Sviatoslav Richter, Pianist (review)

This biography chronicles the life and times of Soviet pianist Sviatoslav Teofilovich Richter (1915–97), one of the most enigmatic and compelling performers of the twentieth century. The colorful events of Richter’s life have begged for a thorough biographical study, and Danish composer Karl Aage Rasmussen compiles a wealth of information culled from family archives, interviews with the pianist’s close associates, and various secondary sources. He fills the void between Richter’s carefully crafted public image and his speculative private life, or as the author phrased it, the “chasm between limelight and loneliness” (p. 2). Rasmussen devotes particular attention to the contradictions that have made Richter such a mysterious figure, such as the irresistible draw he felt for the spotlight of the concert stage despite his aversion to the media glare or the trappings of celebrity life. He ultimately concludes that such paradoxes lie at the heart of Richter’s personality, and that exploring them affords us a broader understanding of his genius and his humanity: “It would be wrong to imagine that the many mysteries surrounding Richter will diminish or be solved by getting closer to the man himself and forgetting everything about the pianist, the musical genius, the intense art lover” (p. 219).

The body of the text is divided into four parts and book-ended by three reflective essays, “Letting the Music Speak” and “Images and Chimeras” at the beginning, and an afterword at the end. The introductory essays outline the defining features of what Rasmussen calls the “Richter myth” (p. 2), and the afterword acknowledges the sources and people that the author consulted while preparing the manuscript. Rasmussen’s primary adviser was Antti Sairanen, a “cultural entrepreneur” (p. 274) whose fluency in Russian and personal connections with Richter’s surviving relatives provided the author with exclusive access to unpublished materials that significantly enriched his study. Preceding the index is a list of Richter’s recordings recommended by Andreas Lucewicz, a younger pianist who first chauffeured Richter in 1983 (he hated to fly), but who developed an enduring friendship with Richter and even performed Max Reger’s Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Beethoven for two pianos alongside him in the early 1990s.

Part 1 traces Richter’s parentage, his formative years in Zhitomir, his move to Odessa as a teenager, and his training under Heinrich Neuhaus at the Moscow Conservatory. Traits developed during this early period later became hallmarks of Richter’s legacy, such as his uncanny sight-reading abilities, his fondness for opera and theater, and his fidelity to the printed score. This part concludes with Richter’s initial meeting of his life partner, Nina Dorliak, in the early 1940s. Part 2 shifts focus to the political developments that problematized the careers of Prokofiev and Shostakovich, and discusses how these composers bound Richter to Soviet politics because he performed many of their most challenging and controversial works. Part 2, along with “Perestroika and Glasnost” from part 4, establish a rich context to deconstruct Richter’s apoliticism, which seems more like a defense mechanism than genuine ambivalence, but regrettably the pianist fades into the background of these discussions. Part 3 delves deeper into Richter’s personal affairs and provides fresh insights into his strained relations with his mother and stepfather, as well as the emotional toll of this relationship on his fragile psyche. Part 4 explores Richter’s final years, his declining health and mood swings, and his participation in Bruno Monsaingeon’s documentary Richter: The Enigma (1998). Rasmussen clears up many of the misconceptions generated by this film, even the pianist’s famous utterance, “ya sebe nye nravlyus” (“I don’t like myself”) at its poignant conclusion. His book is also a welcome companion to Monsaingeon’s monograph Sviatoslav Richter: Notebooks and Conversations (trans. Stewart Spencer [Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001]).

The book’s most significant contribution is its candid discussions of subjects that have been virtually untouched in the Richter literature, such as his...