The great pianist Svyatoslav Richter: life and creative path. Svyatoslav Richter - obstinate genius Awards and titles

A German on his father’s side who loved Russia endlessly. A “homeless child” who has chosen the whole world as his home. An obstinate, proud man who could not be broken by war, threats 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 lived almost entirely with his country in the turbulent 20th century.

The son of a musician and 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 without fear marched at the bayonet into the German trenches, laying down under machine-gun fire, and on the horizon of the composer, they collaborated terrible events revolution.

The father of the future pianist was talented musician German origin, mother - Russian noblewoman. Not the best combination for a country in which, in the first three years of Svyatoslav’s life, they first hated the Germans and then began to destroy the nobles.

IN early years In his life, Richter was not treated with special attention: his parents had to work hard, and also find a way to survive the attacks of 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.

By miracle or great difficulty, the Richter family still managed to survive the revolution and the Civil War, and managed to survive when explosions thundered around them and the rifles of firing squads crackled.

But little Svyatoslav may have managed to survive scary times quite easily: there was music in his life even then.

The obstinate student

Speaking about Richter, many researchers claim that he was self-taught. Allegedly genius pianist Svyatoslav Richter did not learn anything, but learned great secret music at the snap of your 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 did not get along in character. The student turned out to be obstinate: he completely refused to play scales, exercises, etudes.

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

Misunderstood by his father, but encouraged by his mother, Svyatoslav gave up on scales and began to play everything he could find in the house. Any sheet music, left unattended, became the lawful prey of the young virtuoso.

Amazing his father and surprising his mother, young Richter, having 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 a Chopin nocturne at the age of ten.

Again and again refuting his father's beliefs, Richter becomes an assistant conductor, begins giving solo concerts, showing excellent skills as a pianist, is interested in theater and opera, and writes plays of his own composition.

In 1937, Richter entered the Moscow Conservatory. The conservatory was taught by a brilliant and meticulous teacher, also a German, named Neuhaus, widely known in musical circles. So it began true story pianist Svyatoslav Richter.

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

“And then he came. A tall, thin young man, fair-haired, blue-eyed, with a lively, surprisingly attractive face. He sat down at the piano, placed his large, soft, nervous hands on the keys and began to play. He played very restrainedly, I would say, even emphatically simple and strict. His performance immediately captivated me with some amazing insight into the music. I whispered to my student: “In my opinion, he is a brilliant musician.”

And again Richter demonstrated himself to be an obstinate student in 1937 in Moscow. Being by descent from a German father and a noblewoman mother, Svyatoslav refused to attend classes in political subjects required for students at the conservatory.

The twenty-two-year-old student stated 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 in his studies. Svyatoslav Richter was not an oppositionist or dissenter, he simply was never afraid of anything, did not allow anyone to dictate him, and never did anything he did not want.

Richter and war

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

Beginning in the winter of 1941, pianist Svyatoslav Richter began traveling around the war-torn USSR. He travels to the front with propaganda teams and appears with concerts in cities destroyed by bombs.

Wherever people hear the music born from the fingers of a 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 sounds in Leningrad, devastated by the blockade.

There, in the concert hall, the windows are broken, 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 tailcoat, he’s not cold: he’s playing music - great classics for myself and for these people who survived hell, on whose faces smiles bloom again. He brought the works of the “disgraced” Prokofiev to Leningrad for the first time.

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

Unbending Music

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

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

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

In his performance, the brilliant pianist seemed to take the audience by the hand and lead them along the waves of music to where its amazing sound is born. It is not for nothing that, starting in the eighties, Richter ordered the hall to be plunged into complete darkness, leaving only the notes and the piano illuminated.

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

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

A Grammy winner, the founder of music festivals in France and Japan, a man who could play an out-of-tune old piano somewhere in a restaurant at the station, as long as there was a grateful listener, Richter hated one thing - being idolized. He didn't play for fame, he didn't play for money, he played music for people.

