Svyatoslav Teofilovich Richter (7 (20) March 1915, Zhytomyr, Russian Empire (now Ukraine) - 1 August 1997, Moscow, Russia) was a Ukrainian and Soviet pianist and public figure of German descent. People's Artist of the USSR (1961). Hero of Socialist Labour (1975). Winner of the Lenin (1961), Stalin (1950) Prizes and the Glinka State Prizes of the RSFSR (1987) and Russia (1996).
Biography
He was born in Zhytomyr, which was recorded in the metric book on 13 March 1915 by the rector of St. Michael's Church, Archpriest Mykola Burchak-Abramovych: "Sviatoslav was born on 7 March 1915. Parents: freelance artist Teofil Danyilovych Richter, of the Lutheran faith, and his wife Hanna Pavlivna, of the Orthodox faith. Godparents: Mykola Pavlovych Moskalev and Karolina Yulianivna Arndt". The paternal grandfather, Danylo Richter, was a German colonist, a burgher from the town of Berezhany, Ternopil region, had five children, was a piano master, repaired and tuned instruments, had a workshop in both Berezhany and Zhytomyr (next to the Lutheran Church on the street of the same name, in the house where the Richters lived). The maternal grandfather, Pavlo Petrovych Moskalev, was a Ukrainian nobleman; he worked in the Zhytomyr Zemstvo, and even served as its chairman for some time in 1917. His maternal grandmother, Elizabeth von Reinke, was a noblewoman of German descent. When Sviatoslav was one year old, the entire Richter family moved to Sumy, where they were expelled by the Russians as Germans during the First World War. German troops came close, but were stopped, and the evacuation was stopped. Soon they returned to Zhytomyr. According to Richter's memoirs: "From 1915 to 1918, I managed to visit Zhytomyr, Odesa, Sumy (in Odesa at the age of seventeen), and in the eighteenth year I returned to Zhytomyr and stayed there for three years." Until the age of seven, Sviatoslav grew up in a Ukrainian environment, which he openly missed all the time, and in Odesa, he grew up in a German environment, because his father was German and his mother, who had partially German roots, was also drawn to German. Sviatoslav began his studies with his father, a talented organist, pianist, and composer Teofil Danylovych Richter, who, after graduating from the Vienna Academy of Music, was invited to become a professor at the Odesa Conservatory by its founder and rector, Witold Malishevsky, and combined his professorship at the conservatory with the position of organist at St Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church, known as the Odesa Kirche. Sviatoslav's mother, Anna Pavlivna Moskalova, was also gifted, loved theatre and music. In Odesa, his father introduced his son to the basics of piano. "At the age of eight, I started trying the piano. He started by playing the keyboards of Verdi's operas and learnt all of Wagner's operas by heart. At an early age, his incredible potential creative talent was already evident. Some sources indicate that Richter was largely self-taught, but this is more likely to refer to the fact that he did not take a standard piano course, playing scales, exercises and etudes.
In 1930, the 15-year-old Sviatoslav was already working as an accompanist in a musical group at the House of Sailors. Two years later, he joined the Odesa Philharmonic. In 1933-1937, Richter was a concertmaster at the Odesa Opera House. He gave his first public concert in May 1934 at the Odesa House of Engineers with a programme of Chopin's works.
Sviatoslav often visited Zhytomyr, especially in the summer, but as a creative personality, he mainly formed in Odesa until 1941, when he was already a student at the Moscow Conservatory.
In 1937, he entered the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory, but in the autumn he was expelled from it after refusing to study general education subjects and went back to Odesa, where he constantly returned to his affections, largely family ones. However, eventually, at the insistence of Neuhaus, who made considerable efforts to get him back to Moscow, Richter resumed his studies at the Conservatory.
In 1940, he made his first public performance in Moscow, performing Prokofiev's 6th Sonata, and later became the first performer of his 7th and 9th sonatas (the latter dedicated to Richter).
Throughout the war, he lived semi-secretly in Moscow, under the threat of arrest and deportation. At that time, the entire male population of ethnic Germans in the USSR was deported to the so-called "labour army", to the Gulag concentration camps. They were forbidden to live in the European part of the USSR. In addition, at the beginning of the war, Richter's father was arrested and shot dead in Odesa for refusing to be evacuated to the rear of the USSR on a denunciation to the NKVD. So Sviatoslav was also the son of an "enemy of the people". Richter would visit his teacher Heinrich Neuhaus in the evening and sleep in his apartment at night on the floor under the piano, laying newspapers on the floor.
In 1945, he won the first prize at the All-Union Competition for Musicians and Performers, sharing it with Viktor Merzhanov.
In 1947 he graduated from the Moscow Conservatoire, class of Professor Heinrich Neuhaus.
In the 1940s and 1950s, Richter was not allowed to leave the USSR and the countries of the Soviet bloc. It was only in 1960 that the outstanding pianist made his sensational debut in Finland and the United States, and in 1961-1962 - in Great Britain, France, Italy and Austria.
Creativity
On Richter's initiative, the Turenne Musical Festivals (1964) and December Evenings (1980) were founded, as well as the Tarusa Music Festival (held since 1993). For the last 10-15 years, Richter preferred to perform in small halls in provincial towns. Richter's last concert took place in Lübeck 10 days after his 80th birthday.
He brilliantly performed works by various composers, including J. S. Bach, W. A. Mozart, J. Haydn, L. Beethoven, C. Debussy, M. Ravel, A. Berg, F. Schubert, R. Schumann, F. Chopin, F. Liszt, J. Brahms, K. Szymanowski, P. Tchaikovsky, E. Grieg, A. Dvořák, M. Mussorgsky, S. Rachmaninoff, A. Scriabin, S. Prokofiev and D. Shostakovich. He is also known as a brilliant performer in the genre of chamber music. At the early stage of Richter's career, his main ensemble partners were the pianist and student of Neuhaus Anatoly Vedernikov (1920-1993), singer Nina Dorliak (soprano, Richter's wife, 1908-1998), violinist Galina Barinova (1910-2006), cellist Daniil Shafran, from 1949/50 until the late 1960s - Mstislav Rostropovich (their one-of-a-kind, truly classical collaboration is all Beethoven's cello sonatas). In the 1960s, Richter performed in a piano duet with Benjamin Britten, performing not only his music but also works by Mozart, Schubert, Schumann and Debussy. Among the singers he accompanied in the 1960s and 1980s were Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (Brahms' Die Meistersinger, Schubert's Song and Wolf) and Peter Schreier (Schubert's Winterlied). In 1966, Richter and David Oistrakh began their collaboration, and in 1969 they premiered Shostakovich's Violin Sonata. Richter was a frequent partner of the Borodin Quartet and willingly collaborated with musicians of a younger generation, including Oleg Kagan, Elizaveta Leonskaya, Natalia Gutman, Yuri Bashmet, Zoltan Kochish, and the pianists Vasily Lobanov (b. 1947) and Andrei Gavrilov (b. 1955). Richter's art as a soloist and ensemble player is immortalised in a huge number of studio and concert recordings made from 1946 to 1994.
The renowned pianist's playing was admired at concert venues both at home and abroad. Richter at the piano was a model for many artists, including D. Zhylinsky "Svyatoslav Richter Playing", E. Korolenko "Music and Labour", A. Troianovska "Portrait of S. Richter at the Piano". Richter gave concerts in the USSR, Europe and America and was recognised as one of the world's greatest pianists. Richter's repertoire included works by both ancient and contemporary composers.
In 1989, Richter underwent heart surgery in Zurich. In his last years he lived in Paris, and shortly before his death, on 5 July, he returned to Moscow. He died on 1 August 1997.
The 2015 stamp of the Ukrainian Postal Service dedicated to Sviatoslav Richter.
Awards
Richter received many different awards, including:
1st prize at the All-Union Competition of Performing Musicians (1945);
Stalin Prize (1950),
Grammy for his performance of Brahms' Second Piano Concerto (1960 - the first among Soviet performers),
Lenin Prize (1961),
title of People's Artist of the USSR (1961),
the title of Hero of Socialist Labour (1975),
Honorary Doctorate of the University of Strasbourg (1977),
State Prize of the RSFSR (1987).
He was awarded the title of People's Artist of the Russian Federation,
Full member of the Academy of Arts.
Richter was also awarded many orders.
Commemorations
The asteroid 9014 Svyatorichter was named in honour of the musician.
Since 2018, Sviatoslav Richter Street has existed in Kyiv.
Zhytomyr Regional Philharmonic
Zhytomyr Music School No. 2
