(1915-1997) Russian pianist

The life of Svyatoslav Teofilovich Richter bears little resemblance to the biographies of other artists. He went to success in a very special way. The childhood years of the future pianist were spent in Odessa. His father - Teofil Danilovich - taught at the conservatory and was a well-known musician in the city. At one time he graduated from the Vienna Academy of Music, and it was he who gave his son the first piano lessons even when the boy was only five years old.

However, the father could not constantly study with his son, because he was forced to devote all his time to classes with students. Therefore, already from the age of nine or ten, Svyatoslav was practically left to himself. Only for a short time did he take lessons from the pianist A. Atl, one of his father's students. And the boy used this freedom of action in a very original way: he began to play all the notes that were in the house. He was especially interested in opera claviers. Gradually, Richter learned to play any kind of sight music and became a skilled accompanist.

From the age of fifteen, he has already helped his father, and soon begins to work independently: he becomes an accompanist in a musical circle at the Sailor's House. After leaving school, he worked for several years as an accompanist at the Odessa Philharmonic. At this time, Svyatoslav was traveling with concert teams, accompanying various musicians, and gaining experience.

In 1932, he went to work in the Odessa Opera theatre and becomes assistant conductor S. Stolerman. Svyatoslav Richter helps him at rehearsals and with singers, gradually expanding his own repertoire. In May 1934, the pianist gives the first clavier band - solo concert- in the Odessa House of Engineers, performing the works of Frederic Chopin. The concert took place great success, but at that time the young man had not yet thought about studying music professionally.

Only five years later, in the spring of 1937, Svyatoslav Richter finally went to Moscow to enter the conservatory. It was a rather bold step, since the young performer had no music education. At the entrance exam, he was heard by the outstanding pianist of our time, G. Neuhaus. From that day on, Richter became his favorite student.

Neuhaus accepted Svyatoslav Richter into his class, but never taught him in the conventional sense of the word. As Neuhaus himself later wrote, there was nothing to teach Richter - it was only necessary to develop his talent. Richter retained a reverent attitude towards his first teacher throughout his life. It is interesting that, having replayed almost all world piano classics, he never included Beethoven's Fifth Concerto in the program, believing that he could not play it better than his teacher.

In November 1940, the first public speaking Richter in Moscow. At this first concert in the Small Hall of the Conservatory, he performed with his teacher. A few days later he gave his own solo concert in the Great Hall of the Conservatory, and from that time began his long life as a performing musician.

During the war, Svyatoslav Teofilovich Richter was in Moscow. At the slightest opportunity, he gave concerts. And he never stopped working for a day. From June 1942 he resumes concert activity and literally begins to "shower" the audience with new programs. At the same time, his tour of various cities begins. During the last two war years, he traveled almost the entire country. He even passed the state exam at the conservatory in the form of a concert in the Great Hall of the conservatory. After this speech, the commission decided to engrave Richter's name in gold letters on a marble plaque in the foyer of the Small Hall of the Conservatory.

In 1945, Svyatoslav Richter became the winner of the all-Union competition of performing musicians. It is curious that for a long time he did not want to declare his participation in it. The fact is that Richter always considered the concepts of music and competition to be incompatible. But he began to participate in the competition in order to strengthen the teaching reputation of his teacher G. Neuhaus. In the future, he did not participate in any competitions. In addition, he always refused to chair the jury of many international competitions.

AT post-war years Svyatoslav Teofilovich Richter continues to tour constantly, and his fame as a performer is growing. In 1950 he went on his first foreign tour to Czechoslovakia. Then trips to other countries follow. Only after that, the leadership “releases” Richter to Finland. His concerts are held, as always, with triumph, and in the same year the pianist makes a big trip to the USA and Canada. And everywhere he is applauded by crowded concert halls.

The secret of Richter's rapid rise should be seen not only in the fact that he had a unique breadth of repertoire (he played Bach and Debussy, Prokofiev and Chopin with equal success), but also in the fact that he created a unique and integral image from any piece of music. Any music sounded in his performance as if he composed it in front of the viewer.

Unlike other pianists, Svyatoslav Richter knew how to dissolve himself in the music he performed. It fully revealed his genius. The maestro himself said when journalists asked him for an interview (and he was very, very reluctant to contact the press): "My interviews are my concerts." And the musician considered it a sacred duty to perform in front of the public.

For many years, next to Svyatoslav Richter was his wife, singer Nina Lvovna Dorliak. She once performed with her own concerts, but left the stage and became famous music teacher. Richter himself never had students. Probably, he simply did not have time, or maybe the reason is that genius cannot be taught.

The versatility of talent, reminiscent of the geniuses of the Renaissance, was also reflected in Richter's passion for painting. All his life he collected paintings and even painted in oils himself. The Museum of Private Collections houses several of Richter's original works. As for the main collection, most of it has also been transferred to the museum. It must also be said that in the sixties and seventies Svyatoslav Richter arranged in his house art exhibitions representatives of informal movements. The expositions of E. Akhvlediani and V. Shukhaev turned out to be especially interesting.

Svyatoslav Teofilovich Richter was the organizer and permanent participant of regular summer music festivals in France, as well as the famous December Evenings in the Moscow Museum fine arts them. Alexander Pushkin, in whose Italian courtyard in August 1997 Moscow said goodbye to the greatest pianist of the 20th century.

Richter Svyatoslav Teofilovich

Richter Svyatoslav Teofilovich

The largest Soviet pianist of the twentieth century. Much has been written about this outstanding pianist. And on the internet great amount material about him. Copying material does not make sense. I only offer short review. For a more complete picture of the biography and creative path of the pianist, I offer a selection of the articles about Richter that I liked the most, which I found on the Internet. By clicking on the links, reading the articles, you can get the most complete picture of the pianist.

1. Biographical sketch for the 100th anniversary of the birth of the pianist: S. Richter
2. Igor Izgarshev: "Unknown Richter"
3. Analysis creative biography: G. Tsypin Svyatoslav Richter (1990)
4. Memoirs were published in 2012 close friend S. Richter Vera Prokhorova "Four friends against the background of the century." Unfortunately, the book can be purchased at this moment you can’t - it’s not on sale in any online store (data as of January 2017). And she's not in in electronic format, because reprinting is prohibited by the copyright holder. But you can search in bookstores of your city or leave a request in the online store to be informed about the receipt of the book for sale.

So, a brief biographical overview: Svyatoslav Richter. People's Artist of the USSR (1961). Hero Socialist Labor(1975). Laureate of the Lenin (1961), Stalin (1950) and Glinka State Prizes of the RSFSR (1987) and Russia (1996). The first Grammy winner in the USSR (1960).

Svyatoslav Richter was born into the family of pianist, organist and composer Teofil Danilovich Richter (1872-1941), teacher at the Odessa Conservatory and organist of the city church; mother - Anna Pavlovna Moskaleva (1892-1963), by mother von Reinke, from Russian nobles of German origin. During the Civil War, the family was separated, Richter lived in the family of his aunt Tamara Pavlovna, from whom he inherited a love for painting, which became his first creative passion.

In 1922 the family moved to Odessa, where Richter began to study piano and composition. Richter recalled that in childhood and in youth a huge impact he was influenced by his father, who was his first teacher and whose game the young Svyatoslav constantly listened to. Some sources indicate that Richter was mostly self-taught, however this refers rather to the fact that he did not take a standard piano course, playing scales, exercises and etudes. The first piece that Svyatoslav began to play was the nocturne by F. Chopin. At this time, he also writes several theatrical plays, is interested in the opera house and hatches plans to become a conductor. From 1930 to 1932, Richter worked as a pianist-accompanist at the Odessa Seaman's House, then at the Odessa Philharmonic. Richter's first recital, composed of Chopin's works, took place in 1934, and soon he got a job as an accompanist at the Odessa Opera House.

His hopes of becoming a conductor did not come true; In 1937, Richter entered the Moscow Conservatory in the piano class of Heinrich Neuhaus, but in the fall he was expelled from it (after refusing to study general subjects) and went back to Odessa. Soon, however, at the insistence of Neuhaus, Richter returned to Moscow and recovered at the conservatory, receiving a diploma only in 1947. The pianist's Moscow debut took place on November 26, 1940, when in the Small Hall of the Conservatory he performed Sergei Prokofiev's Sixth Sonata - for the first time since the author. A month later, Richter performed for the first time with an orchestra.

