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Sviatoslav Richter: Notebooks and Conversations
Sviatoslav Richter was a dazzling performer but an intensely private man. Though world famous and revered by classical music lovers everywhere, he guarded himself and his thoughts as carefully as his talent. Fascinated, author and filmmaker Bruno Monsaingeon tried vainly for years to interview the enigmatic pianist. Richter eventually yielded, granting Monsaingeon hours of taped conversation, unlimited access to his diaries and notebooks, and, ultimately, his friendship. This book is the product of that friendship.
Richter reveals himself as a man and an artist. Unsentimentally and with his characteristic dry humor and intelligence, the musician describes his poignant childhood and spectacular career, including his tumultuous early days at the Moscow Conservatory and his triumphant 1960 tour of the United States. His laconic recounting of playing in the orchestra at Stalin's surreal, interminable state funeral is riveting. Most important for music lovers, Richter discusses his influences and views on musical interpretation. He describes his encounters with other great Russian performers and composers, including Prokoviev, Shostakovich, Oistrakh, and Gilels. Candid sections from his personal journals offer his sober and unguarded impressions of dozens of performances and recordings--both his own and those of other musicians.
This volume offers readers the sizable pleasure of lingering in the thoughts and words of one of the most important pianists of the twentieth century. Unlike many other star performers, Richter was also an intellectual who had interesting things to say, particularly about the musician's proper role as interpreter of the composer's art. This alone makes the book worth reading. Sviatoslav Richter belongs on the shelves of everyone with a classical music collection and will also appeal to lovers of autobiography and admirers of Russian musical culture.
Richter reveals himself as a man and an artist. Unsentimentally and with his characteristic dry humor and intelligence, the musician describes his poignant childhood and spectacular career, including his tumultuous early days at the Moscow Conservatory and his triumphant 1960 tour of the United States. His laconic recounting of playing in the orchestra at Stalin's surreal, interminable state funeral is riveting. Most important for music lovers, Richter discusses his influences and views on musical interpretation. He describes his encounters with other great Russian performers and composers, including Prokoviev, Shostakovich, Oistrakh, and Gilels. Candid sections from his personal journals offer his sober and unguarded impressions of dozens of performances and recordings--both his own and those of other musicians.
This volume offers readers the sizable pleasure of lingering in the thoughts and words of one of the most important pianists of the twentieth century. Unlike many other star performers, Richter was also an intellectual who had interesting things to say, particularly about the musician's proper role as interpreter of the composer's art. This alone makes the book worth reading. Sviatoslav Richter belongs on the shelves of everyone with a classical music collection and will also appeal to lovers of autobiography and admirers of Russian musical culture.
464 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
October 25, 2007
I have no words for this beyond bare platitudes: a giant, a rare spiritual force. His journals are as astonishing as his recordings.
April 14, 2016
In 1998, documentary filmmaker Bruno Monsaingeon released an immeasurably moving documentary, Richter, the Enigma, about his friend, the late Soviet-Russian classical pianist, Sviatoslav Richter. It was authentic and honest and poetic, and it touched and saddened me in a way that few films do. In it, Richter confessed his fears after bottling them up for a lifetime of living under Soviet repression and within the bounds of his own self-imposed inner prison. I ranked it the best movie of 1998.
This book -- culled from the same notes and interviews and autobiographical scraps used to make the movie -- was released concurrently with the film and was meant, partially, to be a supplement companion piece, although it was obviously also meant to stand alone as the first "official" pseudo-autobiography of a very secretive artist, about which very little accurate information had previously been published.
Before I say anything more about it, let me state my complete admiration for Monsaingeon, who made the film and compiled and edited the material for this book (surely a herculean task), and, of course, for Richter, one of the towering musical artists of the last century. Anyone interested at all in Richter will want to see the film, for sure, and to acquire this book. The book does serve a useful purpose in shedding some light on the life of a somewhat eccentric and enigmatic artist.
