
Sviatoslav Richter: A Pianist Who Made the Earth Move (2015) - mykowebhn
https://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2015/03/19/393778706/sviatoslav-richter-the-pianist-who-made-the-earth-move
======
ziotom78
I discovered Richter when I listened to Mussorgsky's Pictures of an Exhibition
on an old LP. But I really understood Richter's boldness and genius when a
friend of mine lended me a CD with Schubert's last piano sonata (D960).

Just listen to the way the first bars, containing the unforgettable opening
theme, are usually played by most of the best pianists:

\- Brendel:
[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TKy0Lyl4g-s](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TKy0Lyl4g-s)

\- Uchida:
[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=l7cc2FD06FM](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=l7cc2FD06FM)

\- Kovacevich:
[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MAZ8PA5_gVA](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MAZ8PA5_gVA)

And now listen to Richter's version:

[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbJtHzaFpBQ](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbJtHzaFpBQ)

This very slow tempo is extremely difficult from the point of view of the
pianist, because it requires great control of dynamics and precision. However,
it allows the listener to understand all the intricacies of the harmony and of
the texture. I do not usually listen Richter's version because it requires
deep concentration, but I can say I never really understood this piece until I
heard Richter.

Happy birthday, Maestro!

~~~
spectramax
I'll be honest, as an untrained listener of Classical music, I am having a
hard time appreciating Richter's version from the rest except for the Tempo. I
think your explanation makes sense that slower tempo allows the user to
understand the intricacies of the piece.

How would it sound if other artists also played at a slower tempo? Can they
even play at a lower tempo or that's Richter's specialty? Are there any other
aspects of Richter's version besides the tempo I should be observing? I am not
trying to play a devil's advocate, I am _extremely_ curious as why I can't
appreciate it as much as others.

~~~
ziotom78
It's not just a matter of slow/fast, because when you pick a tempo, this
allows adopting solutions that would be awkward at a different speed. (Using a
programmer's analogy, picking a tempo is like entering different branches of a
very deep tree).

To understand this, consider bars 185ff in the development section. Here,
after a long passage where another theme dominated the scene, the main theme
returns two times: first in d minor, then in B-flat major. How do the pianists
play this passage?

\- Kovacevich
([https://youtu.be/MAZ8PA5_gVA?t=744](https://youtu.be/MAZ8PA5_gVA?t=744))
play the d-minor and the B-flat phrases quite in the same way.

\- Brendel
([https://youtu.be/TKy0Lyl4g-s?t=443](https://youtu.be/TKy0Lyl4g-s?t=443)) and
Richter
([https://youtu.be/ZbJtHzaFpBQ?t=983](https://youtu.be/ZbJtHzaFpBQ?t=983))
play the second one much softer than the first, as if the B-flat phrase were a
distant echo, or a timid answer, of the d-minor one.

\- Uchida
([https://youtu.be/l7cc2FD06FM?t=812](https://youtu.be/l7cc2FD06FM?t=812))
plays both occurrences very softly as if the composer wanted to remind the
listener of the long-forgotten theme.

What I am trying to show here is that, apart from speed, there are many other
subtle ways a pianist expresses what the composer meant. This kind of nuances
can be very hard to spot, but adopting Richter's tempo makes easier to
appreciate them.

~~~
mykowebhn
I noticed that Richter also slows down the tempo very slightly when playing
the B-flat phrase. Playing it much softer and slightly more slowly really
accentuates the sense of nostalgia and longing I find in this movement.

------
holri
A colleague came to Richter after a concert and asked him: "How could you play
that passage, I practiced it for 100 times with no luck". Richter: "I
practiced it 1000 times".

------
j7ake
The quote about large hands being a disadvantage for playing Mozart or Chopin
sounds ridiculous. Large hands (large span) are an advantage almost always.

Here's an example of Zimerman absolutely nailing a Chopin grande polonaise.
Large hands are always helpful.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMsYYhYl6Dg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMsYYhYl6Dg)

