"Richter is a world unto himself, impenetrable yet radiant; a deep- water fish, blind but luminous." "That he is one of the great pianists of all time is disputed by no one." "He loves movies, but not the camera." "He dislikes analysis, talking about or revealing himself." "He is indifferent to current events, politics, praise and worldly goods." "Neither political regimes nor the conventions of the music world have ever got the better of his wild purity." "Only music, to which he gives life, possesses him." "He plays, not for the sake of effect, nor with any deliberate purpose." "He simply plays..." "He is a free man..." "So, let's listen to Prokofiev!" "Prokofiev, 5th Concerto Warsaw, 1958" "I have such a good memory that it's unbearable!" "In the many cities" "I've travelled to," "I've met fifty people or so." "Their names are all lined up in my head and I remember them, it's torture!" "And then, all my acquaintances!" "And acquaintances of acquaintances!" "When I started travelling, it's been like that in every city!" "Whether in Russia or in the West." "Numbers - no, I don't recall at all." "Not even my own address!" "Except in Odessa:" "2, Nejinskaïa, Flat 15." "For instance, those sisters:" "Alexandra and Olga Vassilievna..." "I remember them all!" "When I was 16, in 1931, my father introduced me" "to his old acquaintances and female admirers:" "the 8 Semyonov sisters." "They lived in a house with colonnades like in a Turgenev novel." "They were old ladies and very old-fashioned." "Everyone made fun of them, but they were quite extraordinary!" "They were my first audience, my first taste of success with an audience." "They were - how shall I say?" "Odd birds." "Each one of them." "The eight sisters, yes." "During a family concert I gave at their home when I was 15," "I performed the Schumann concerto on a single piano, and it was a success." "It was on that occasion that I first decided to become a pianist." "I suddenly discovered I had female admirers." "And eight at a time!" "Schumann, Fantasiestücke" "All these memories which are perhaps interesting," "have lost their savour for me." "I almost resent them." "But then, I'm 80 years old!" "I was born in 1915 in Jitomir, in the Ukraine, which didn't exist then." "It was called Little Russia." "My father was also born there, though he was a German." "He lived there until military service," "then left for Vienna to study piano and composition." "There, he became great friends with the famous German composer" "Franz Schreker." "After finishing his studies, he gave concerts, and lived for 22 years in Vienna." "But he spent the summers in Jitomir, and met my mother there." "She became his pupil." "Her name was Moskoliov." "She was Russian." "Her father was a landlord." "For a long time, he didn't consent to the marriage because my father was a commoner." "But my father married her anyway." "My father was an excellent pianist." "He was offered a post at the Odessa Conservatoire." "Prokofiev, Vision Fugitive Moscow, 1961" "I caught typhus fever and couldn't travel to Odessa." "Mama... had to go without me and joined my father who also had typhus." "She remained stuck there:" "the Whites, the Reds..." "She came to fetch me only 4 years later." "I spent those years with my aunt Mary." "When Mother took me from Odessa to Jitomir," "the trip lasted a whole week." "It was a difficult time." "Mother was a remarkably brilliant woman, and very worldly." "Too much so!" "No doubt that accounts for my aversion to all those things." "She'd always chide me for not being interested in politics..." "Indeed, I wasn't..." "Everything was fine until I was 11 ." "Then came the worst period in my life: school." "I hated school." "Our headmistress was terribly strict!" "Frau Peters..." "We were all scared." "She was pretty and looked like Mona Lisa." "Although well-disposed towards me, she would scream (it sounded ghastly in German" ""You're all such lazybones, but as for Richter, you can actually smell it!"" "At about eight," "I started trying my hand at the piano." "My father was horrified with what I was doing." "Mother, on the other hand would say to him:" ""Leave him alone if he doesn't want to play scales."" "So, I never played scales." "No exercises either." "Never!" "I began with Chopin's 1st Nocturne and then, the E minor Etude." "Chopin, Etude op. 25 nº4" "I played whatever I wanted to:" "Tannhauser, Lohengrin..." "As for the interpretation!" "And I composed." "What appealed to me above all was the theatre:" "Aïda, Rigoletto." "That's what interested me, not the piano." "When I was 15," "I was given the opportunity to be an accompanist for small concerts in various clubs." "I'd be sent somewhere out of town," "in the evening, I had to sight-read on stage, to accompany a singer, a violinist, a circus..." "All that off the cuff!" "So, at 15, I began to earn a little money." "Sometimes, they'd pay in kind:" "a sack of potatoes." "That was right after collectivisation." "It was hard." "But, never mind." "Earlier on, at 14," "I had become a pianist at the Sailor's Club." "There, amateur singers would stage opera scenes with piano accompaniment." "I did that for 3 years." "The singers were downright awful." "But it did give me some experience." "Then, they knew me at the Opera and they took me on as a coach for the ballet." "Opera saw to the essentials of my education." "Tchaikovsky, Eugen