Born on March 20, 1915 in Zhitomir. Creative potential The master does not need any characteristics or comments. Biography famous musician can be found in any encyclopedia, but its Soviet censorship contradicts many of the most important biographical facts musician, especially from the Odessa period. For example, for many biographers, the Odessa period of Richter’s life began in 1921. According to the later recollections of Svyatoslav Teofilovich himself, his parents brought him as an infant to Odessa in 1916, after his father was invited to the position of professor at the Odessa Conservatory by rector Witold Malishevsky. The musician's father, Teofil Danilovich Richter, was a gifted pianist and organist who graduated from the Vienna Academy of Music and combined a professorship at the conservatory with the position of organist of the Odessa Evangelical Lutheran Church St. Paul (Kirch).

Frequently visiting Zhytomyr (especially in summer period), S.T. Richter, just like creative person, was mainly formed in Odessa until 1941, when he was already a student at the Moscow Conservatory in the class of the famous professor G.G. Neuhaus. It was Neuhaus who first heard the musician play, who came from Odessa in 1937 and had no formal music education, exclaimed: “In my opinion, he is a genius!” . Subsequently, Neuhaus repeatedly confirmed this assessment of his student, and he, in turn, amazed S.S. with his talent. Prokofieva, D.D. Shostakovich, D.B. Kabalevsky and many others.

S. Richter, A. Moskaleva, T. Richter

Almost the entire pre-war Odessa period S.T. Richter's work is full of collisions and paradoxes that do not resonate in any way with the ambitious aspirations of his peers. The grandiose laureate triumphs of pianists E. Gilels and J. Zak (as well as other subsequently eminent Odessa residents), violinists N. Milstein, B. Goldstein and, of course, D. Oistrakh, no longer worried the not at all young musician. Fascinated by the most diverse, sometimes contradictory friend creative plans(drama, poetry, composition, accompanist, conducting), Svyatoslav Richter did not even think about the career of a virtuoso soloist, like his peers. Only at the age of 19, having heard D.F. at a concert in Zhitomir. Oistrakh's play by his accompanist V. Topilin (F. Chopin's fourth Ballade), he planned to perform solo concert from the works of the brilliant Polish composer.

The range of hobbies of the young man, who did not show ambitions so important for the profession of a virtuoso-instrumentalist, did not appeal to the leading piano professor at the conservatory, who had a cool attitude towards both father and son Richter. As a result, the synclite of the piano department gradually demoted T.D. Richter to the position of general piano teacher, and simply ignored his son’s talent. But the general public of Odessa, as well as its musical and professional part, were not mistaken in discovering incredible potential creative inclinations in the young man. The young accompanist, first at the Philharmonic, then at the opera, demonstrates the wonders of sight-reading scores and claviers, laying claim to the conductor's stand in ballet performance A. Glazunov “Raymonda”, delighting the artists with maturity and skill.

Perhaps, during this pre-war period, the preconditions for the complex, contradictory attitude of S.T. Richter to his hometown, which alternated with ups and downs of recognition and disappointment. Departure for Moscow to G.G.’s class. Neuhaus, the turbulent metropolitan life did not draw the Odessa musician into its whirlpool; he constantly fled to Odessa to his affections, largely family, forcing his teacher G.G. Neuhaus made considerable efforts to return him to Moscow.

A separate topic in the musician’s biography is his German origin by father and partly by mother (A. Moskaleva), which also to a large extent alienated the Richter family from the Odessa musical intelligentsia. The materials that have appeared in the last decade quite clearly illustrate the not at all pro-Soviet-minded circle of acquaintances and friends of the church organist’s family, who was forced to quit this position after “expressive” hints from the conservatory administration, moving to the position of opera organist.

The most controversial may be S.T.'s personal renunciation. Richter from his visits to Odessa in the post-war period with the motivation for the execution of his father by the Enkavedists in August 1941. Despite the fact that he firmly entered the cohort famous musicians country in the 40s, a stain remained on his biography because of his repressed father, and after his mother left for Germany at the end of the war with her anti-Soviet new husband S. Kondratyev, Richter’s career could have been predetermined. Meanwhile, at the All-Union Piano Competition in 1945, the German Richter shared the first prize with front-line soldier V. Merzhanov at the behest of Stalin himself, constantly being in the field of view of the aesthetic despot. In 1950, Richter received the Stalin Prize, already being the most famous artist in the USSR, in whose biography the Odessa period clearly demanded official renunciation. However, according to available data, this was an outwardly fulfilled obligation both by Richter himself and, to a large extent, by those around him. At the same time, Richter never abandoned his old Odessa connections, friends and colleagues, showing warmth both to the favorite places of his youth and to the hearths where his genius matured, although he avoided advertising it.