~~~
abecedarius
If you’re right then piano keyboards are misdesigned for humans. Plausible in
my experience.

~~~
betenoire
However, by all reports Chopin's hands were special, and an anatomical key to
his success. In At the Piano with Chopin, composer Stephen Heller is cited as
extolling how Chopin's slim hands would "suddenly expand and cover a third of
the keyboard. It was like the opening of the mouth of a serpent about to
swallow a rabbit whole." A student, Adolf Gutmann, also reportedly said
Chopin's "whole body was extraordinarily flexible."

Regardless of the size of the keyboard, bigger hands will always cover more
keys.

------
uptownfunk
Ah so nice to see this here, one of my favorite pianists.

This Ravel piece [https://youtu.be/PuFwt66Vr6U](https://youtu.be/PuFwt66Vr6U)

His Rachmaninov pieces are absolutely divine.

[https://youtu.be/uT_ZhhQeudY](https://youtu.be/uT_ZhhQeudY)

And Debussy [https://youtu.be/SoqSqW0YW7A](https://youtu.be/SoqSqW0YW7A)

------
newprint
My best friend is older mathematician is his late 70's. His best friend,Вадим
Могильницкий, who unfortunately passed away, was an avid collectors of
Richter's audio recordings and Richter's biographer. He published two books:
"Святослав Рихтер" (S. Richter) and "Рихтер - Ансамблист" (Richer -
Ansamblyst). They were never translated to English.

------
ternaryoperator
If you're a Richter fan, I strongly recommend his notebooks [1], which are
well edited and give many insights into him and into his perceptions of the
artists of that era. The second half of the book consists of a chronological
listing of concerts he played in and records he listened to and his
evaluations of both.

[1] [https://www.amazon.com/Sviatoslav-Richter-Conversations-
Brun...](https://www.amazon.com/Sviatoslav-Richter-Conversations-Bruno-
Monsaingeon/dp/0691095493)

------
pryce
For anyone interested in learning more about Richter, there is a particularly
good documentary called "Richter, the enigma" from 1998.

------
i_feel_great
In this YT video of him playing Chopin's Etudes, someone forgot to turn on the
lights and he in not able to see the score, but he plays on regardless.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=12&v=gONhZu5ad4s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=12&v=gONhZu5ad4s)

~~~
baddox
I’m far from a professional musician, but I find it difficult to believe that
the written music for a solo pianist serves any purpose other than perhaps a
bit of confidence in an emergency if memory fails. Surely there’s no way you
can actually read complex passages anywhere near fast enough to actually rely
on them for a live performance.

~~~
prvc
His sense of absolute pitch shifted in later age, leaving him constantly
unsure as to the correctness of the notes he was playing. The music was
intended to be a check against any confusion arising from this. At least this
is what he claims. Would be interesting to know if this was necessarily
entirely psychological or not.

~~~
SamReidHughes
IIRC he forgot a note one performance and put the sheet music in front of him
ever since.

It is easy to imagine forgetting which high or low disconnected note you're
supposed to start a passage from on a piece you haven't played recently -- or
you have the sense of the feeling of a note but might be off by a fourth.

------
soperj
Felt strange to recognize the name, only because I was trying to find a good
version of Rachmaninoff's Prelude Op.23 No.1, and just happened to come across
the Richter version which was far and away the best I found. I've never heard
him play anything else though.

------
HeOfLittleBrain
I love his recording of Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy. As I recall, the LP had
lovely performances of a Schubert sonata and some impromptus on the flip side.

~~~
aerovistae
Not a fan of the Wanderer Fantasy. Don't find the melody compelling,
personally. D. 946 no. 2, on the other hand, I find lovely, especially when
the first main melody comes in not too long after the 3 minute mark, and
_especially_ when the real main melody comes in around the 5 minute mark.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoMsV5VrpFA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoMsV5VrpFA)

(This comment isn't related to Richter, I'm just sharing a nice Schubert piece
for anyone interested.)

~~~
wirrbel
Let me compensate the lack of Richter with a Richter recording that is not [1]
a Schubert composition. Variations Serieuses (Mendelssohn Bartholdy)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9qEIcgSXLU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9qEIcgSXLU)

[1] I love Schubert, best composer ever in my opinion. Unfortunately, Richter
couldn't Play "Tod und das Mädchen" (death and the maiden)

------
HeOfLittleBrain
I love his recording of Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy. As I recall, the LP also
had lovely performances of a Schubert sonata and some impromptus.