Onegin Sergei Lemechev, tenor" "Their chief conductor, Stolerman, a highly professional and honest musician, wasn't particularly nice, though... worthy of respect." "He had murdered his wife!" "She had destroyed all his compositions, and he shot her while she was sleeping." "But he was acquitted." "A nice wife!" "All his works into the fire, out of jealousy!" "The Odessa Opera had an avant-garde repertoire:" "Turandot..." "Johnny spielt auf by Krenek." "A good theatre." "They promised me I would conduct" "Glazunov's Raymonda, which I wanted to do." "But they gave it to someone who was "in the line."" "It doesn't matter." "Then my father was officially invited to teach the children of the German Consul." "Sometimes I'd also be invited to the Consulate..." "I'd play for special occasions," "for instance when Hindenburg died." "I played Beethoven's funeral march, and Twilight of the Gods." "Beethoven, Sonata op. 26 Moscow, 1976" "When I was 19," "I suddenly had the preposterous idea of giving a recital." "I hardly studied piano literature at all." "A Chopin recital was organised at the Engineers' Club in Odessa." "A small venue and an audience made up of friends." "The 4th Ballad went rather well." "The 4th Etude, as an encore, wasn't bad either." "Chopin, Etude op. 10 nº4" "My concert didn't have much impact." "Odessa is a bit special." "The press remained hidden." "Odessa used to be rather charming, but, in 1933, its churches were pulled down." "They tore down the cathedral bells and the bell tower." "In its place, they put up a school, so sordid and drab!" "It was like that all over Russia." "Odessa remained hostile towards me." "Obviously!" "I never gave another concert in Odessa." "That's where they killed my father..." "In 1935 and 36, we were scared if someone rang the doorbell, especially at night." "I remember an incredibly stupid dream I had." "The doorbell rings." "I go to the door." ""Who is it?"" "From behind the door I hear a demented voice:" ""Don't open up, I am a burglar!"" "I woke up dripping with sweat." "The fear of rings at the doorbell!" "This was a time when there were arrests." "At the Opera, the situation was dreadful." "It was the epoch of "purges."" "People were torn apart," "Everyone had to denounce the so-called "enemies of the people."" "Anyone could be accused!" "After a while," "I thought:" "Enough is enough!" "But, above all " "Nina doesn't like me telling this, but it's the truth - they were threatening me with military service." "That's why I decided to leave for Moscow and seek out Neuhaus." "I've had three teachers:" "Neuhaus, my father and Wagner." "I loved the way he played and the way he was." "I had made up my mind to enter the Moscow Conservatoire and attend Neuhaus' class." "I liked him also because in some ways," "he was like my father, though more light-hearted..." "I auditioned for him with my old war-horse:" "The 4th Ballad." "Chopin, 4th Ballade Mantova, 1986" "Then, we talked about Wagner." "And I made a good impression on him." "I'd been asked to listen to a young man who wanted to enter the Conservatoire." ""Has he finished prep school?"" ""No, he studied nowhere."" "A boy with no formal education who wanted to join the Conservatoire?" "I was curious to know this bold fellow." "An incredibly intense young man came, sat down and played Beethoven, Chopin and his own compositions." "I whispered to my students:" ""I think he is a genius."" "That day, Sviatoslav Richter became my pupil." "I was admitted on the condition that I study all subjects." "I didn't!" "In the 1st year alone," "I was expelled twice." "Neuhaus was like a father to me." "How did he influence you?" "His main emphasis was on tone production." "He freed up my playing." "My sound had to be opened up." "It still was a bit tense... due to my having been a coach at the Opera." "In the Liszt sonata, he taught me one essential thing:" "the silences." "How to make silences sound." "I have devised a little trick:" "You come on stage and sit down." "Without a motion, and in silence, you count up to 30." "And then..." "There's a kind of panic in the audience..." ""What's going on?"" "And only after that long silence, that 1st "G"..." "Of course it's theatrical, but in music, an element of surprise is essential." "Many wonderful pianists serve you a menu of dishes you know in advance." "But the unexpected is what makes an impression." "Liszt, Sonata in B minor" "The 4th time I played the Liszt sonata for him, in front of a full class," "he said:" ""I have nothing more to say."" "He never went abroad." "They wouldn't let him out." "He played rather unevenly." "One day, he played a Schumann recital:" "in the beginning he played like a pig." "Wrong notes in every bar!" "Then, Kreisleriana:" "A miracle!" "As for the Fantasy, never again shall we hear such a marvel!" "Schumann, Kreisleriana Heinrich Neuhaus" "Teaching is something awful." "It has a fatal effect on a pianist." "He spent all his time teaching." "His tone was magnificent." "I adopted his way of sitting up at the piano." "It's essential." "One day, I played Debussy for him." "He had said:" ""I'd be curious to hear you play Debussy."" "Debussy, "Ce qu'a vu le vent d'ouest" Tokyo, 1984" "Everything is kept secret." "In Russia, one knows why." "First of all: concerning my father." "No one says a word about the fact he was shot." "Yet, he was executed