That said, we have to be honest: this book is an incomplete, skeletal work. Monsaingeon had actually intended to meet Richter for further interviews to flesh out and clarify missing information. He made an appointment with Richter to do that on August 2, 1997. Sadly, Richter died on August 1, 1997.
And because of that, we will never know how much more complete this book might have been.
What we have, then, are tantalizing flashes of a man's life. The kind that might have passed before him in his last moments. We learn about the weird and wonderful musical life and culture of Odessa and Moscow in the 1930s, '40s, and '50s, and the motley characters who inhabited the parlors and conservatories of those places, such as Sergei Prokofiev, the wacky bag-lady pianist Maria Yudina, and the short-tempered pianist, Emil Gilels, among many others.
In the book, Richter dispels a number of rumors and falsehoods about his life and some of his notable concerts. Those falsehoods, though, stemmed largely from his own silence. When the press came to call, Richter was always recalcitrant.
Luckily, Monsaingeon befriended him and earned his trust just in time to get the little bit that we do get in this book. The biographical portion of the book is culled from interviews and from Richter's own diaries, and only runs 150 pages of the entire 400+-page book. The rest of the book consists of vast indexes and some sometimes delightfully bitchy short notes (the "notebooks" of the title) in which Richter praises or pans his own concert performances and recordings as well as those of others.
We learn about Richter's ample misanthropy. It is clear he had little use for the human race, while at the same time harboring his own sense of self-loathing. He approached life with a monk-like asceticism, living very sparely and frugally and withdrawing into his various residences. He appears to have had no real love in his life, and there are rumors he may have been gay. The book addresses none of this.
Music was all he cared about, and that comes out in his probing, concentrated playing, a style so commanding and masterly that countless piano aficionados considered Richter the greatest pianist of the 20th century.
Richter's fierce individualism had both admirable and disturbing aspects. Under the Soviet system, he rebelled in ways that might have meant prison or death for others. He dropped out of the music conservatory twice because he refused to take courses he didn't like or care about, such as politics and math. He ignored official Soviet decrees and played music by banned composers, a very ballsy move under Stalin.
In other ways, Richter's cold aloofness show an unsettling perversity. When the siege of Leningrad lifted in 1944, after which 1.5 million people died mainly of starvation and cold, Richter stated remorse about the happy new days ahead, stating a preference for the more interesting "mysterious" wartime conditions in the city of death.
The pianist, a servant only to his music and his muse, harbored a disdain for his audience that resembled that of his later pianist contemporary, Glenn Gould. It was not outright hate, but simply a lack of caring. "If I have any contact with the audience, it's through the [musical] work that that contact is forged. To be frank...I don't care about the audience."
Nonetheless, Richter harbored a religious, almost monk-like sense of servitude to music and to the downtrodden. He preferred to play to peasants in log cabins in Siberian villages than to glamorous mavens in city concert halls. He despised what he called the "temptation of voyeurism" that comes with fame and show business.
Most of the second half of this book consists of the tidbits of musical commentary that I chose to spot read. The numerous reviews of the "I liked this and I liked that" variety go a long way after a few pages. It's best to read the ones that relate to works or other musical figures that interest you. That's how I approached this section. I probably read a quarter of them in all.
One of the gems in the notebooks is this one: "I loathe these concerts organized by politicians. All these empty phrases about 'culture bringing nations together' ...and so on are coquetries that don't ring true. That's why I avoid these official gatherings like the plague."
Richter comes off as a physically sickly and mentally spent man at war with the universe, and resigned in the way of a Dostoyevskian tragic protagonist; rendered inert in a constant state of torpor like the bed-ridden character in the Russian novel, Oblomov. Richter carried his Russian soul heavily and took most of his demons to his grave.
