

Svyatoslav Richter is the founder of the December Evenings, which were held at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. These were thematic festivals of music and painting, where popular classical music was played and a demonstration of paintings corresponding to the theme took place. These evenings brought together the best musicians, artists, directors and actors. The festival was first held in 1981.

Richter also took the initiative to organize the Musical Festivities festival in Touraine in 1964 and the Tarusa Music Festival in 1993.

In the early 90s, Richter was working on creating a school for young artists and musicians, where they could not only study, but also relax. The pianist considered the city of Tarusa, where his dacha was located, to be the ideal place for such a school. But in order to fulfill his dream, he needed money. This is how the idea of ​​holding annual festivals, in which artists and musicians will participate, arose. To be able to hold them, the pianist organizes the Svyatoslav Richter Foundation, in which he becomes president. The pianist also donated his dacha to the foundation.

Painting

Another great love of Richter was painting. He had a whole collection of paintings and drawings that were presented to him by famous artists - K. Magalashvili, A. Troyanovskaya, V. Shukhaeva, D. Krasnopevtseva.

He even had a picture of the great Picasso - "Dove", on which the artist left a dedicatory inscription. Richter's mentor in the art of painting was A. Troyanovskaya, he took lessons from her. She believed that Richter had some special sense of light, he somehow perceives space in his own way, has a vivid imagination and a phenomenal memory.

Personal life

Svyatoslav met his future wife in 1943. There were many rumors and gossip about the pianist's personal life, to the point that he was a homosexual, despite having a wife. The musician never told the details of family relationships - it was too personal. His wife's name was Nina Dorliak (1908-1998).

She was the daughter of the popular singer K Dorliak. During their acquaintance, Nina was a singer (soprano), and after that she became a teacher at the Moscow Conservatory. Nina Lvovna outlived her husband by almost a year. They lived a long life - 50 years, but never gave birth to children. Richter believed that he did not need all these quiet family joys, he was happy only in art. They had a very unusual marriage - this is an appeal to you, living in different rooms ... According to the will of N. Dorliak, their apartment became the property of the Pushkin Museum.

Museum

Since 1999, the apartment, previously owned by Richter, has become a museum. Here everything remains as it was during the life of the great pianist. All things are in their places, the piano with notes is in the same room in which Svyatoslav Teofilovich rehearsed. Now this room is used for watching films and listening to classical music. The cabinets still contain notes, cassettes, records, which were given as a gift to the great maestro from friends and numerous admirers.

The original of Prokofiev's manuscript with the Ninth Sonata dedicated to Richter is also safely stored here. The musician's office amazes with an abundance of books; he was fond of Russian classics. Painting, another serious hobby of the pianist, occupies a separate place in the museum. Here are his handwritten works and paintings by his artist friends, eminent and not so famous. The museum is open to everyone who wants to listen to good music or take part in one of the musical evenings.

Recognition for the merits of the greatest of musicians

Creativity Richter was rewarded with numerous titles and awards. He is a People's Artist of the USSR and the RSFSR, received the Lenin and Stalin Prizes. He was awarded the title of honorary doctor at once by two universities - Strasbourg and Oxford.

He was awarded the orders of the "October Revolution" and "For Services to the Fatherland". He is a laureate of numerous domestic and foreign awards, is a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Literature received in France, a Hero of Socialist Labor and a member of the Moscow Academy of Creativity.

In memory of a pianist

In 2011, a memorial plaque was installed in Zhytomyr, the birthplace of the great musician. The name of Svyatoslav Richter was given to the International Piano Competition. In the city of Yagotin in Ukraine and in the city of Bydgoszcz in Poland there are monuments to the unsurpassed maestro. One of the streets of Moscow also bears the name of Svyatoslav Richter.

Richter last performed in public in Germany in 1995. The musician died in Moscow on August 1, 1997. Place of burial - Novodevichy cemetery.

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Original post Art_Kaleidoscope
Thank you! Very interesting!

“I can’t have a family, only art,” he said. He went into art as into a monastery.

“Svetik had a feeling that nothing would happen to him. As if he was on friendly terms with all the elements of nature. And even the terrible episodes of his life, which crushed faith in the most beloved person - in his mother, and the death of his father could not extinguish his inner light. Unfortunately, I know exactly how it was. In 1937, Slava came from Odessa to Moscow to enter the conservatory with Heinrich Neuhaus. Although Svetik did not study anywhere (only at home his father studied with him), Neuhaus said: "This is the student I have been waiting for all my life." Then Heinrich Gustavovich wrote in one of his letters: “Richter is a man of genius. Kind, selfless, gentle, and capable of feeling pain and compassion.”

And Slava began to study at the conservatory. At first he lived with friends, and then he was registered with Neuhaus, and he moved there

ODESSA - THE CITY WHERE THE WAR CAUGHT RICHTER'S PARENTS

His parents remained in Odessa. The father was 20 years older than the mother. Slava said that he was a wonderful musician, played the organ and even composed something himself. He taught at the conservatory and played in the church.

His mother was Russian - Anna Pavlovna Moskaleva. A very beautiful woman of the Karenin type - plump, with graceful movements. She was completely red.

When they asked her what she dyes her hair with, Anna Pavlovna called Slava, and he ran out "as red as an orange."

If the father was from him, perhaps somewhat far away, then the mother was for Glory to everyone. She cooked very well and sewed wonderfully. The family basically lived on the money that Anna Pavlovna earned with her skill. In the morning she sewed, in the afternoon she cleaned and cooked, and in the evening she took off her bathrobe, put on a dress, combed her hair and received guests.

Among the friends of the house was a certain Sergei Dmitrievich Kondratiev.

It was a man who looked very much like Lenin. A disabled person who could only move around the apartment. Anna Pavlovna brought him meals.

Kondratiev was a theoretical musician and studied with Richter. Slava said that he could not stand this man, who gave him a lot in terms of music theory. Glory was irritated by his sweetness.

Kondratiev, for example, wrote to Sveta in Moscow: “Dear Slavonka! Now we have a winter-winter, frosty taps with his ice stick. How good the Russian winter is, can you compare it with overseas.

On June 23, 1941, Slava was supposed to fly to Odessa. Due to the outbreak of the war, all flights were cancelled.

But Svetik managed to receive several letters from his mother. Anna Pavlovna wrote that everything was fine with her father, but she went to Sergei Dmitrievich and was thinking of taking him to them, since moving around Odessa was becoming more and more difficult every day.

Svetik admired his mother: “She walks 20 kilometers to take care of the sick.”

Then the Germans captured Odessa, and the correspondence ceased.

All this time, Svetik was talking about his mother, dreaming about how she would come to visit him. When we cooked potato peels - there was no other food, he said: “It turns out delicious. But mom will come and teach you how to cook even tastier.”

Svetik lived with the hope of meeting his parents. Mom was everything to him. “I’ll just say, and my mother is already laughing. I just think, and my mother is already smiling, ”he said. Anna Pavlovna was his friend, and adviser, and the basis of morality.

Before the war, she came to Moscow and charmed us all - both young and adults. We all started writing letters to her. One of Slava's acquaintances wrote to Anna Pavlovna that Richter had not returned the book to her. And she added that, probably, "all talents are like that." Anna Pavlovna immediately sent a letter to her son: “How embarrassing you will be if you are valued only as a talent. Man and talent are two different things. And a rascal can be talented.” This is how their relationship was.

In the photo: SVYATOSLAV RICHTER WHEN VISITING THE MOTHER

ANNA PAVLOVNA LEFT WITH THE GERMANS

When Odessa was liberated, Svetik's acquaintance, an engineer by profession, went there to assess the state of the city. Through him, Svetik gave his mother a letter, we also wrote to her.

It was in April. Svyatoslav went on tour, and we were waiting for the return of this familiar engineer. The time has already passed when he was supposed to return, but our man never appeared.

Then I myself went to him out of town. I found his house, I see - he is doing something in the garden. And I had such a premonition that it would be better for me not to approach him. But I pushed those thoughts away.

Bad news, the man met me. - Father Svetik was shot. And Anna Pavlovna, having married Kondratiev, left with the Germans.

It turned out that this Kondratiev was a big man before the revolution and his real name was almost Benkendorf. In 1918, with the help of the conductor of the Bolshoi Theater Golovanov and his wife, the singer Nezhdanova, he managed to change his passport and become Kondratiev.

For more than twenty years he pretended to be disabled. And the mother, whom Svetik admired so much, had an affair with him. And in the end even moved him to her.

It turned out that Anna Pavlovna went not to a sick friend, but to her lover. She betrayed her husband and son. She gave her husband to die. Svetik said: “This has not been proven, but they say that Kondratiev himself denounced his father.” A week before the surrender of Odessa, Richter's parents were offered to evacuate. But since Kondratiev was not taken with them, Anna Pavlovna refused to leave. Thus signing her husband's death warrant.

“Dad and mom were offered to evacuate,” Svetik later said. – But they didn’t take Kondratiev. And my mother refused. I think dad understood everything.

When the Germans entered the city, Kondratiev made public who he really was. Moreover, he married Anna Pavlovna and took her last name. When many years later Svetik came to his mother in Germany and saw the inscription “S. Richter," he became ill. “I couldn’t understand what I was doing here,” he told me. - And only then I realized that "S." - This is Sergey.

Svetik was often told abroad: "We saw your father." He replied: "My father was shot." Like this…

On the way from Tbilisi, where he toured, Svetik stopped in Kyiv with his friend, the wife of the famous eye doctor Filatov, and she told him everything about the fate of his parents. She was his father's closest friend. Speranskaya is her surname. “I could not imagine that a person could change so much before my eyes,” she later recalled. - He began to melt, lost weight, collapsed on the sofa and sobbed. I stayed with him all night."

When my sister and I met Slava at the station, he had an absolutely sick face. He got out of the car, as if he had fallen out, and said: “Vipa, I know everything.” Until 1960, we did not touch this topic.

In the photo: THEOPHIL DANILOVICH RICHTER AND ANNA PAVLOVNA RICHTER WITH LITTLE SVYATOSLAV

IT'S ALL ABOUT HYPNOSIS

As a result of long conversations, Svetik and I decided that the whole thing was hypnosis. After all, Anna Pavlovna had a complete change in personality. The fact that hypnosis could have affected her is said by one episode. She herself told me how, as a young girl from Zhytomyr, where she then lived, she went to visit her friend in a neighboring town. On the way back in the compartment opposite her sat a young man, intelligent, with an interesting face, usually dressed, middle-aged. And he looked at her intently.

“And suddenly I realized,” Anna Pavlovna said, “that he was giving me some instructions. The train slowed down, we drove up to the station in front of Zhytomyr. The man got up and I got up and followed him. I felt like I just couldn't stop walking. We went out to the vestibule. And at this time, my friend appeared from the next compartment and turned to me: “Anna, you are crazy! Zhytomyr is the next station!” I turned in her direction, and this man vanished into thin air, and I never saw him again. In the meantime, the train has moved on. Then, when, after all that had happened, my sister and I were in Odessa, we met with Anna Pavlovna's friend.

“She waited for Svetik throughout the war,” this woman told us. - But when the Germans left, she came to me with a small suitcase, completely pale, looked into the distance and said: "I'm leaving." A friend tried to reason with her, but Anna Pavlovna stood her ground: "I'm leaving."

MEETING WITH THE MOTHER

In October 1962, the magazine Musical Life published a translation of an article by Paul Moore from the American High Fidelity. In it, an American talks about how he witnessed Richter's meeting with his mother.

It so happened that it was Moore, who in 1958 was the first to write in the Western press about Richter, who did everything to make this meeting take place. Upon learning that a certain Frau Richter, who calls herself the pianist's mother, lives in the small German town of Schwäbisch Gmund, he immediately got into the car and went to her. Before that, in all conversations, Richter himself answered questions about his parents that "they died." That is why the foreign journalist and musicologist wanted to find out for himself who Frau Richter was.

Having found a small two-story house, one of the apartments in which the same lady and her husband occupied, Moore prepared to explain who he was and why he had come. But as soon as he appeared on the threshold, the mistress of the house herself recognized him.