One should not hush up the fact that his way of life both in the country and abroad was under the vigilant eye of the special services, who found opportunities to observe his special one from all distances, which he always remembered. However, Richter revealed himself in correspondence with “people from the Odessa past”, whom he completely trusted, but who are not visible in any of the official biographies. This is the family of Natalya Zavalishina-Verbitskaya, with whom Richter corresponded all the years until her death in 1974. And the family of the famous Odessa pediatrician G.S. Levi, who saved S. Richter from meningitis in childhood, was a home for the musician, like other families close to him. In the living room of S. Richter (now memorial apartment-museum) the tapestry given to the musician with a dedicatory inscription from the Levi family has been preserved to this day.

Was Richter in Odessa after the war? Until the 90s, these were legends, assumptions, and testimonies of individuals. Richter himself did not tell even his closest people about this. Only in last decade Richter confessed to N. Zhuravleva, the daughter of the famous reader Dmitry Zhuravlev, and some other especially close ones that he had been to hometown, saw a destroyed church that had burned down by that time, an apartment from the first period of his life on Nezhinskaya and some other objects important to his memory.

Odessa, alas, remained cool towards the Great Musician, not trying to sort things out, much less the true facts of Richter’s attachments to the dangerous past. Only since 2002, through the efforts of the Mission of D. Oistrakh and S. Richter, has Richterianism flared up with unprecedented force international festivals“Richterfest” (2002, 2005) with the opening of a memorial plaque to the musician on the Parsonage near the church.

The biography of the Great Musician becomes more complete and refined over the years, revealing Shakespearean scope, as a reflection of the era that gave birth to this brilliant personality.

Yuri Dikiy, pianist

On September 2, 2015, as part of the celebration of City Day, a new star- in honor of Svyatoslav Teofilovich Richter.

Richter Svyatoslav Teofilovich is an outstanding pianist of the 20th century, a virtuoso. He had a huge repertoire. S. Richter founded a charitable foundation. He also organized several music festivals.

Biography

Svyatoslav Richter, whose biography is presented in this article, was born in 1915 in Zhitomir. His childhood and teenage years took place in Odessa. His first teacher was his father, a pianist and organist who studied music in Vienna. At the age of 19, S. Richter gave his first concert. At the age of 22 he entered the Moscow Conservatory. In 1945 he became the winner of the All-Union Musicians Competition. For a long time the authorities did not allow Richter to go abroad on tour. His first trip took place in 1960. Then he performed in the USA and Finland. In subsequent years he gave concerts in France, Great Britain, Austria and Italy.

Svyatoslav Richter was the founder of several music festivals and charitable foundation. During the war, he lived in Moscow, and his parents were under occupation in Odessa. Soon the father was arrested and shot. The mother left for Germany, and S. Richter believed that she died. He hasn't seen her for 20 years. The musician spent the last years of his life in Paris. Shortly before his death, he returned to Russia. Last concert S. Richter took place on July 6, 1997. The pianist died on August 1, 1997. The cause of death was a heart attack. He was buried in Moscow, at the Novodevichy cemetery.

Creative path

In 1930, Svyatoslav Richter worked at the Sailor's House in Odessa as an accompanist. Then he moved to the Philharmonic. Since 1934 he served at the opera house. In 1937, Svyatoslav Richter entered the Moscow Conservatory. But soon the pianist was expelled. After some time, he continued his studies. Graduated from the S. Richter Conservatory in 1947. The musician gained fame in post-war years. In 1952, Svyatoslav Teofilovich for the first and last time in his life he appeared on stage as a conductor. In the 60s, the pianist went abroad for concerts for the first time. Svyatoslav Richter was the first Soviet performers was awarded a Grammy Award. He gave 70 concerts a year. At the end of his life, he was often ill, but continued to perform, although he often canceled concerts for health reasons.

"December Evenings"

“December Evenings” by Svyatoslav Richter is music Festival, founded by the great pianist. It was first held in 1981. The festival is a series of concerts where music is played and pictures selected to go with it are shown. Thus, a close relationship with each other is shown various types art. Over the years of the festival's existence, about 500 concerts were organized within the framework of its holding, in which they took part outstanding musicians, poets, artists, actors, directors.

Repertoire

• J. S. Bach.
• J. Haydn.
• M. Ravel.
• F. Leaf.
• P. I. Tchaikovsky.
• M. Balakirev.
• L. Cherubini.
• M. Falla.
• B. Britten.
• F. Chopin.
• J-B. Weckerlen.
• A. Copland.
• A. Alyabyev.
• A. Berg.
• D. Gershwin.
• N. Medtner.
• L. Delibes.
• G. Wolf.
• K. Szymanowski.
• E. Chausson.
• S. Taneev.
• L. Janacek.
• F. Poulenc et al.

Despite the fact that the repertoire was very wide and versatile, very little was recorded in the studio of Svyatoslav Richter. The pianist's albums are listed below:

• “Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor” for piano and orchestra by P. I. Tchaikovsky. With participation under the direction of G. Karajan (1981).
• “The Well-Tempered Clavier” by J. S. Bach - 1 part (1971).
• “The Well-Tempered Clavier” by J. S. Bach - part 2 (1973).

S. Richter Foundation

In the 90s of the 20th century, the Svyatoslav Richter Foundation was founded. Its activities are aimed at carrying out various cultural events in the province. First of all, these are festivals classical music. It all started when S. Richter came up with the idea of ​​creating a creative school where young artists and musicians could study and relax. He dreamed of opening such an establishment in the city of Tarusa, where he had his dacha. To make his dreams come true it was necessary cash. Then Svyatoslav Teofilovich came up with the idea of ​​holding annual festivals for artists and musicians, where he himself, as well as his creative friends. It was planned to use the proceeds from such events to open a school. The musician's friends and colleagues - Galina Pisarenko, Natalia Gutman, Elizaveta Leonskaya and many others - supported his idea. Thus the S. Richter Foundation was founded. The pianist himself became its president. Svyatoslav Teofilovich transferred his dacha to the ownership of the foundation. The foundation's activities began with a concert by S. Richter. It took place on December 1, 1992.

Richter the artist

Richter Svyatoslav Teofilovich was interested not only in music. He collected a collection of paintings, as well as drawings created by people who were close to him: K. Magalashvili, A. Troyanovskaya, V. Shukhaeva, D. Krasnopevtseva. From foreign artists his collection included paintings by P. Picasso (“Dove” with a dedicatory inscription from the painter himself), H. Hartung, H. Miro and A. Calder. Anna Troyanovskaya was a great friend of the pianist; he learned to paint with pastels from her. In her opinion, Svyatoslav Richter had great feeling colors and tones, the concept of space, imagination and phenomenal memory.

Works by Svyatoslav Teofilovich, which are stored in the museum:

• "Moscow".
• "Nanny".
• "Moon. China".
• "Blue Danube".
• "Old dacha"
• “Ninochka with Mitka on Rzhevsky.”
• "Night and rooftops."
• "In the south of Armenia."
• "At the church."
• "Pavshino."
• "Twilight in Skatertny".
• "Church in Pererva".
• "Snowstorm".
• "They are carrying a balloon."
• "Yerevan".
• "Mourning".
• "Spring weather."
• "Street in Beijing."

Awards and titles

Svyatoslav Richter is a pianist who has rightfully been awarded a large number of awards and titles. He is an honorary citizen of Turus. Received the title and then the RSFSR. He was awarded the Lenin and Stalin Prizes. The pianist was an honorary doctor of Strasbourg and Oxford Universities. S. Richter was awarded the orders “ October revolution", "For services to the Fatherland." The musician also received awards: Leonie Sonning, M.I. Glinka, R. Schumann, F. Abbiati, Truimf and Grammy. Svyatoslav Teofilovich - Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters (France), Hero Socialist Labor and member of the Academy of Creativity in Moscow. And that's not yet full list titles and awards.

Nina Dorliak

In 1943 he met his future wife Svyatoslav Richter. The musician’s personal life, despite the presence of his wife, has always been surrounded by rumors about his homosexuality. Svyatoslav Teofilovich himself did not comment on gossip and preferred not to make his personal life public. S. Richter's wife was Nina Dorliak - opera soprano, People's Artist of the USSR and RSFSR. Nina Lvovna often performed in an ensemble with Svyatoslav Richter. Soon she became his wife. After leaving the stage, she began teaching. Since 1947 she was a professor at the Moscow Conservatory. Nina Lvovna died less than a year after her husband Richter Svyatoslav died. Children, family, friends and all the other joys of life, according to the musician, were not for him; he believed that he should devote himself to art. Although he did have a wife, and he lived with her for 50 years, they had no children. And their marriage was unusual. The spouses called each other by common names, and each had their own room. Nina Lvovna bequeathed the apartment in which they lived to the museum fine arts named after A.S. Pushkin.

Museum-apartment

In 1999, a museum was opened in Moscow, in the apartment on Bolshaya Bronnaya, where Svyatoslav Richter lived. Here there is furniture, personal belongings, sheet music, paintings - everything that belonged to the great pianist. The apartment does not have luxurious furnishings. The lifestyle and character of its owner are felt in everything. A large room, which the pianist himself called the “hall,” was used for rehearsals. The musician's favorite piano stands here. Nowadays, this room hosts film screenings and opera auditions. In the office there are cabinets with sheet music, cassettes, concert costumes, records and gifts from friends and fans. The secretary contains the manuscript of S. Prokofiev himself - this is the Ninth Sonata he wrote, which is dedicated to the pianist. In the office - a large number of books, especially Svyatoslav Richter loved to read the classics: A. Pushkin, T. Mann, A. Blok, A. Chekhov, M. Bulgakov, B. Pasternak, F. Dostoevsky, etc. The musician’s rest room, which he called “green” ”, turned into an artistic one in those days when S. Richter gave concerts. In addition to music, as we have already mentioned, the pianist was interested in painting. He was not only a connoisseur, but also an artist. In a small room there is a real exhibition of paintings. Pastels by Svyatoslav Richter are presented here, as well as works by various painters. The pianist himself very often organized opening days in his house. The apartment museum hosts excursions, which necessarily include listening to audio and watching video. In addition, music evenings are held here.

Memory of a musician

In memory of the outstanding pianist, in 2011 in the city of Zhitomir they installed His name. international competition pianists. Monuments to S. T. Richter have been erected in several cities - in Yagotin (Ukraine) and in Bydgoszcz (Poland). In Moscow, a street is named after Svyatoslav Richter.

Richter Svyatoslav Teofilovich

(Born in 1915 – died in 1997)

Outstanding pianist, legend of 20th century music. An amazing virtuoso performer. One of the organizers of the famous Moscow festival “December Evenings”.

According to the critic Boris Lifanovsky, “the phenomenon called “Svyatoslav Richter” is so immense and majestic that in order to talk about it in detail and seriously, it probably requires considerable courage. Richter passed away recently, we all had the honor of being his contemporaries, one might say, we got used to it. It is all the more surprising to see how his name and his work are rapidly disappearing from modern times into the history of music, becoming one of its greatest pages.”

Svyatoslav was born in Zhitomir, into a family with strong musical traditions. His paternal grandfather, Daniil Richter, was a tuner. He was a real ethnic German, but originally from Poland, and emigrated to Russia in search of work. A piano master, he opened his own workshop in Zhitomir. His son Theophilus was the youngest of five children and the only one who connected his life with music. After serving in the army, he was sent to study in Vienna, which at that time was the musical capital of the world. Then you could easily meet Mahler or Grieg on the street, and Brahms regularly attended the opera. Theophilus Richter was trained as a composer and pianist and showed great promise.

After graduating from the conservatory, he did not return to his homeland for a long time: he played at the court of Queen Draghi, and gave private lessons to Austrian aristocrats. Returning to Zhitomir 22 years later, Theophilus married noblewoman Anna Moskaleva. Her father Pavel Petrovich, who at one time even presided over the zemstvo, was categorically against such unequal marriage, but still gave his consent.

On March 20, 1915, the Richters had a son, who was named Svyatoslav. A year later they moved to Odessa, where their father was offered a place at the conservatory. In 1918, a terrible typhus epidemic broke out. At that time Svyatoslav was visiting his grandfather in Zhitomir. There he fell ill, and with him his mother’s sister Elena. The aunt soon died, and news came from Odessa that the father was also sick. The mother considered it necessary to be close to her husband, and the boy remained for three years in the care of numerous relatives (Anna’s family had seven children).

The greatest influence on little Svyatoslav was his aunt Mary, who was 16 years old at that time. It was to her that he owed his passions for painting, theater and cinema, which he carried throughout his life. If the mother of the future pianist was real socialite, then the aunt is eccentric, cheerful woman, who was constantly inventing something. She drew all the time and tried to introduce her nephew to painting, who was not at all against it. At that time, little Richter had absolutely no interest in music and was going to become an artist.

Upon returning to Odessa in 1921, the boy found himself in a completely different world. Music reigned here. My father not only taught, but also played the organ in the local church, where everyone went to listen to him on Sundays. Musical evenings were constantly held at home. All this led to the fact that at the age of about eight years the boy himself sat down at the instrument. He never played scales, but immediately took on Chopin's nocturne. Subsequently, the young talent more than once surprised his father, who was involved in his initial musical education. For example, Svyatoslav himself learned to read orchestral scores. True, music did not yet seem to him a choice for the rest of his life. Simply on his mother’s instructions, he performed something like a mandatory program in front of the guests, but of his own choice. The desire to become a pianist appeared after the first public speaking in the house of the Semenov sisters in 1931

From the age of 15, Svyatoslav, who was in love with the theater, began accompanying in various concerts and even worked for three years at the Sailors' Palace. Then it was time for the opera. At first he was hired as a ballet tutor. However, he soon made his debut as solo artist. It happened on February 19, 1934 in the hall of the engineers club. The audience enthusiastically appreciated the performance complex works Chopin and Svyatoslav were even called for an encore.

Having worked for some time as an accompanist Odessa Theater opera and ballet and trying to avoid military service, Richter went to study in Moscow. In 1937, without exams, he was enrolled in the Moscow Conservatory, in the class of G. G. Neuhaus. This is how the great teacher later recalled this event: “He did not receive any musical education, did not study anywhere, and they told me that such a young man wants to enter the conservatory. He played Beethoven, Chopin, and I whispered to those around me: “I think he’s a genius.” Later, almost everyone who hears Richter’s performance will come to the same opinion. Even when he was a student, S. Prokofiev heard him and was so captivated by the mastery of his performance that in 1940 he entrusted this generally young and little-known pianist with the premiere of his Sixth piano sonata. Subsequently, the musician will become the first performer of the rest of Prokofiev’s sonatas, so much will he be delighted with his playing. And the Ninth Sonata was even dedicated to Richter by the composer.

On the eve of the war, a tragedy occurred in the Richter family, which Svyatoslav Teofilovich did not mention for a long time. However, in his declining years, he spoke about this in one of documentaries About Me. Later this story was repeated by him several times in various books and diary entries. Apparently, this was a very painful topic that tormented the musician for a long time. The story was worthy of a romance novel, and perhaps would not have been perceived so sadly if it had not happened in life.

Even during the years of the revolution, the son of a prominent tsarist official fled to Odessa. He himself was German, but in order to avoid persecution he changed his last name to Kondratyev. He showed promise as a musician, but, again for fear of exposure, he chose to leave the conservatory and feign bone tuberculosis. The role required being bedridden. He earned his living by giving private composition lessons. Richter was one of his students. The boy did not like the lessons, but he attended them regularly. As a result, his mother became very close to the imaginary patient. Anna Pavlovna was not a compassionate and soft-hearted woman, but here she succumbed (according to Richter) to suggestion. Sergei Kondratyev was brought to their house, and she selflessly looked after him. Richter, as we remember, was in Moscow at that time and had no idea what was happening in the family of his parents. Meanwhile, with the beginning of the war, everyone was asked to evacuate, but the mother refused. Her father, understanding everything perfectly, stayed with her and was shot in 1941 on a denunciation as a German, shortly before the arrival of the invaders. With the arrival of the enemy, the “sick” unexpectedly recovered and 20 years later he got up and walked. Anna Petrovna fled with him to Germany, where they got married, and Kondratyev chose to take his wife’s surname. When he was mistaken for the father of the great pianist, he did not mind at all and even took advantage of it...

Throughout the war, Svyatoslav Richter traveled with concerts, traveling both the north of Russia and Transcaucasia. He considered this period the beginning of his career. In the summer of 1942, his first solo concert took place in the Small Hall of the Conservatory. When he played in Leningrad in 1944, the windows in the hall were broken, and the audience sat in fur coats because it was very cold. Richter played as always, claiming that he was warmed by inspiration.

In 1945, Svyatoslav Richter became the winner of the All-Union Competition of Performing Musicians. In 1947, he finally completed his studies at the conservatory, interrupted by the war, and in 1949 he became a laureate Stalin Prize. At the same time, in addition to solo performances, he began to give joint concerts with Nina Lvovna Dorliak. They met during the war in 1943 at one of the then numerous memorial services, where both performed. This is how the musician himself recalled it: “And then the singer came out, I really liked her and looked like a princess. She sang wonderfully, and only then I realized that it was Nina Dorliak.”

Nina Lvovna came from a fairly famous theatrical and musical family. Like Richter, she graduated from the Moscow Conservatory with a gold medal and, like her mother, later became one of its most prominent professors. They lived together for more than 50 years, and until the end of their days they called each other only “you.” It all started in 1946, when Richter, not having his own home (upon arrival in Moscow, he lived with Neuhaus), moved to Nina Dorliak’s apartment on Arbat. These were two rooms in a communal apartment where she lived with her mother and nephew. And their last home was an apartment on the 16th floor on Nezhdanova Street, where now the Museum-Apartment of Svyatoslav Richter is part of the Museum of Fine Arts. A. S. Pushkin. They often organized musical evenings, carnivals, film screenings and even readings of opera librettos there for friends.

Until Stalin's death in 1953, Richter did not travel abroad. He was amazing person and he never hid the fact that he played at the funeral of the Father of Nations, where he was hastily taken from Tbilisi on a military plane. Svyatoslav was so alien to politics that during the exam he could not answer who Karl Marx was, and he recalled literally the following about this event: “I played the piano and saw up close the dead Stalin, and Malenkov, all the leaders. I played and went outside.”

Afterwards, Richter will tour the whole world with concerts, starting from Prague and all the way to Far East. For example, in 1986 he performed 150 times. In total he had 80 concert programs, and he played them all from memory. The success was insane, but being a serious musician, Richter did not get hung up on touring. For him, self-improvement and constant work were the most important.

In 1964 Richter founded annual festival in France, in Touraine, and constantly took part in it. And in 1989, with his participation, it was organized, which has been held annually since then at the Moscow Museum of Fine Arts. A. S. Pushkin festival “December Evenings” (by the way, the pianist is the author of this name).

Unattainably great on the world stage, the maestro was very modest and never refused to perform at the smallest venues. Richter said: “I’m ready to play at school without a fee, I play in small halls without money, I don’t care.”

So in 1978, he readily responded to the request of I. T. Bobrovskaya, director of Moscow Children's Art School No. 3. The warmest relations developed between the musician and the school teachers, and since then concerts have become regular. now this educational institution bears the name of Svyatoslav Richter.

The musician believed that “the public is always right” and “is not to blame for anything,” but at the same time he noted that he plays for himself and the better he plays for himself, the better the audience perceives the concerts. His mother admitted that while carrying her son, she tried to watch and listen only to the most beautiful things, so that the child would perceive it all. Well, she did it. Svyatoslav Richter brought his amazing art. People, listening to his playing, became happier, better, cleaner and kinder. He never went against his conscience. At the first competition. He gave Van Cliburn 25 points for P.I. Tchaikovsky and zero for the rest of the participants. Since then he has not been invited to the jury.

Jacques Yves Cousteau (1910 - 1997) “And why is it that you are so drawn to the sea?” – practical people ask us. George Mallory was once asked why he so wanted to climb Everest. He replied: “Because it exists!” Let these words be our answer. J. I. Cousteau. "In the world