His hatred of humanity may have stemmed partly from a bizarre episode of his youth, in which his father disappeared (later discovered to have shot by Soviet authorities) and his music teacher (who evidently was his mother's lover) stepped in to become his new stepdad. Richter suspected his would-be stepdad sent an accusatory letter of some kind to the KGB or NKVD, leading to his father's fate. With that hanging over your head, no wonder your sense of self and of humanity might be skewed or fucked up.
So what we have is a great autobiography that might have been, invaluable for what it is, and frustratingly sad because of what it isn't.
(KevinR@Ky 2016)
This book -- culled from the same notes and interviews and autobiographical scraps used to make the movie -- was released concurrently with the film and was meant, partially, to be a supplement companion piece, although it was obviously also meant to stand alone as the first "official" pseudo-autobiography of a very secretive artist, about which very little accurate information had previously been published.
Before I say anything more about it, let me state my complete admiration for Monsaingeon, who made the film and compiled and edited the material for this book (surely a herculean task), and, of course, for Richter, one of the towering musical artists of the last century. Anyone interested at all in Richter will want to see the film, for sure, and to acquire this book. The book does serve a useful purpose in shedding some light on the life of a somewhat eccentric and enigmatic artist.
That said, we have to be honest: this book is an incomplete, skeletal work. Monsaingeon had actually intended to meet Richter for further interviews to flesh out and clarify missing information. He made an appointment with Richter to do that on August 2, 1997. Sadly, Richter died on August 1, 1997.
And because of that, we will never know how much more complete this book might have been.
What we have, then, are tantalizing flashes of a man's life. The kind that might have passed before him in his last moments. We learn about the weird and wonderful musical life and culture of Odessa and Moscow in the 1930s, '40s, and '50s, and the motley characters who inhabited the parlors and conservatories of those places, such as Sergei Prokofiev, the wacky bag-lady pianist Maria Yudina, and the short-tempered pianist, Emil Gilels, among many others.
In the book, Richter dispels a number of rumors and falsehoods about his life and some of his notable concerts. Those falsehoods, though, stemmed largely from his own silence. When the press came to call, Richter was always recalcitrant.
Luckily, Monsaingeon befriended him and earned his trust just in time to get the little bit that we do get in this book. The biographical portion of the book is culled from interviews and from Richter's own diaries, and only runs 150 pages of the entire 400+-page book. The rest of the book consists of vast indexes and some sometimes delightfully bitchy short notes (the "notebooks" of the title) in which Richter praises or pans his own concert performances and recordings as well as those of others.
We learn about Richter's ample misanthropy. It is clear he had little use for the human race, while at the same time harboring his own sense of self-loathing. He approached life with a monk-like asceticism, living very sparely and frugally and withdrawing into his various residences. He appears to have had no real love in his life, and there are rumors he may have been gay. The book addresses none of this.
Music was all he cared about, and that comes out in his probing, concentrated playing, a style so commanding and masterly that countless piano aficionados considered Richter the greatest pianist of the 20th century.
Richter's fierce individualism had both admirable and disturbing aspects. Under the Soviet system, he rebelled in ways that might have meant prison or death for others. He dropped out of the music conservatory twice because he refused to take courses he didn't like or care about, such as politics and math. He ignored official Soviet decrees and played music by banned composers, a very ballsy move under Stalin.
In other ways, Richter's cold aloofness show an unsettling perversity. When the siege of Leningrad lifted in 1944, after which 1.5 million people died mainly of starvation and cold, Richter stated remorse about the happy new days ahead, stating a preference for the more interesting "mysterious" wartime conditions in the city of death.
The pianist, a servant only to his music and his muse, harbored a disdain for his audience that resembled that of his later pianist contemporary, Glenn Gould. It was not outright hate, but simply a lack of caring. "If I have any contact with the audience, it's through the [musical] work that that contact is forged. To be frank...I don't care about the audience."
Nonetheless, Richter harbored a religious, almost monk-like sense of servitude to music and to the downtrodden. He preferred to play to peasants in log cabins in Siberian villages than to glamorous mavens in city concert halls. He despised what he called the "temptation of voyeurism" that comes with fame and show business.