“My bewilderment was cleared,” Paul Moore recalled, “when she informed me that a relative living in America had sent her the October 1958 issue of High Fidelity, which contained my article on Richter. Frau said: “Since we saw her, we have been praying all the time to meet you. We had not had any contact with Slava since 1941, so even the opportunity to see someone who saw him himself was a real sensation for us.

Anna Pavlovna also told the American about the circumstances of her departure from the Soviet Union: “Father Slava was arrested along with about six thousand other Odessans who bore German surnames. Such was the order received from Beria. My husband did nothing wrong, nothing. He was just a musician, and so was I; most of our ancestors and relatives were either musicians or artists, and we never got involved in politics. The only thing he could be accused of was that back in 1927 he gave music lessons at the German consulate in Odessa. But under Stalin and Beria, this was quite enough to arrest him and put him in prison. Then they killed him.

When the Axis troops reached Odessa, the city was occupied, mainly by the Romanians; then they began to retreat, my second husband and I left with them.

It was impossible to take a lot with me, but I took everything I could, connected with the memories of Glory. After leaving Odessa, we lived in Romania, in Hungary, then in Poland, then in Germany.”

That meeting between Moore and Anna Pavlovna did not last long.

“Frau Richter basically tried to get out of me any, the most insignificant news about Glory, or, as she sometimes called him, Svetik, which means “little light” in translation. At the same time, Anna Pavlovna sent a short note to her son through a journalist, which began with the words “Mein uber alles Geliebter!” (“My most beloved!”) and ended with “Deine Dich liebende Anna” (“Anna who loves you”). Through a mutual friend, Paul Moore managed to send a note to Richter in Moscow.

And the pianist's first meeting with his mother took place in the autumn of 1960 in New York, where the impresario Solomon Yurok arranged a Richter concert.

Anna Pavlovna later recalled that it took her so long to prove to Yurok that she was Richter's mother, that she felt like she was being interrogated by the police. At the same time, Richter was asked if he was going to seek the rehabilitation of his father. To which Richter replied: “How can an innocent person be rehabilitated?”

After that first meeting, Anna Pavlovna, on behalf of the Soviet Minister of Culture Furtseva, was invited to Moscow - for a visit or for good. But the woman refused. And, in turn, invited her son to visit. This visit became possible two years later.

Paul Moore left a detailed account of that meeting, which he also attended. “A modest two-room apartment, in fact, turned out to be a museum of Svyatoslav Richter. All the walls were covered with his photographs from childhood to adulthood. On one of them, he was depicted in disguise as Franz Liszt, whose role he once played in a Soviet film about Mikhail Glinka. There were also colored watercolors of Richter's houses in Zhytomyr and Odessa, as well as the corner in the Odessa house where his bed stood.

One of the pictures of the young Slava at the age of sixteen proves that in his youth, before his blond hair began to gradually disappear, he was truly strikingly handsome.

The hostess of the house said that Russian, Polish, German, Swedish and Hungarian blood was mixed in her son ...

Frau Richter took her son around the apartment and showed him the paintings she had saved from their old nest in Odessa. Richter looked at a pencil drawing of his old house in Zhytomyr and another in Odessa with an absent-minded gaze.

Along with Richter in Germany was his wife, Nina Lvovna Dorliak. Their train arrived from Paris. Paul Moore met Richter and Dorliac at the train station. “The couple arrived on time, carrying a lot of luggage with them, including a cardboard box, in which, as Nina Dorliak explained with a grin, an excellent top hat rested, without which, as Slava decided, he simply could not appear in London (the next point of the tour after Germany Richter. - I.O.). With the same friendly sneer, Richter showed a long round package wrapped in brown paper: according to him, it was a floor lamp that Nina intended to drag with her from London to Moscow via Paris, Stuttgart, Vienna and Bucharest.

They stayed in Germany for a total of several days.

The same Paul Moore recalled how "Frau Richter's husband" behaved during the way back to the station, from where Richter and Dorliak were supposed to go to London. “He laughed nervously and chatted non-stop the whole way. Suddenly, he unexpectedly asked: “Svetik, does your passport still say that you are German?” Richter, a little warily, as if not knowing what he was getting at, answered: "Yes."

“Oh-oh-oh, that's good! The contented old man laughed. “But the next time you come to Germany, you must definitely have a German name, like Helmut, or something like that.” Richter smiled condescendingly, but, secretly exchanging glances with his wife, he resolutely said: "The name Svyatoslav suits me perfectly."

At the station, while waiting for the train, everyone decided to have tea and cakes. Sat at the table and ordered. But Richter at the last moment changed his mind about drinking tea and went to wander around the city. He appeared on the platform at the same time as the train.

Then “Frau Richter tried to impress on her son how important it was for her to receive news from him. But I doubted the effectiveness of her requests: Nina once told me with a laugh that for all these years that they knew each other, Slava sent her many telegrams, but never wrote a single letter, not even a postcard.

What was the very last conversation between mother and son, Paul Moore does not know, as he deliberately left them alone. He approached Frau Richter only when the train started moving. “Frau Richter, smiling sadly, whispered, as if to herself: “Well, my dream is over.”

“MOM DEAD LONG FOR ME”

“When Svetik returned and I asked him how the meeting went,” says Vera Ivanovna, “he replied: “Mom is not there, instead of her there is a mask.”

I tried to ask him about the details, because so many years had passed. “Kondratiev never left us for a minute,” Slava said. - And instead of mom - a mask. We were not alone for a single moment. But I didn't want to. We kissed and that's it."

Nina Dorliak tried to distract Anna Pavlovna's husband by coming up with all sorts of tricks, for example, asking to see the house. But he didn't give in. After that, Svetik traveled to Germany several more times. The newspapers wrote: “Richter is going to his mother”, everything looked very nice. But they only talked about art.

When Anna Pavlovna became seriously ill, Richter spent all the money he earned on tour on her treatment. His refusal to hand over the fee to the state then caused a big scandal. He learned about the death of his mother from Kondratiev a few minutes before the start of his concert in Vienna. This was his only unsuccessful performance. “The end of the legend,” the newspapers wrote the next day. He also went to funerals.

He sent me a postcard: “Vipa, you know our news. But you also know that for me, my mother died a long time ago. Maybe I'm insensitive. I'll come and talk..."

Brilliant pianist and great Odessa citizen.

March 20, 2006 marks the 91st birthday Svyatoslav Richter. In his hometown, the great musician was honored with the laying of flowers and warm memories.

On March 20, the world musical community celebrates the birthday of the great pianist Svyatoslav Richter. By laying flowers at the memorial plaque and warm memories, the memory of the great musician was also honored in his native city - Odessa.

Svyatoslav Richter is a man with a difficult fate and a world-famous pianist who proved that genius is a huge talent multiplied by titanic work. His performances have always been a success: the audience was attracted by the powerful performing style and the breadth of the repertoire.

The genius in Richter was recognized not only by critics, but also by colleagues. The great Odessa citizen - one of the galaxy of musical stars of our city - maintained a close friendship with David Oistrakh; they often performed together.


Yuri Dikiy, head of the D. Oistrakh and S. Richter mission, says:
"In the twentieth century, there are three names - like Richter, Gilels, Oistrakh, this is a triad of the greatest names! And if we talk about the historical, human, professional relationship of two great musicians - Richter and Osijtrach, then they even had a relationship of family traditions. " .

Soon a monument to Svyatoslav Richter should appear in Odessa.
And in 2007, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the pianist's death, Odessa musicians are planning to organize the Third International Richter Fest. The event promises to be large-scale, Yuri Dikiy says, but the details are kept secret.

Anastasia Mezhevchuk, Vesti-Odessa.

Svyatoslav Richter - 100 years

The virtuoso pianist was born in Zhytomyr, spent his youth in Odessa, painted pictures and was expelled from the conservatory twice for poor progress.

In the summer of 1937, the pianist and teacher of the Moscow Conservatory Heinrich Neuhaus was in a hurry to audition a 23-year-old youth from Odessa. Svyatoslav Richter - that was the name of a young man who came to enter the class of the legendary teacher. Genrikh Gustavovich has already been informed that Svyatoslav did not study at a music school and does not have an appropriate musical education at all. It became very interesting for Neuhaus to look at the brave man.

« And here he came, a thin young man with a lively, attractive face,- Heinrich Neuhaus recalls. - He sat down at the piano and played Beethoven, Chopin and several of his compositions. I whispered to the students: in my opinion, he is a brilliant musician". Neuhaus was right. Richter became the greatest pianist of the 20th century - a virtuoso who covered a huge part of the world's piano repertoire. Today, March 20, the world celebrates the centenary of his birth.

“My three teachers are Neuhaus, my dad and Wagner” (at the piano Svyatoslav Richter, far right - Heinrich Neuhaus)

Eccentricities

Geniuses are often eccentric, eccentric, sometimes insane, or at least strange. Svyatoslav Richter always remained a highly intelligent, modest, principled person in relations with people and deeply devoted to art - but he also had his own musical oddities.

Any pianist understands how much scales, etudes and exercises are necessary in becoming a professional musician. Most likely, Richter also understood this - but did not accept it. All this formal side of pianism was alien to him. By the way, Svyatoslav's father Theophilus, a pianist, organist and composer, could not come to terms with this. His son preferred to play exercises and scales immediately by great composers - Frederic Chopin and Richard Wagner. One can only marvel at the virtuosity of Svyatoslav Richter. Probably, not the last role here was played by a natural gift inherited from his father. And Svyatoslav's grandfather Daniil Richter was also related to music - he was a piano master, repaired and tuned instruments. Such a "genetic-musical" soil was ideal for the emergence of a brilliant pianist.

Since childhood, Svyatoslav Richter was not particularly interested in any knowledge that did not concern music and art. Even at school, the class teacher Svyatoslav scolded her students: “ You are all slackers! But especially Richter, he smells of laziness!". Later, Svyatoslav was twice expelled from the conservatory due to general education disciplines. But on the other hand, he eagerly absorbed all the knowledge from the field of art and even learned to draw.

Since the time of Franz Liszt, playing music from memory has been considered a sign of good taste. But Richter did not consider this rule mandatory - and not because of a bad memory. The pianist's memory was excellent, although he often complained about it, because he remembered various unnecessary details and household trifles. And yet, Richter played the second half of his concert activity from notes. In an interview, he said that, apart from chamber music, his repertoire covers 80 concert programs that he once performed from memory, but playing from notes is more honest, you see everything and play really as it is written.

One of the concert conditions of Svyatoslav Teofilovich was special lighting in the hall. The fact is that the light should have been directed only to the music stand with the notes, and the rest of the stage should have been in darkness. Richter believed that this helps to focus the listeners' attention on the work and the composer's intention.

On the Jewish question

Svyatoslav Richter was very unlucky with his last name - because of it, the Nazis could well have killed the maestro's father, but, ironically, he was shot in the dungeons of the Odessa NKVD as a "German spy" in October 1941. They also came for Svyatoslav, they asked " Lighter?». « I am not a lighter”, Richter answered and, without delay, moved to another street. So someone's mistake saved the life of the future virtuoso.

Richter lived in Jewish cities - Zhytomyr and Odessa, many articles have been written about his friendship with such prominent Jews as David Oistrakh, Natalya Gutman and Boris Messerer. But Richter did not consider himself a Jew, his paternal ancestors were Germans. The maestro's wife was, of course, a Jewish woman: opera singer Nina Dorliak, daughter of the financier Lev Dorliak and singer Xenia Feleizen. Once Svyatoslav Teofilovich was seriously offended by the Austrian conductor Herbert von Karajan when he said to him: “ I am German", which was followed by:" Yes, but I'm Chinese!". But about Richter's grievances - later.

Concert activity

Richter's fame as a pianist began to grow after moving to Moscow: many successful performances, acquaintance with Prokofiev and performance of his piano works, first prize at the third All-Union Piano Competition and a huge number of concerts throughout the Soviet Union.

Finally, the fame of the pianist spread abroad. " When will Richter come to us?”- they asked the musicians from Russia. " Why doesn't he perform in our halls?"- worried in Europe and America. After Stalin's death, the pianist was able to leave the borders of the Union more freely. And the tour began - America, Canada, France, England, Italy, Germany ... Many times Richter came to Ukraine, visiting Kyiv, Lvov and Zhytomyr - the city in which he was born.

These visits always caused a stir around the sale of tickets and pandemonium near the place where the concert was supposed to take place. One day in April 1985, people tried to get into a concert through the windows and fire escape of the Kyiv Philharmonic - all in order to listen to a living legend. Often tickets for Richter could be bought only through acquaintances, and the public knew about the arrival of the maestro long before the posters hung around the city.

Why did Richter fascinate listeners so much? Impeccable professional performance, concentration in music and deep penetration into the composer's intention - this is perhaps his main secret. Richter's contemporary, one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century, Glenn Gould, also discusses this topic.

Richter and his women

There is an opinion among musicologists that Richter truly loved only himself. He is even accused of being homosexual. It was rumored that the musician married his wife Nina Dorliak solely because of the apartment. There were grounds for the rumors: before the wedding, Richter had no housing in Moscow and slept for a long time under the piano in the room of his teacher Heinrich Neuhaus. And few people know that throughout his life, there was another woman physically and spiritually next to Richter - Vera Prokhorova, who fell in love with the maestro at the age of 19 and remained faithful to the musician until her death. Another muse of Richter was the poetess Bella Akhmadulina.

Richter's grievances

In the 70-80s of the twentieth century, at the peak of his fame, the musician could afford to build a tour map based on the principle "offended - not offended." And Richter was often offended.

Already a world-famous celebrity, Richter often encountered “watchman syndrome” in his daily life. Once, the maestro, absorbed in his thoughts, was walking along the corridors of the Lviv Conservatory and came across an unnamed guard.

Who are you? - menacingly asked the keeper of the keys.

I, - the musician was confused ... - I am Richter.

And sho? And I'm a watchman! - answered the guard.

Richter had to hastily leave.

After the incident with the janitor, the musician became more demanding of the reception in Lviv. He explained to the host for a long time that he likes to walk alone in music universities, sit down at the piano, play there. But you have to take him to the conservatory by car, stars don't ride trams. By the way, from the airport to meet, too, of course, on the "Volga". A modest rider, but in Soviet times, even he was not always respected. In that same ill-fated Lviv, Richter was somehow met by a representative of the concert administration with a driver. According to Richter, the men were drunk and constantly distracted the musician with unnecessary questions. " It was the worst trip of my life", - confessed Richter.

Once Svyatoslav Teofilovich was not allowed to rehearse in his office by some figure of the Kyiv Philharmonic. Richter remembered the insult for a long time, excluding the Kyiv Philharmonic from tours for two years.

In 1970, Svyatoslav Richter gave a concert at Carnegie Hall (USA) with his close friend, the outstanding violinist David Oistrakh. The speech was interrupted by the cries of protesters against the infringement of Soviet Jews. Richter was very saddened by the incident: how can one support the Jews on the one hand, and on the other hand disrupt concerts with their participation? After that, the pianist did not want to return to the States for a long time, despite all the persuasion of American promoters.

Cinema and Richter

Guess who plays the pianist Franz Liszt in the film about the composer Glinka? This is probably the rare case when the operator does not have to shoot separately the hands of the “dummy” pianist and the performer himself. The picture is complete, and Richter brilliantly improvises, performing the march of Chernomor from the opera "Ruslan and Lyudmila" by Mikhail Glinka.

In the life of Svyatoslav Richter there were many tragic and comic episodes, which he himself narrates in television interviews. But the main thing is the music that remained in the records. It penetrates the hearts and conquers new generations of listeners.
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People's Artist of the RSFSR (1955).
People's Artist of the USSR (1961).
Hero of Socialist Labor (1975).

Born on March 7 (20), 1915 in Zhitomir, in a family of musicians.
His father was an organist and taught at the city music school. He received his primary musical education from his father, but he achieved a lot on his own (in particular, he learned to read orchestral scores as a child).
He made his debut as a soloist in Odessa on February 19, 1934, performing a number of difficult pieces by Chopin; for some time he worked as an accompanist of the Odessa Opera and Ballet Theatre.
Since 1937 he began to study in Moscow with Professor of the Moscow Conservatory G.G. Neuhaus (he was enrolled at the conservatory without exams; he received his diploma in 1947).
While still a student (1940), Richter made his debut in Moscow, performing the premiere of Prokofiev's newly written Sixth Piano Sonata, and the author was so satisfied that two years later he entrusted the pianist with the premiere of his Seventh Sonata (later Richter became the first performer of the Eighth and Ninth Sonatas) .
In 1945 he took part in the All-Union competition of performing musicians, received the first prize; in 1949 he became a laureate of the Stalin Prize. Since 1945, he began to perform, in addition to solo concerts, in an ensemble with the singer Nina Lvovna Dorliak (1908–1998), who became his constant musical partner and life partner.

Richter's performances were a huge success (Neuhaus directly called his student a "genius"; D. D. Shostakovich spoke of him as an "extraordinary phenomenon" - among other things, the pianist had a "photographic memory", instantly learned new works and perfectly read orchestral scores, including those just created). In 1960, Richter gave concerts in Helsinki, Chicago and New York, and soon became extremely popular in the West. However, the pianist was not at all inclined to lead the life of a wandering virtuoso: an unusually serious and deep musician, Richter preferred constant work on improving his skills and expanding his repertoire.

In 1964, Richter, with the support of the record company EMI, founded the annual summer festival in Touraine near the French city of Tours, in which he regularly took part. In 1989, with the patronage and participation of Richter in the Moscow Museum of Fine Arts named after A.S. Pushkin, the festival “December Evenings” began to be held, within the framework of which the musician’s dream of a synthesis of the arts came true: Richter was enthusiastically engaged in watercolor throughout his life, subtly versed in painting and collected it. He also undertook the experience of performing as a conductor, but subsequently did not continue it.

During his life, Richter toured a lot around the world, but he considered the most interesting of his tours to be a huge concert trip around Russia in 1986, when he, traveling by train from Moscow to Vladivostok, gave concerts along the way, including in small towns. Richter played his last concert in Lübeck (Germany) in March 1995. In the last years of his life, he gave a series of interviews to the French musician and documentary filmmaker Bruno Monsaingeon, which formed the basis of the film Richter: L "Insoumis (in the Russian translation of the Unconquered Richter), where for the first time he spoke with great frankness about the deep experiences that accompanied his creative path in conditions the Soviet regime, about his worldview, about relations with various musicians.

The pianist's repertoire was enormous. Its center was the classics, primarily Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms; he played a lot of Scriabin, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovich. Throughout his life, the musician gravitated towards ensemble performance, performing together with the largest contemporary musicians, Russian and foreign (in particular, with D.F. Oistrakh and M.L. Rostropovich, and since the 1970s - with the then young O. M. Kagan, N.T. Gutman, G.M. Kremer and others). Richter's pianistic style can be generally described as powerful, courageous, highly concentrated, alien to outward brilliance; each time his manner corresponded to the style of the music he performed. He made many recordings, and the best of them are recordings directly from concerts.

prizes and awards

3rd All-Union Competition of Performing Musicians (1st prize, 1945)
Stalin Prize (1950)
Lenin Prize (1961)
State Prize of the RSFSR named after M. I. Glinka (1987) - for concert programs in 1986 performed in the cities of Siberia and the Far East
State Prize of the Russian Federation (1996)
Order of Merit for the Fatherland, III degree (1995)
Three Orders of Lenin (1965, 1975, 1985)
Order of the October Revolution (1980)
Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters (France, 1985)
Grammy Award (1960)
Robert Schumann Prize (1968)
Leonie Sonning Award (1986)
Franco Abbiati Prize (1986)
Triumph Award (1993)
Honorary Doctorate from the University of Oxford (1992)
Honorary doctorate from the University of Strasbourg (1977)
Honorary citizen of the city of Tarusa (Kaluga region) (1994)
Active member of the Academy of Creativity (Moscow)
Gold Badge of the Order of Merit to the Polish People's Republic (Poland, 1983)
Grand Cross with Star and Shoulder Ribbon of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, 1995)
Order of Peace and Friendship of Peoples (Hungary, 1985)
Prize "Golden Disc" of the firm "Melody" - for the recording of the Piano Concerto No. 1 by P. I. Tchaikovsky