During the Great Patriotic War, Richter remains in Moscow. In August 1941, his father, who lived in Odessa, was arrested by the Soviet authorities on false charges of treason, and in October, even before the city was occupied by the German army, he was shot. In 1962 he was rehabilitated. After the liberation of the city from occupation, Richter's mother left the city together with the retreating German troops and settled in Germany. Richter himself considered her dead for many years. During the war, Richter was active in concert activity, performed in Moscow, toured other cities of the USSR, played in besieged Leningrad. The pianist performed for the first time a number of new compositions, including Sergei Prokofiev's Seventh Piano Sonata.

Richter's great friend and mentor was Anna Ivanovna Troyanovskaya (1885-1977), in her house in Skatertny Lane he studied on the famous Medtner piano. In 1943, Richter first met the singer Nina Dorliak, who later became his wife. Richter and Dorliac often performed together in concerts.

After the war, Richter became widely known, having won the Third All-Union Competition of Performing Musicians (the first prize was shared between him and Viktor Merzhanov), and became one of the leading Soviet pianists.

Richter's concerts in the USSR and the countries of the Eastern Bloc were very popular, but he was not allowed to perform in the West for many years. This was due to the fact that Richter supported friendly relations with disgraced cultural figures, among whom were Boris Pasternak and Sergei Prokofiev. During the years of the unspoken ban on the performance of the composer's music, the pianist often played his works, and in 1952, for the first and only time in his life, he acted as a conductor, holding the premiere of the Symphony Concerto for Cello and Orchestra (soloist Mstislav Rostropovich). Prokofiev's ninth sonata is dedicated to Richter and was first performed by him.

Richter's concerts in New York and other American cities in 1960 became a real sensation, followed by numerous recordings, many of which are still considered standard. In the same year, the musician was awarded the Grammy Award (he became the first Soviet performer to receive this award) for performing the Second piano concerto Brahms.

In 1952, Richter played the role of Franz Liszt in G. Aleksandrov's film Composer Glinka.

In 1960-1980, Richter continued his active concert activity, giving more than seventy concerts a year. He toured a lot in different countries, preferring to play in chamber rooms, rather than in large concert halls. In the studio, the pianist recorded relatively little, but survived a large number of"live" recordings from concerts.

Richter's unusually wide repertoire spanned works from baroque music to composers of the 20th century, and he often performed entire cycles of works, such as Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. A prominent place in his work was occupied by the works of Haydn, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt and Prokofiev. Richter's performance is distinguished by technical perfection, a deeply individual approach to the work, a sense of time and style. Considered one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century.

Richter is the founder of a number of music festivals, including the annual summer festival Musical festivities in Touraine (held since 1964 in the premises of a medieval barn in Mele near Tours, France), the famous "December Evenings" at the Pushkin Museum (since 1981), in which he performed with leading musicians of our time, including a violinist Oleg Kagan, violist Yuri Bashmet, cellists Mstislav Rostropovich and Natalya Gutman. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Richter never taught.

AT last years During his life, Richter often canceled concerts due to illness, but continued to perform. During the performance, at his request, the stage was completely dark, and only the notes standing on the piano stand were illuminated by a lamp. According to the pianist, this gave the audience the opportunity to concentrate on the music, without being distracted by secondary moments. In recent years, he lived in Paris, and shortly before his death, on July 6, 1997, he returned to Russia. Last concert pianist took place in 1995 in Lübeck. Svyatoslav Richter died on August 1, 1997 in the Central Clinical Hospital from heart attack. Buried at Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.

Information about Svyatoslav Richter taken from Wikipedia.

Video "Richter Unconquered (in two parts)":

Svyatoslav Richter, one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century, was born on March 20, 1915 in the city of Zhytomyr in the Russian Empire (now Ukraine).
His name is inscribed in the history of music as the name of a pianist who not only masterfully performed classical musical works, but also created their author's interpretations, which in turn became classics.

Svyatoslav Richter. short biography

1915 - was born in the family of a German pianist and composer, teacher of the Odessa Conservatory Theophil Richter and Russian noblewoman Anna Moskaleva.

1930-1932 - Svyatoslav Richter worked as a pianist-accompanist at the Odessa Seaman's House, and after that - at the Odessa Philharmonic.

1934 - first solo concert Richter, where the pianist performed the works of Chopin, after which he received a place as an accompanist at the Odessa Opera House.

1937-1947 - studied at the Moscow Conservatory in the piano class of Heinrich Neuhaus, was expelled after refusing to study general subjects, but subsequently recovered, received a diploma in 1947.

1940 - first performance Svyatoslav Richter in Moscow, in the Small Hall of the Conservatory - Richter played Sergei Prokofiev's Sixth Sonata, for the first time since Prokofiev himself.

1960 - tour in the USA, Grammy Award (the first Soviet pianist to be awarded a Grammy).

1960-1980 - numerous tours in different countries, more than 70 concerts a year.

1990s - lived in Paris.

1997 - passed away.

Svyatoslav Richter - virtuoso pianist and master of piano interpretation

Execution Svyatoslav Richter is distinguished by lightness and technical perfection, the author's approach to the work, and a subtle musical feeling.

Few studio recordings survive. Richter, however, there are many regular live recordings, including quite a few that can be heard and seen on Youtube. The recordings, at first glance, give the impression of being deeply amateurish and even of poor quality, and the reason for this is the darkness that was on the stage during the performances. Richter, when only the notes on the piano music stand were illuminated by the lamp. According to the pianist, this gave the audience the opportunity to concentrate on the music, without being distracted by secondary moments.

photo: portrait Svyatoslav Richter

Svyatoslav Richter together with the legendary director of the Pushkin Museum in Moscow came up with music Festival"December Evenings", which has been held at the museum since 1981. A feature of the festival is the holding of concerts and art exhibitions united by one theme in the halls of the museum.

“He was very fond of cinema,” recalls Irina Antonova, president of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. - He knew cinema very well. I have a letter where he writes from Paris: "Something unusual happened this month. I saw 40 films." That is, there were days when he went to the cinema twice. He visited theaters a lot. He was always seen in theaters."

The piano once given Richter, is now in Pushkin Museum. At one time, a heavy instrument did not pass through the doorway of the pianist's apartment. It was possible to use a crane, but in the end they made it easier - Richter donated it to the museum, because he still played there often.

Svyatoslav Richter was not only an outstanding pianist of the last century, but also a cultural figure, took an active part in public life, founded the festival "December Evenings".

Great, brilliant, outstanding - this is how pianist Svyatoslav Richter is spoken about by everyone who has ever heard his virtuoso performance. classical works. His repertoire includes works by Bach, Schubert, Chopin, Liszt, Prokofiev, Haydn.

He had his individual approach to music, he felt the time and style, and the technique of performance was brought to absolute perfection.

Childhood

Svyatoslav Richter was born in Zhytomyr in Ukraine, although at that time it was Russian empire, March 20, 1915. The boy's father is a talented German pianist, organist, composer Theophil Danilovich Richter (1872-1941), taught music at the Odessa Conservatory and played the organ in the local church. Svyatoslav's mother's name was Anna Pavlovna Moskaleva (1892-1963), a hereditary Russian noblewoman, von Reinke's mother. All civil war little Svyatoslav lived with his aunt Tamara, from whom his nephew inherited a love for painting, which later became one of the serious hobbies after music.

Photo: Svyatoslav Richter in his youth

In 1922, the boy and his family moved to Odessa, learning to play the piano. His father, a famous pianist, who received his musical education in Vienna, helps him at this time. Little Svyatoslav was very attracted to the opera house, he even begins to write theatrical plays and dreams of becoming a conductor. From 1930 to 1932, Svyatoslav gave two years to the Odessa Seaman's House, where he was accepted as a pianist-accompanist, after which he transferred to the local philharmonic society. In 1934, Richter gave his first recital, playing mainly Chopin's music. Soon after, he was accepted into the Odessa Opera House as an accompanist.

Conservatory

Richter's dream of conducting never came true. In 1937, the young man became a piano student at the Moscow Conservatory, having got to the famous Heinrich Neuhaus, but in the same autumn he was expelled. The reason - Svyatoslav flatly refused to engage in general education subjects.

The young man returns home - to Odessa. But Neuhaus managed to insist on his own and Richter agreed to return to Moscow, to the conservatory. The pianist's debut in Moscow was a performance in November 1940, held in the Small Hall of his native conservatory. In the repertoire young pianist was Prokofiev's Sixth Sonata, which had previously been performed only by its author. Just a month later, Svyatoslav gives his first concert accompanied by an orchestra. He graduated from the Richter Conservatory in 1947 with a gold medal.

War

During the war years, the pianist gave concerts not only in Moscow, but also in other cities. Soviet Union. He visited and besieged Leningrad. He tried to please his war-weary compatriots beautiful music, perfect execution. In his repertoire, new compositions are increasingly heard, he indescribably played the Seventh Piano Sonata by S. Prokofiev.

Parents

In the biography of Svyatoslav Richter there was one tragedy that he carefully concealed from others - the betrayal of his own mother. Before the war, the family lived in Odessa, my father served in the opera theater, my mother was engaged in sewing. Just before the occupation of Odessa, their family was offered to evacuate, but the mother refused. The boy's father is arrested by the security officers, referring to the law of war, and shot, only because he was a German by nationality, which means a traitor waiting for the arrival of the Nazis. Mother at this time, unexpectedly for everyone, marries Sergei Kondratiev, a descendant of an official Tsarist Russia who fiercely hated Soviet power and even allows him to take the surname Richter.

Photo: Svyatoslav Richter with his mother and father

Without waiting for Odessa to be occupied Soviet troops, Anna with her newly-made husband runs abroad and settles in Germany. Svyatoslav at that time lives and studies in Moscow and knows nothing, all the war waiting for a meeting with his beloved mother, who was both an adviser and a friend for him. Upon learning of what had happened, the young man became isolated - it was a real disaster, the collapse of everything that used to be a shrine. He experienced this pain all his life, he even decided that he would never have a family - only creativity.

He had not seen his mother for twenty years. Their meeting took place when Furtseva and Orlova obtained permission for Svyatoslav to travel abroad. But alas, the closeness that was before, no longer happened. But nevertheless, when Richter found out about his mother's serious illness, he spent on her the entire fee that he earned on tour. Kondratiev informed Svyatoslav about her death just before the performance in Vienna - and the great pianist could not cope with the excitement and failed the concert. It was his only failure in his entire life.

Creation

Richter's name sounded after the war, the Third All-Union Competition brought him special fame, but in which he became the winner, sharing the first prize with V. Merzhanov. He was recognized as the best Soviet pianist. Then there were tours at home and in the socialist countries, but he was not released to the West. The reason for this was the pianist's friendship with Boris Pasternak and Sergei Prokofiev, who fell into disgrace. Prokofiev's music was tacitly banned, but this did not stop Richter from performing his works. In 1952, Richter's dream came true - he conducted for the first time at the premiere of the Symphony Orchestra. The solo part was played by M. Rostropovich. Prokofiev even dedicated his Ninth Sonata to Richter, and the pianist performed it brilliantly. Richter was the first performer in the Soviet Union to be awarded the prestigious Grammy Award. His concert life was very intense - up to 70 concerts a year.

The work of Svyatoslav Richter is kept by numerous recordings, both studio and concert, which were recorded in the period from 1946 to 1994.

Social activity

Svyatoslav Richter is the founder of the December Evenings, which were held at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. These were thematic festivals of music and painting, where popular classical music was played and a demonstration of paintings corresponding to the theme took place. These evenings gathered the most best musicians, artists, directors and actors. The festival was first held in 1981.

Richter also took the initiative to organize the Musical Festivities festival in Touraine in 1964 and the Tarusa Music Festival in 1993.

In the early 90s, Richter was working on creating a school for young artists and musicians, where they could not only study, but also relax. The perfect place for such a school, the pianist considered the city of Tarusa, where his dacha was located. But in order to fulfill his dream, he needed money. Thus, the idea of ​​the annual festivals in which artists and musicians will participate. To be able to hold them, the pianist organizes the Svyatoslav Richter Foundation, in which he becomes president. The pianist also donated his dacha to the foundation.

Painting

One more big love Richter was painting. He had a whole collection of paintings and drawings that were given to him famous artists- K. Magalashvili, A. Troyanovskaya, V. Shukhaeva, D. Krasnopevtseva.

He even had a picture of the great Picasso - "Dove", on which the artist left a dedicatory inscription. Richter's mentor in the art of painting was A. Troyanovskaya, he took lessons from her. She believed that Richter had some special sense of light, he somehow perceives space in his own way, has a vivid imagination and a phenomenal memory.

Personal life

My future wife Svyatoslav met in 1943. There were a lot of rumors and gossip about the pianist's personal life, to the point that he was a homosexual, despite having a wife. The musician never told the details of family relationships - it was too personal. His wife's name was Nina Dorliak (1908-1998).

Photo: Svyatoslav Richter with his wife Nina Dorliak

She was the daughter popular singer To Dorliak. During their acquaintance, Nina was a singer (soprano), and after that she became a teacher at the Moscow Conservatory. Nina Lvovna outlived her husband by almost a year. They lived long life- 50 years old, but never gave birth to children. Richter believed that he did not need all these quiet family joys, he was happy only in art. They had a very unusual marriage - this is an appeal to you, living in different rooms ... According to the will of N. Dorliak, their apartment became the property of the Pushkin Museum.

Museum

Since 1999, the apartment, previously owned by Richter, has become a museum. Here everything remains as it was during the life of the great pianist. All things are in their places, the piano with notes is in the same room in which Svyatoslav Teofilovich rehearsed. Now this room is used for watching films and listening to classical music. The cabinets still contain notes, cassettes, records, which were given as a gift to the great maestro from friends and numerous admirers.

The original of Prokofiev's manuscript with the Ninth Sonata dedicated to Richter is also safely stored here. The musician's office amazes with an abundance of books; he was fond of Russian classics. Painting, another serious hobby of the pianist, occupies a separate place in the museum. Here are his handwritten works and paintings by his artist friends, eminent and not so famous. The museum is open to anyone who wants to listen good music or take part in one of the musical evenings yourself.

Recognition for the merits of the greatest of musicians

Creativity Richter was rewarded with numerous titles and awards. He National artist USSR and RSFSR, received Lenin and Stalin Prize. He was awarded the title of honorary doctor at once by two universities - Strasbourg and Oxford.

He was awarded the orders of the "October Revolution" and "For Services to the Fatherland". He is a laureate of numerous domestic and foreign awards, is a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Literature received in France, a Hero of Socialist Labor and a member of the Moscow Academy of Creativity.

In memory of a pianist

In 2011, a memorial plaque was installed in Zhytomyr, the birthplace of the great musician. The name of Svyatoslav Richter was given international competition pianists. In the city of Yagotin in Ukraine and in the city of Bydgoszcz in Poland there are monuments to the unsurpassed maestro. One of the streets of Moscow also bears the name of Svyatoslav Richter.

Richter last performed in public in Germany in 1995. The musician died in Moscow on August 1, 1997. Place of burial - Novodevichy cemetery.

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Born March 20, 1915 in Zhitomir. The creative potential of the Master does not need any characteristics and comments. Biography famous musician can be found in any encyclopedia, but its Soviet censorship contradicts many of the most important biographical facts musician, especially of the Odessa period. For example, for many biographers, the Odessa period of Richter's life began in 1921. According to the later memoirs of Svyatoslav Teofilovich himself, his parents brought him as a baby to Odessa in 1916, after his father had been invited to the post of professor at the Odessa Conservatory by rector Vitold Malishevsky. The musician's father Theophil Danilovich Richter was a gifted pianist and organist who graduated from the Vienna Academy of Music and combined his professorial position at the conservatory with the position of organist of the Odessa Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Paul (Kirch).

Frequently visiting Zhytomyr (especially in summer period), S.T. Richter, though creative person, mainly formed in Odessa, until 1941, when he was already a student at the Moscow Conservatory in the class of the famous professor G.G. Neuhaus. It was Neuhaus, who first heard the play of a musician who arrived from Odessa in 1937 and had no formal musical education, who exclaimed: “In my opinion, he is a genius!” . Subsequently, Neuhaus repeatedly confirmed this assessment of his student, and he, in turn, amazed S.S. with his talent. Prokofiev, D.D. Shostakovich, D.B. Kabalevsky and many others.

S. Richter, A. Moskaleva, T. Richter

Almost the entire pre-war Odessa period S.T. Richter is full of collisions and paradoxes that do not resonate with the ambitious aspirations of his peers. The grandiose laureate triumphs of pianists E. Gilels and J. Zak (however, like other subsequently eminent Odessans), violinists N. Milstein, B. Goldstein and, of course, D. Oistrakh, did not excite the not at all young musician. Fascinated by the most diverse, sometimes contradictory creative plans(dramaturgy, poetry, composition, accompanist, conducting), Svyatoslav Richter did not even think about the career of a virtuoso soloist, like his peers. Only at the age of 19, having heard in Zhytomyr at a concert by D.F. Oistrakh playing his accompanist V. Topilin (the fourth Ballade of F. Chopin), he planned to hold a solo concert from the works of the brilliant Polish composer.

The range of hobbies of the young man, who did not show ambitions so important for the profession of a virtuoso-instrumentalist, did not impress the leading piano professors of the conservatory, who had a cool attitude towards both his father and son Richter. As a result, the synclite of the piano department gradually relegated T.D. Richter to the position of general piano teacher, and simply ignored his son's giftedness. But the general public of Odessa, as well as its musical and professional part, were not mistaken, discovering incredible potential creative inclinations in the young man. The young accompanist, first at the Philharmonic, then at the opera, demonstrates the wonders of reading from a sheet of scores and claviers, claiming to be a conductor in ballet performance A. Glazunov "Raymonda", admiring the artists with maturity and skill.

Perhaps, in this pre-war period, the prerequisites for a complex, contradictory attitude of S.T. Richter to his hometown, in which the ups and downs of confessions and disappointments alternated. Departure to Moscow in the class of G.G. Neuhaus, stormy metropolitan life did not involve the Odessa musician in their whirlpool, he constantly fled to Odessa to his affections, to a large extent family, forcing his teacher G.G. Neuhaus to make considerable efforts for his return to Moscow.

A separate topic of the musician's biography is his German origin by father and partly by mother (A. Moskaleva), which also to a large extent alienated the Richter family from the Odessa musical intelligentsia. The materials of the last decade that have appeared quite clearly illustrate the not at all pro-Soviet circle of acquaintances and friends of the family of the organist of the church, who was forced to leave this position after “expressive” hints from the administration of the conservatory, moving to the place of the organist of the opera.

The most controversial may be the personal dismissal of S.T. Richter from his visits to Odessa in the post-war period with the motivation for the execution of his father by the NKVD in August 1941. Despite the fact that he firmly entered the cohort famous musicians country in the 40s, his biography was left with a stain due to the repressed father, and after his mother left for Germany at the end of the war with the anti-Soviet new husband S. Kondratiev, Richter's career could be a foregone conclusion. Meanwhile, at the All-Union Piano Competition in 1945, the German Richter shares the first prize with the front-line soldier V. Merzhanov at the behest of Stalin himself, constantly being in the field of view of the aesthetic despot. In 1950, Richter received the Stalin Prize, already being the most famous artist in the USSR, in whose biography the Odessa period clearly demanded official renunciation. However, according to available data, this was an outwardly fulfilled obligation both by Richter himself and, to a large extent, by his entourage. At the same time, Richter never abandoned his old Odessa connections, friends and colleagues, showing warmth both to the favorite places of his youth and to the hearths where his genius matured, although he avoided advertising this.

It is not worth hushing up the fact that his way of life both in the country and abroad was under the vigilant eye of the special services, who found opportunities to observe his person from all distances, which he always remembered. However, Richter revealed himself in correspondence with “people from the Odessa past”, whom he completely trusted, but who are not visible in any of the official biographies. Such is the family of Natalya Zavalishina-Verbitskaya, with whom Richter corresponded all the years until her death in 1974. And the family of the famous Odessa pediatrician G.S. Levy, who saved S. Richter from meningitis in childhood, was a home for the musician, like other families close to him. In the living room of S. Richter (currently memorial apartment-museum) to this day, a tapestry presented to the musician with a dedicatory inscription from the Levy family has been preserved.

Was Richter in Odessa after the war? Until the 1990s, these were legends, assumptions, testimonies of individuals. Richter himself did not even tell the closest people about this. Only in the last decade, Richter admitted to N. Zhuravleva, daughter of the famous reader Dmitry Zhuravlev, and some other especially close ones that he had been to hometown, saw the destroyed church, which had burned down by that time, the apartment of the first period of his life on Nezhinskaya and some other objects important to his memory.

Odessa, alas, remained cool towards the Great Musician, not seeking to sort things out, and even more so, the true facts of Richter's attachment to a dangerous past. Only since 2002, through the efforts of the Mission of D. Oistrakh and S. Richter, richteriana flared up with unprecedented force international festivals"Richterfest" (2002, 2005) with the opening of a memorial plaque to the musician at the Pastor's House near the church.

The biography of the Great Musician over the years becomes more and more complete and refined, revealing on a Shakespearean scale, as a reflection of the era that gave birth to this brilliant personality.

Yuri Dikiy, pianist

September 2, 2015, as part of the celebration of the City Day, on the Avenue of Stars of Odessa was opened new star- in honor of Svyatoslav Teofilovich Richter.