Most of the second half of this book consists of the tidbits of musical commentary that I chose to spot read. The numerous reviews of the "I liked this and I liked that" variety go a long way after a few pages. It's best to read the ones that relate to works or other musical figures that interest you. That's how I approached this section. I probably read a quarter of them in all.
One of the gems in the notebooks is this one: "I loathe these concerts organized by politicians. All these empty phrases about 'culture bringing nations together' ...and so on are coquetries that don't ring true. That's why I avoid these official gatherings like the plague."
Richter comes off as a physically sickly and mentally spent man at war with the universe, and resigned in the way of a Dostoyevskian tragic protagonist; rendered inert in a constant state of torpor like the bed-ridden character in the Russian novel, Oblomov. Richter carried his Russian soul heavily and took most of his demons to his grave.
His hatred of humanity may have stemmed partly from a bizarre episode of his youth, in which his father disappeared (later discovered to have shot by Soviet authorities) and his music teacher (who evidently was his mother's lover) stepped in to become his new stepdad. Richter suspected his would-be stepdad sent an accusatory letter of some kind to the KGB or NKVD, leading to his father's fate. With that hanging over your head, no wonder your sense of self and of humanity might be skewed or fucked up.
So what we have is a great autobiography that might have been, invaluable for what it is, and frustratingly sad because of what it isn't.
(KevinR@Ky 2016)
August 1, 2014
He lived a life that was completely immersed in his music and in doing so Sviatislov Richter truly was a "protean" artist. The personal voice of Richter conveyed in this amazing volume is as magnetic as his playing (I regret I only know his music through recordings).
On March 19, 1934, Richter gave his first recital, at the Engineers' Club of Odessa; but he did not formally start studying piano until three years later, when he decided to seek out Heinrich Neuhaus, a famous pianist and piano teacher, at the Moscow Conservatory. During Richter's audition for Neuhaus (at which he performed Chopin's Ballade No. 4), Neuhaus apparently whispered to a fellow student, "This man's a genius". Although Neuhaus taught many great pianists, including Emil Gilels and Radu Lupu, it is said that he considered Richter to be "the genius pupil, for whom he had been waiting all his life," while acknowledging that he taught Richter "almost nothing."
Emil Gilels was one of Richter's first advocates in the West. He commented, during his own first tour of the United States, that the critics (who were giving Gilels rave reviews) should "wait until you hear Richter." Richter's first concerts in the West took place in May 1960, when he was allowed to play in Finland, and on October 15, 1960, in Chicago, where he played Brahms's Second Piano Concerto accompanied by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Erich Leinsdorf. He created a sensation, and noted Chicago music critic Claudia Cassidy, who was known for her unkind reviews of established artists, recalled Richter first walking on stage hesitantly, looking vulnerable (as if about to be "devoured"), but then sitting at the piano and dispatching "the performance of a lifetime". Richter's 1960 tour of the United States culminated in a series of concerts at Carnegie Hall.
Richter, however, claimed to dislike performing in the United States. He also claimed to dislike the high expectations of American audiences. In 1961, Richter played for the first time in London. His first recital, pairing works of Haydn and Prokofiev, was received with hostility by British critics. Notably, Neville Cardus concluded that Richter's playing was "provincial", and wondered why Richter had been invited to play in London, given that London had plenty of "second class" pianists of its own. Following a July 18, 1961, concert, where Richter performed both of Liszt's piano concertos, the critics reversed course. In 1963, after searching in the Loire Valley, France, for a venue suitable for a music festival, Richter discovered La Grange de Meslay several kilometres north of Tours. The festival was established by Richter and became an annual event. In 1970, Richter visited Japan for the first time traveling across Siberia by railway and boat as he disliked airplanes. He played Beethoven, Schumann, Mussorgsky, Prokofiev, Bartok and Rachmaninov, as well as works by Mozart and Beethoven with Japanese orchestras. Richter eventually visited Japan a total of eight times. His nomadic existence mirrors the breadth of the music he surveyed and performed over his lifetime.
In this book there are both intimate and interesting portraits of composers and artists, friends of the man who shared the spirit of music with them. Inspirational moments occur on almost every page with Richter's life, at least for this music-lover, becoming more alive with every detail. The book is divided into two sections: "Richter in his own words", and "Notebooks: On Music". I will keep them both near me and my music collection for future reference.
On March 19, 1934, Richter gave his first recital, at the Engineers' Club of Odessa; but he did not formally start studying piano until three years later, when he decided to seek out Heinrich Neuhaus, a famous pianist and piano teacher, at the Moscow Conservatory. During Richter's audition for Neuhaus (at which he performed Chopin's Ballade No. 4), Neuhaus apparently whispered to a fellow student, "This man's a genius". Although Neuhaus taught many great pianists, including Emil Gilels and Radu Lupu, it is said that he considered Richter to be "the genius pupil, for whom he had been waiting all his life," while acknowledging that he taught Richter "almost nothing."
Emil Gilels was one of Richter's first advocates in the West. He commented, during his own first tour of the United States, that the critics (who were giving Gilels rave reviews) should "wait until you hear Richter." Richter's first concerts in the West took place in May 1960, when he was allowed to play in Finland, and on October 15, 1960, in Chicago, where he played Brahms's Second Piano Concerto accompanied by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Erich Leinsdorf. He created a sensation, and noted Chicago music critic Claudia Cassidy, who was known for her unkind reviews of established artists, recalled Richter first walking on stage hesitantly, looking vulnerable (as if about to be "devoured"), but then sitting at the piano and dispatching "the performance of a lifetime". Richter's 1960 tour of the United States culminated in a series of concerts at Carnegie Hall.
Richter, however, claimed to dislike performing in the United States. He also claimed to dislike the high expectations of American audiences. In 1961, Richter played for the first time in London. His first recital, pairing works of Haydn and Prokofiev, was received with hostility by British critics. Notably, Neville Cardus concluded that Richter's playing was "provincial", and wondered why Richter had been invited to play in London, given that London had plenty of "second class" pianists of its own. Following a July 18, 1961, concert, where Richter performed both of Liszt's piano concertos, the critics reversed course. In 1963, after searching in the Loire Valley, France, for a venue suitable for a music festival, Richter discovered La Grange de Meslay several kilometres north of Tours. The festival was established by Richter and became an annual event. In 1970, Richter visited Japan for the first time traveling across Siberia by railway and boat as he disliked airplanes. He played Beethoven, Schumann, Mussorgsky, Prokofiev, Bartok and Rachmaninov, as well as works by Mozart and Beethoven with Japanese orchestras. Richter eventually visited Japan a total of eight times. His nomadic existence mirrors the breadth of the music he surveyed and performed over his lifetime.
In this book there are both intimate and interesting portraits of composers and artists, friends of the man who shared the spirit of music with them. Inspirational moments occur on almost every page with Richter's life, at least for this music-lover, becoming more alive with every detail. The book is divided into two sections: "Richter in his own words", and "Notebooks: On Music". I will keep them both near me and my music collection for future reference.
September 14, 2014
Found at the welcoming Open Door bookshop in Rome. Engrossing due to Richter's intense reclusivity, matched by the author's extreme devotion to reaching him. Provides a fascinating look at Soviet Russia, from the perspective of a tart-tongued, idealistic, ascetic hermit of an artist, passionately devoted to his craft, the pleasures of good music and art.
Finished the Conversations, picking my way through his Journals.
Finished the Conversations, picking my way through his Journals.
July 19, 2013
A wonderful book. I feel like i just got up from visiting with him at his kitchen table. I loved hearing who his favorite composers were and which conductors and artists were the most enjoyable. I can't say I share his taste in music, but I am a devoted fan of his sound and his approach to playing.
I made note of several quotes that grabbed me--among them.... speaking of the performer.....
"If he's talented, he allows us to glimpse the truth of the work that is in itself a thing of genius and that is reflected in him. He shouldn't dominate the music, but should dissolve into it."
I'll be reading this book again--soon. :)
I made note of several quotes that grabbed me--among them.... speaking of the performer.....
"If he's talented, he allows us to glimpse the truth of the work that is in itself a thing of genius and that is reflected in him. He shouldn't dominate the music, but should dissolve into it."
I'll be reading this book again--soon. :)
February 18, 2018
An excellent book into the mind of one of the greatest pianists of all time. Very vivid details. Excellent comments on musical pieces from Richter.
Such an inspiring artist, with nothing in his head but the musical pieces and the utmost respect and seriousness about music studying and making. Also very interesting glimpse into the life, thought processes and activities outside music of other Soviet artists such as Maria Yudina or Emil Gilels, which begs the question should an artist's activities outside music, especially odious ones, affect one's perception of his/her playing?
Such an inspiring artist, with nothing in his head but the musical pieces and the utmost respect and seriousness about music studying and making. Also very interesting glimpse into the life, thought processes and activities outside music of other Soviet artists such as Maria Yudina or Emil Gilels, which begs the question should an artist's activities outside music, especially odious ones, affect one's perception of his/her playing?
January 11, 2023
Salve Slava! The greatest pianist in the XX century...
July 29, 2011
If Richter had lived longer, we'd have a substantial book. The author had a few meetings with him, planning on further interviews for a documentary film he was making in conjuction with the book. This is an outline of sorts, filled in with Richter's takes and opinions on events in his life. How I wish we had a REAL book here, but we don't. A great bonus - Richter kept a diary of music he listened to, whether in concert or on records, and he wrote delicious comments and opinions. This is attached at the end of the book and is worth reading.
August 23, 2017
If you are not a classical music nut do not approach. Richter was an incredible pianist whose emotional life was a mess to put it mildly. But who can blame him given Stalin and his own difficult youth and the time in which he lived. He was a musical genius. This book supplements a movie about Richter by the same author. It has wonderful historic photographs and a some text and notebook extracts. ( See other reviews for a more complete account). worth the effort of finding the book if you love his playing.
September 26, 2007
Mostly biography and interviews.
July 20, 2022
An intimate dive into the mind of this giant of music... I can't recall ever enjoying a biographical text as much as I enjoyed this one - but I'm probably biased as he is my favorite pianist :)
December 11, 2024
I’ve always enjoyed Bruno Monsaingeon as a documentarian but I didn’t know he wrote any books. I was very delighted to learn of the existence of this one and immediately bought it because of my fixation on its subject Sviatoslav Richter. Richter, to me and especially having read this, doesn’t seem to be quite the enigma he is portrayed as even in the documentary. Maybe it’s my hubris showing but his temperament and attitude seem very understandable to me. He’s just a guy who happened to be obsessed with playing the piano. A guy who happened to be born in a state rife with political change, though he really wanted to avoid it all the best he could. A guy who didn’t care for paperwork to the point where instead of writing to the city for an apartment that would have been immediately provided him, he continuously couch surfed for years. A guy who loved Proust, and Bach, and Prokofiev. I didn’t know Prokofiev made everyone around him nervous because he was so strong! Lots of fun context to an extremely beautiful discography, wish I could have heard him live but he was dead before I was alive.
August 11, 2025
I went back and realized that I never properly read the notebooks at the end of the book. What a treasure trove to have years of notes on performances and recordings, I gained so much insight into his listening practices. For example: every year he would gather friends to listen to Bach's Christmas Oratorio at Christmas time. I was surprised by how many musical gatherings he had, and also that he even had a notebook for keeping track of these things and writing down his impressions. All geniuses use notebooks, I guess.
February 12, 2024
An honest account of a great artist and a flawed human.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews