Volume 48, Number 17 · November 1, 2001
Wandering Minstrel
By Michael Kimmelman
Sviatoslav Richter: Notebooks and Conversations
by Bruno Monsaingeon,translated from the French by Stewart Spencer
Princeton University Press, 432 pp., $29.95
Richter the Enigma
a film by Bruno Monsaingeon
NVC Arts, 154 minutes, $29.95 (VHS)
Richter—Rediscovered—Carnegie Hall Recital
RCA Red Seal
RCA Red Seal, two CDs, $31.98
Sviatoslav Richter died on August 1, 1997, at the age of eighty-two, the most mercurial and impressive of the Soviet pianists to come to prominence in the West. His playing could be by turns profound, perverse, elegant, heavy-handed, unforgettable, and unlovable. He was in various ways paradoxical. He cultivated a reputation as some-one unconcerned with worldly af-fairs, allergic to studio recordings, with their lack of spontaneity (he preferred microphones hidden in strategically placed potted plants during his concerts); he was repelled by the music industry, its publicity machinery, its managers and backers and critics, and its obligations to plan three or four years in advance. He preferred the persona of the wandering minstrel, playing on the spur of the moment wherever he happened to be for whoever happened to show up. In later years, he canceled innumerable dates and instead, when his health was good, traveled with a map and an entourage that included his own Yamaha pianos and tuners. He would stick pins in the map at places he wished to see or whose names intrigued him and then find halls in which to play there. 'I may play in a theater or chapel or in a school playground at Roanne, Montluçon, or in some remote corner of Provence,' he told the Canadian film director Bruno Monsaingeon. 'All that matters is that people come not out of snobbery but to listen to the music.'
Review, 4807 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |