Sviatoslav Richter visited us during his tour in Lvov. (Abram Basmet)

 





Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.

Abram Bashmet, my wife Maya, my son Evgenij standing behind her, Richter. Lvov 1982

     "...Thanks to my son Yuri we met and became friends with many outstanding musicians.

 

When the children were at school, my wife Maya was a housewife. To add to the family budget she made clothes at home. She had her clients. Later, when the children grew older, she went to work at the conservatory where she was chief dispatcher of the curriculum department. She did very well at work and her colleagues respected her. She worked till her last days.

Maya had heart problems. She died from a stroke in 1985. I lost my big friend and a very close person. The two parts of her – the Slavic and Judaic ones – were in harmony in her, she never liked pressure on one or the other side. She hated anti-Semitism and didn’t like the Orthodox Jewish demonstrations, disregard or disrespect of other nations. She raised our children to share her vision.

In the seventh grade my son Yuri started to play the viola. He played drills from morning till night and our neighbors were crazy about it, but he liked it and he was responsible. Other people paid their attention to Yuri and serious musicians took part in arranging his future. So he’s become the number one viola player in the world and an outstanding musician, and there have been about 50 pieces written for viola and for him, Yuri Bashmet." (...)