before the Germans arrived in Odessa." "I knew nothing about it because I stayed in Moscow during the war." "My mother remarried and fled to Germany." "Her second husband changed names." "Everyone thought he was my father's brother." "That's totally untrue." "That's the darkest chapter in my life-story." "Kondratiev, my mother's future 2nd husband, was the son of a high-ranking official" "in the tsar's service." "He was of German origin and changed his name so he could hide after the revolution and escape from Moscow to Odessa." "Yes, to save his skin." "In Odessa, at the Conservatoire, he clearly did not feel safe." "He feared he might be found out" "and he changed names constantly." "He stayed in bed for years, pretending he had tuberculosis of the bones." "He got out of bed only when the Germans came." "He had been faking illness for over twenty years." "Mama waited on him hand and foot." "My father knew all about it." "When the war began, he came to live with us." "My parents were to be evacuated," "but only the two of them." "Upon leaving," "Mama refused to go because she couldn't take "him" along." "My father was executed." "They left the country in 41 with the Germans" "and settled in Germany." "And there, he took on the name Richter." "He pretended he was my father." "You understand my anger when, as I arrived in some German town," "I was told:" ""We saw your father!"" ""Ihr Vater!"" "When I visited them in Germany he wouldn't let my mother talk." "He talked for her all the time." "This was shortly before mother's death." "She was in hospital." "The most awful was my first concert in Vienna." "I was not in great shape and had come from Italy a day before the concert." "On the day of the concert, he came to see me and said bluntly:" ""My wife is dying !"" "I had never played in Vienna." "The concert was disastrous and the reviews dreadful:" ""Farewell to a legend."" "Indeed, I played appallingly." "Wagner, "Schmachtend"" "In 1943," "I was living at Neuhaus'." "One night, I played the whole of Tristan, at the end of which, Gusakov, a fellow student" "declared childishly:" ""Everyone on their knees before Slava!"" "Naturally, I protested." ""In that case, spit on me!" "Please, spit on my face!"" "He was a Wagner fanatic, almost ridiculously so." "In December 41, I gave my 1st public performance of Tchaïkovsky's concerto," "which launched me somehow." "Tchaikovsky, Concerto Conductor, Gennadi Rozhdestvensky Moscow, 1958" "In March, I played Prokofiev's 5th concerto conducted by the composer." "The war hadn't yet begun," "I'd just performed his 6th sonata and he attended the concert." "Prokofiev, 6th Sonata" "He then asked me if I would agree to play his 5th concerto." ""This work has no success." "Maybe, it would if you played it?"" "He was joking, of course." "Two months later, I performed it." "This was... a memorable occasion!" "The concerto did have success with the audience." "Prokofiev was astonished and said to me:" ""I know why:" "they expect you to do a Chopin Nocturne as an encore!"" "Prokofiev was someone interesting and dangerous!" "Capable to do you in." "Brutal..." "Healthy!" "Someone with no principles, who wrote on commission." "For instance, Zdravitsa, which is unplayable nowadays." "It was written to celebrate" "Stalin's birthday." "Yet, it's a work of genius." "A monument, but a monument to Prokofiev's glory!" "Such insolence:" ""Why, that too, I can do!"" "Then, there was my first recital" "in the summer of 1942." "I played Prokofiev and 6 Rachmaninov Preludes." "There's a composer he loathed." "He spoke outrageously about" "Rachmaninov's works" "Why?" "Because... he was influenced by them." "Rachmaninoff, Etude-Tableau op.33 nº5 Tokyo, 1984" "Prokofiev's piano style is derived from Rachmaninov's" "Etudes-tableaux, which he absolutely loathed!" "They are indeed similar:" "the same sharpness..." "Rachmaninoff, Etude-Tableau op.33 nº4 Tokyo, 1984" "My career really began with the war." "I was invited to play in Moscow, Kiev and the Caucasus." "In 43, I went on tour to Arkhangelsk where terrible bombings were going on." "Those cities were almost completely in ruins..." "I remember one bleak day, a rainy sorrowful day." "In the streets, there was a broadcast of Tchaïkovsky's concerto played by Oïstrakh." "It went so well with the melancholy mood." "The bombings couldn't be compared" "with the horrendous ones in Leningrad!" "In Moscow, one could still live." "The first time I played in Leningrad, was in 44, on January the 5th." "I'd arrived on December the 31st, and was alone." "I was looking through the window..." "One could hear Boom!" "Boom!" "and see St Isaac Cathedral." "That's how I spent the new year." "Everything was dark beautiful and mysterious." "Right after the concert," "I had to leave town." "They looked at my ID and said:" ""You can't stay!" "You are German!"" ""German!" "German!"" "And the Germans tell me:" ""You are Russian!"" "Anyway, I played that concert." "At the Philharmonic, all the windows had been shattered by a shell that same morning." "The audience was wrapped up in coats." "It was, I think, a good concert." "The moment I play, I don't feel the cold!" "Prokofiev, 2nd Sonata Toronto, 1964" "It's true, sometimes" "I did rather daring things, like learning" "Prokofiev's 7th sonata in 4 days, by heart!" "The sonata was a sensation." "Prokofiev had a friend: the pianist Maximilian Schmidthof." "He dedicated his 2nd sonata to him, as well as the 4th, post-mortem, and the 2nd concerto, also post-mortem." "Schmidthof had sent him a letter:" ""Serioja, some news for you:" "I've shot myself!"" "They found his body in a forest 2 months later." "In 43, he wrote his 7th sonata which I premiered." "Then, the 8th, dedicated to Gilels who played it splendidly." "Just before his death, he said to me:" ""I'm writing a sonata for you."" "That was the 9th." "It was interesting how we first met." "During my first days at the Conservatoire, a clarinet player died." "At the funeral, many people played:" "Neuhaus, Igumnov, etc..." "And also a singer who astounded me." "I learned only later this was Nina Dorliac." "I was so impressed that I asked:" ""But who is that?"" "Nina was very pretty, a true princess." "She was always asked to sing on such occasions." ""I'm a hired mourner," she said." "Anosov," "Rojdestvensky's father, said to me:" ""You should play with her."" "Nina Dorliac He came up to me at the Philharmonic and said:" ""I'd like to give a concert with you."" "He was already famous." "It didn't occur to me he wanted to accompany me." "I replied:" ""Do you wish to share a concert?"" ""No, I want to accompany you."" "In 46, I moved into Nina Dorliac's flat." "Until then, I had lived here and there..." "Two tiny rooms, in a communal flat shared with another couple and a family of three." "He took these things light-heartedly." "At Neuhaus' he slept under the piano for lack of space." "He's indifferent to comfort." "I also used to play at funerals:" "for Katchalov's funeral, for Maria Yudina's." "Did you know Yudina?" "Yes, but rather distantly." "Towards me, she was suspicious and critical." ""Hmm !" she said about me..." ""This is a pianist for Rachmaninov!"" "Rather derogatorily." "She made a very strong impression." "She played Liszt splendidly as she did Schubert's last sonata, though everything was topsy-turvy." "She played Bach during the war, the B flat minor Prelude..." "Fast and fortissimo." "Backstage, Neuhaus asked her:" ""Why do you play that so forcefully?"" ""Well, we are at war!"" "That was typical of Yudina." ""We're at war!"" "After her concerts," "I got a headache." "On the audience, she always made a violent impression." "She had a huge talent." "She was an original, strange, extravagant woman." "Whenever she came on stage, it looked as if she was walking in the rain." "She'd cross herself before playing." "I've nothing against that, but, you know... in Soviet Russia..." "The public adored her for that very reason." "As an act of protest, at her last concerts, she would read Pasternak." "It was awful:" "she had no teeth left!" "She lived like a tramp!" "You did play at her funeral?" "Yes, and you know what?" "Rachmaninov!" "Rachmaninoff, Etude-Tableau op.39 nº3" "1948 was the year they passed that silly decree against new music and Prokofiev..." "Nonetheless, Nina and I gave a program of Rimsky and Prokofiev." "We did it." "They probably didn't see the posters!" "Mozart, Quartet K.493" "Viktor Tretiakov, Youri Bashmet, Natalia Gutman" "I could have become a conductor." "But I only conducted once." "Everyone wondered why..." "What happened was that I had broken my finger in a brawl, actually." "I then thought," "Well then, I'll learn Ravel's left hand concerto." "And there's that Prokofiev Symphonia Concertante which I want to conduct." "That work was officially banned." "The Ministry of culture was against Prokofiev." "I did some kind of blackmail." "I insisted..." "The broken finger wasn't that serious." "And that worked." "There were only 3 rehearsals." "The cellists behaved like churls and giggled when they heard Rostropovitch's cello part." "Prokofiev, Sinfonia Concertante op. 125 Mstislav Rostropovich" "It wasn't a bad début." "Prokofiev himself said:" ""I now have a conductor for my works."" "I never conducted again." "There are 2 things I hate:" "analysis and power." "No conductor can avoid that." "That's not for me!" "Bach, Concerto in D minor Grange de Meslay, 1978" "Listening to Bach now and then, is good, if only for hygienic reasons!" "Christmas Oratorio..." "How often have we gathered together on Christmas day to listen to this marvel!" "The very 1st timpani beats send me into raptures!" "He enjoys gathering friends in our home." "We have a large room," "where he organised evenings devoted to Wagner Operas." "Occasionally, he would play..." "These last years, we had people over only for such listening sessions." "Blah blah, he never liked." "Bach, Well-tempered Clavier" " I Prelude in G major" "It was in Tbilissi that I first performed" "Bach's Well-tempered Clavier." "It was quite a challenge..." "A risky sporting endeavour." "I did manage to learn the work by heart, in one month." "I also performed the Appassionata." "In Tbilissi, I played badly, but two days later, in Baku, it went far better." "Beethoven, Sonata "Appassionata"" "There, I had an unpleasant surprise:" "I noticed they had begun putting a tail on me." "I was late and started running back to the hotel." "I turned around and saw a man running behind me." "Instead of going into the hotel," "I ran to the next corner." "He was still running." "I threw myself at him!" "We bumped into each other!" "I was being shadowed." "That went on for months." "I'd play tricks on them." "One day, in a bus, the fellow was facing me." "I said to him:" "Do you get off at the next stop?" "Yes." "Well, I don't!" "He got off, looking livid." "They followed me all over." "Then, they stopped." "What was I saying?" "Yes, about the Well-tempered Clavier..." "For a while," "I was playing it everywhere." "I was getting letters saying:" ""When will you stop inflicting Bach on us?"" "Bach, Fantasia  Fugue" "That's what marked the start of my career, and not at all New York" "as is commonly believed." "I never felt there was a difference between concerts in Russia and abroad." "Except for in America, where I was depressed." "I'd been forced to go, I didn't want to." "Everywhere is interesting!" "Even in villages, where I sometimes played." "I went to Siberia." "Everything interests me." "Each new place." "He used to walk a lot:" "He walked twice all around Moscow whose suburbs he knows backwards." "There were a lot of trips, by train, by car." "But he hates airplanes." "His first tours were only in Socialist countries, like Czechoslovakia..." "Prague fell in love and called him" ""Prague's darling."" "There were concerts in factories." "Unsuccessful!" "I was coming from Russia!" "The halls were draped with red banners." "I asked them:" ""Are you holding a Party meeting?"" "They were scared." ""Why did you hang these?"" ""They're... for you!"" ""But I don't hold meetings!"" "In Prague, however, my concert was successful." "I played a mixed program," "Chopin's 2nd Scherzo etc..." "After a 2nd trip abroad," "I didn't go out again until 1953." "And in 53, Stalin..." "Auf wiedersehen!" "A lot of nonsense was written about me." "Absurd things!" "Supposedly, I played deliberately to protest against Stalin..." "Our Party, the Soviet people, all mankind, mourn for a cruel and irreplaceable loss!" "Today is the end of the glorious life of our master and guide of the greatest genius in human history," "Iossif" "Vissarionovitch" "Stalin!" ""I played at Stalin's funeral."" "Indeed, I did play there." ""I chose to play a long fugue by Bach."" ""The audience hissed."" "What audience could hiss at Stalin's funeral?" "That's completely ludicrous!" ""The police tore me away from the piano!"" "Well, I played on an upright surrounded by the orchestra." "Such fantastic inventions!" "I was in Tbilissi and pffttt!" "A telegram from Moscow ordered me" "to take the next plane." "The weather was awful and there were no flights." "They put me alone aboard a plane filled with funeral wreaths!" "Yes, all by myself!" "As soon as I arrived, I played." "Above our heads was the coffin." "It was hardly within eye-reach and I didn't watch much." "I could see - what was his name?" " Malenkov... who looked scared." "I thought:" ""He fears he's going to be killed."" "He was the favourite." "He was not given the post." "Nor was he killed." "The pedals were not working." "I couldn't play under such conditions." "I stuffed a score under the pedal" "to make it work." "Meanwhile, I noticed people running all over" "on the gallery." "They thought I was planting a bomb!" "The whole thing was repulsive." "One particularly revolting moment - from a musical standpoint, I mean." "Towards midnight, they were about" "to take away Stalin's body." "Melik-Pachaev, the conductor, started Tchakovsky's 6th again." "In the development section..." "At the worst possible moment, a military band" "interrupted him and played Chopin's Funeral March." "Revolting!" "As I left the Column Room," "I heard the radio already bellowing all over Moscow:" ""Beria, Bulganin, Malenkov!"" "How nauseating!" "I didn't particularly like Stalin, but it was really..." "I just wanted to take a shower..." "I wasn't in the least concerned!" "Stalin's death lifted a corner of the iron curtain for the great Soviet artists." "The West came to discover the likes of Oistrakh, Gilels, Rostropovich, Rozhdestvensky." "Richter's legend spread, but he was not allowed abroad until 1960." "That year, his first tour of the US, crowned by six recitals at Carnegie Hall, had the effect of a bomb." "In the meantime, his repertoire was growing to such gigantic proportions that it soon encompassed the whole of piano literature." "Mendelssohn, Variations Sérieuses" "I played a small part in the film Glinka, the Composer." "I'm Liszt." "This film was a kind of potpourri which evoked the times of Glinka." "There are Pushkin..." "Tolstoï..." "It was a great success." "Mr. Liszt is going to improvise on themes you have kindly suggested!" "Here's a nice theme, quite new and original!" "Jump into a troïka and bring Mikhaïl Glinka forthwith!" "It's the Tchernomor march from Russlan and Ludmila and so, he improvises on that theme." "Glinka steps in as Liszt is finishing." "Liszt says to him:" "It was a lovely scene." "A nice, effective intermezzo." "I almost didn't make it." "I went to the wrong station." "I didn't want to go!" "I wish I had missed the train, there would have been no America for me." "Because for me America..." "He was not keen to go to America." "Hurok, the American impresario, would come to Moscow every year" "Nina Dorliac and would always ask for Richter." "They always said to him:" "Richter is ill, he can't." "One day, we met him by accident." "Hurok exclaimed:" "But here he is, he looks perfectly healthy!"" "Rachmaninoff, Prelude op.23 nº2" "Oïstrakh and Kondrachin constantly begged the Central Committee:" "Please let Richter go." "Whenever we go abroad the 1st thing they ask is:" "When is Richter coming?" ""It's embarrassing!"" "The final decision to let Richter play abroad was made personally by Khrutschev." "The first time I went to America, they gave me a "bodyguard" straight from NKVD." "This young man was actually quite decent." "His boss, a fellow from Leningrad told him:" "Watch out, follow him." "One day, I went to the Museum in Chicago." "Behind the door, I found this Anatoly who was very embarrassed and whispered:" "It's he who sent me!" "It's he!" "Your job is to play!" "he kept repeating to me." "I was terribly nervous." "In a state of constant panic." "You had a phenomenal success!" "Maybe, but I played badly." "Very badly!" "Bunches of wrong notes!" "At the end of a concert, after a fantastic success, a mob of people came backstage..." "That was undeserved!" "Sometimes he has a great success" "but he's not happy with himself." "Then, he says:" "Look, that's success, but I am not satisfied." "They understand nothing." "It means nothing."" "Strauss, Burleske" "I don't enjoy meeting all these famous people, but there were such meetings." "The encounter with Munch was..." "He was very moved..." "At the end of the rehearsal," "Slava leaned over and kissed Munch's hand." "I think Munch wasn't surprised." "He accepted it very graciously, simply..." "Also, Ormandy!" "They met a number of times;" "and performed together." "He kept saying:" ""Slava, you should stay here!" "Why go back there?" "Settle down here!"" "He said to me:" "Why do they all say that?" "I'm fine at home!"" "I find America standardised." "Everything's the same." "I don't like it there." "Then he was invited by Horowitz." "They had a good time together, he said." "Then..." "Arthur Rubinstein." "No, I didn't play well there." "It was fabulous!" "I came especially from Europe." "Artur Rubinstein Richter had already played three concerts." "I was curious to hear the "great Richter"" "and went to his concert." "He played three pieces by Ravel, simply incredibly!" "A sound of prodigious beauty!" "I had never heard before a piano sound like that." "It was an other instrument." "It brought tears to my eyes." "Richter is a gigantic musician with great intelligence." "He plays the piano, and the piano responds." "He sings with his piano." "Ravel, Valses nobles et sentimentales" "Grange de Meslay, 1964" "What is easy one learns quickly, what is difficult takes time." "It's as simple as that!" "I take one page." "Until I learn it," "I won't move to the next." "Then, the third one." "He says to other pianists:" ""Practice 3 hours a day, no more!"" ""What about you Sviatoslav Teofilovitch?"" ""Same thing, 3 hours."" "I set myself three hours a day." "He used to practice up to 10- 12 hours a day." "Nonsense!" "Twelve hours?" "Never!" "Well, sometimes..." "When I had to learn something at short notice, for instance Prokofiev's 7th," "on the last day," "I might perhaps practice a great deal." "But usually, no!" "Twelve hours?" "That never happened!" "He practices with a clock-watch." "He is obsessed with detail!" "It's not such a bad method." "That's how it is!" "I'm obsessed with detail." "Glenn Gould" "Schubert, Sonata in G major Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh, 1977" "Schubert, sonata in G major." "Live recording from Bologna." "This is my favourite Schubert sonata." "But this recording of mine made no impression on me." "That's all!" "I was the first to perform Schubert sonatas." "Professors from the older generation said to me:" "Schubert?" "How tedious!" "Schumann fares better."" "Many said:" "Is he crazy or what?" "I don't play for an audience but for myself." "If I enjoy myself, the audience will also enjoy it." "I just want to play good music." "Schubert has nothing to do with what Gould said..." "He said he liked my performance, but he talks about me." "Did he only change his mind about Schubert?" "You play in the dark!" "That's for the sake of concentration, so that the audience listens better." "One shouldn't watch?" "Watch what?" "The performer?" "His hands?" "No!" "The expression on his face?" "What for?" "It expresses nothing but work, the work going into the music." "Who needs to see that?" "Everyone says you like to play only what you feel like?" "Yes." "Why?" "Because I'm an egotist." "When we asked him to play something, his reply was typical." "Someone wrote" "I was more famous for my cancellations than for my concerts." "Journalists!" "Yes, when I was ill," "I did cancel concerts." "They said I was whimsical." "But, not at all!" "I didn't cancel," "I just postponed." "In Paris, for a recital at the Soviet Embassy," "there was a Steinway." "The tuner went to see it and said:" "This piano is unplayable." "So, I cancelled the concert." "The Ambassador, as usual, didn't pay attention." "On the day of the concert, at 5 PM, he called:" ""The audience is arriving." "What shall I do?" "Shoot myself?"" "These words somehow moved me." "Alright, I'll go, it'll be awful." "I started with Brahms' 2nd Sonata." "The concert wasn't bad at all." "One of the best I gave that year!" "In America, they gave me a choice of a dozen pianos." "That's why I played so badly." "I thought:" "I didn't choose the right one." "I never choose a piano." "Never!" "Take a piano as you take fate." "Psychologically, things become a lot easier." "Choosing a piano for a concert is harmful." "It's demoralising." "I leave it up to the tuner." "All these tests are useless." "That's the tuner's business." "Like St Peter, you have to believe, to walk on water." "If you don't, you sink." "Igumnov said to me once:" "You don't like pianos!" ""Maybe," "I like music more."" "I sometimes played well on appalling pianos." "What do you require of a piano?" "I require more of myself!" "But what is essential for the sound " "Yamahas have that - is the pianissimo." "The extreme pianissimo." "Nothing is more haunting." "Not the fortissimo, the pianissimo." "Brahms, 2nd Sonata Tokyo, 1984" "I don't like hackneyed pieces." "One only has to mention" "Chopin's "funeral" sonata, for me to want to throw up!" "Yet, it's a work of genius." "There are so many things I want to play." "Rather play that than what everyone plays." "Not counting chamber music," "I have 80 programs in my repertoire." "I used to play everything by heart, but no more now." "First of all, it's more honest:" "you play exactly what's written." "It's impossible to remember all the indications in a score." "Then, one begins to interpret." "I'm against that." "Was there an evolution in your interpretation?" "If so, I didn't notice it!" "I never had any doubts that there was only one way." "For the simple reason that" "I always carefully read the score." "That's all one has to do." "Sanderling said about me:" "He plays well, but also knows how to read" "I played with him a lot." "Why do you so seldom play with orchestra?" "They're booked up when I am available!" "Or they say: "In 5 years time." Planning!" "Always planning!" "Richter, who is acclaimed the world over, will perform for the 1st time in West Berlin, with the Radio orchestra" "Brahms' 2nd concerto." "Conductor, Lorin Maazel Berlin, 1967" "Maybe it isn't fair, but in Russia, if they're interested they'll cancel a concert to put me on instead." "Here, it can't be done." "I can't stand planning." "I am ready to perform anywhere, in a school, without a fee." "I don't care whether it is in a large hall." "They say I prefer small venues." "Not at all!" "But the big halls are always busy when I feel like playing." "They have..." "Philippe Entremont!" "When things are planned out in advance, they always collapse." "If I'm asked:" "What about tomorrow?" "Well, yes, why not!" "But who knows how I'll be in 3 years time!" "I often played Brahms with Mravinsky." "He always wanted Tchaïkovsky." "Mravinsky, what a conductor!" "You know the recordings with him, and with Karajan?" "There's a scandalous mistake there!" "In the 2nd movement, after the cadenza, in the recapitulation..." "He held the note, and refused to give me an upbeat." "Pure stubbornness!" "Karajan can be fantastic, in Mahler, for instance." "But, in the triple concerto, he did unforgivable things." "A spectacular bill for the recording of Beethoven's triple concerto:" "David Oïstrakh," "Mstislav Rostropovitch," "Sviatoslav Richter play for the first time under Karajan's baton." "It was war:" "Karajan and Rostropovitch formed a league against Oïstrakh and me." "Karajan wondered why" "I didn't look happy." "Well, there was something so superficial." "Oïstrakh looked very sullen." "Rostropovitch wanted to be in the forefront." "Karajan took a wrong tempo which I didn't like, neither did Oïstrakh, in the 2nd movement." "Soon enough, Rostropovitch switched sides." "And Karajan's behaviour..." ""It's in the can!" he said." ""No, let's do an other take," I replied." ""No, we've something essential coming up:" "the photo!"" "A ghastly photo where he poses, and we are grinning like idiots!" "Disgusting!" "And his reply the day I said to him, en passant:" ""I'm a German."" ""In that case, I'm Chinese!"" "How do you like that?" "Beethoven, Triple Concerto Conductor, Kiril Kondrachin Moscow, 1970" "There is a painter I love, who is very famous in Russia," "Robert Falk." "He said to me one day:" ""The trickiest thing in painting" " I applied this to the piano - is to make a perfect circle."" "I had gone to him for a few painting lessons." "This is when he said:" ""It's easier to achieve a circle with both hands... when you do two circles."" "Same thing with the piano:" "everything must be symmetrical." "He also said that when one works a lot, there comes a moment when "water starts boiling."" "That's the crucial moment." "Berg, Kammerkonzert Oleg Kagan Conductor, Yuri Nikolaevski" "There are so many works I've not played." "I no longer have the energy." ""Schönberg, Scarlatti..."" "What about Spanish music?" "I found nothing." "I'm happy with Ravel's Alborada." "Ravel, Alborada del gracioso Toronto, 1964" "I love Britten's music." "I've heard his best works:" "Curlew River, Albert Herring, which I staged." "Turn of the Screw, as well." "We were friends and played duets together." "Sonata with Britten, live from Aldeburgh." "We had only 3 rehearsals." "Yes, that wasn't much." "Mozart, Sonata for 2 pianos Benjamin Britten Aldeburgh, 1967" "It was in front of Odessa's Opera house, before the street lamps were lit..." "I walked past a man who stared at me." "His eyes were blank... without pupils." "I recognised Shostakovitch and felt most uncomfortable." "I knew his opera whose score was published." "It had a sickening smell of glue." "I was ill at ease in his presence." "My knees were shaking!" "He was very odd:" "tense... yet extremely refined." "A genius, but quite bizarre." "A terrible depressive, he was totally crazy too." "I'm not saying I'm mad." "I'm quite normal." "Wish I were mad!" "Shostakovich, Fugue in D flat Warsaw, 1962" "The 1st time Shostakovitch came to our home," "Slava told me:" "Just think if Tchaïkovsky had come here!" "Well, today, it was just about that."" "We were acquainted, but, not friends," "until much later, when we premiered his sonata with Oïstrakh." "What a violinist!" "The greatest of all!" "My father introduced me to him when I was 12." "He was around 17." "He was an exquisite, good-looking young man, and so likeable!" "Later on, I attended his concerts." "Such a sound!" "Such unforced power!" "No unnecessary motion..." "I often reminded Oleg Kagan when we played the importance of the legs and abdomen." "That's what produces a good sound." "Oïstrakh and I played several programs:" "Brahms, Franck..." "With Franck, we had some problems." "He thought it was almost drawing-room music." "I find it a miraculous work." "After all, it's the Vinteuil of Proust!" "In any event, I think our recordings of Brahms and Prokofiev are quite decent." "Brahms, 3rd Sonata New York, 1970" "With Fischer-Dieskau, it wasn't so simple." "The problem for Slava was that... well..." "Fischer-Dieskau is an immense personality, and so is Slava." "They didn't always coincide." "What this great man has achieved is phenomenal, almost unbelievable." "Schubert, Liebeslauschen Ismaning, 1978" "With Fischer-Dieskau, we had to work hard." "He's so demanding with respect to the words!" "When he has a consonant, his pianist must play with a slight delay." "His diction is absolutely stupendous." "With Wolf, it was easier." "Humanly and musically, we've had a fantastic time together." "These were amazing concerts." "Both were out of this world!" "Wolf, Der Feuerreiter Meslay, 1967" "And the young musicians with whom Slava played with such pleasure:" "Natalia Gutman, Oleg Kagan..." "Oleg Kagan could be uneven, he had to face such problems... well, it's not that important." "Towards the end he was playing superbly, better and better." "If only he had lived..." "I can't understand how one can play this instrument." "Oleg had so many worries, outside of music." "I admire the endurance of this wonderful man and musician." "Tchaikovsky, Trio in A minor Oleg Kagan, Natalia Gutman Moscow, 1985" "The audience is so fervent when the performer is an artist of Natalia Gutman's stature." "She is the incarnation of honesty in art." "Tonight, Andreï Gavrilov is king." "He is lucky to be so pleased with himself!" "It's a sign of health, but, if he was more modest, he'd be even happier." "We both recorded the Haendel Suites," "Gavrilov and I." "I didn't tell friends who listened to these records who was playing what." "Many mistook Gavrilov for me." "And vice-versa." "Had I not known," "I might also have mixed up the 2 pianists." "Upon listening, I found" "Gavrilov much more interesting, despite a certain flawlessness in Richter's playing." "Handel, Suite in E major Fêtes Musicales de Touraine, 1979" "One day, Prokofiev said his favourite composer was Haydn." "I also adore Haydn." "There's such freshness in him..." "Haydn, Concerto in D major Conductor, Yuri Tsiriuk Moscow, 1983" "A usual TV broadcast." "Better close one's eyes!" "The lovely "White Room"" "at the Pushkin museum." "It was the Haydn concerto which I performed only once." "To tell you the truth, I prefer Haydn." " To whom?" " To Mozart." "I forget Mozart's music." "Is it a defect of my brain?" "It's awful," "I've no memory for it." "Grange de Meslay, 1967" "Mozart, Concerto K.271 Conductor, Lorin Maazel" "What is it about Mozart?" "Does anyone play him well?" "What's Mozart's secret?" "Yes." "No answer." "A phrase which would seem very simple in Haydn or Beethoven, becomes horribly difficult if it's by Mozart." "Really difficult!" "I've not yet found the key to Mozart." "Gentle Haydn, I love thee!" "What about other pianists?" "They're relatively indifferent." "Such a pity!" "Haydn, Sonata in E flat" "In his first concerts, he had a rather harsh tone." "He had a fiery temperament and tended to play forte a lot." "Then, he started paying close attention to sound." "Now, his sound is simply ideal." "I started to play more freely." "It took him time to get this extraordinary bel canto!" "Tours Theatre, 1993" "Saint-Saens' 2nd Concerto." "That was my 1st performance of this concerto." "A technically tricky and musically enchanting work." "After listening to the recording," "I thought it wasn't too bad for an old man." "Words spoken by Vladimir Horowitz after he performed" " badly - Chopin's 1st Scherzo." "In spite of my temperament," "I've a cold-blooded nature." "I have an objective view of what I do." "Now, my sense of pitch is altered." "It's one tone too high." "A kind of cerebral or auditory weakness." "I used to have absolute pitch." "It's no longer the case." "A complete metamorphosis of this Etude." "I'm not making this up." "My hearing has gone out of tune." "It's a disaster!" "I fear playing again." "I'm retired now." "Chopin, Etude op. 25 nº11 London, 1989" "I thought it was a good concert, but when I heard the results..." "I find things disturbing." "I'm talking about life in general, not music." "Anything that is a distraction..." "Whatever is superfluous." "I do not like myself." "That's it." "Schubert, Sonata in B flat"