from the film by Johannes Schaaf Richter in Tours
10.50 (Richter starts talking) "When I first arrived here, it was completely by chance, friends have brought me here, and I became known with - ….. Then there was this thought that I might make here such a music, uh, spot, where you could sometimes make music and things like that and there we visited several castles, however they all were acoustically bad. They were beautiful, but ...
And then I came again, especially because I've heard that people have found this hall, and that was the?, the architect of? And I had to give a concert here in the theatre of Tours like as an evidence that I really want to make music here, and there one has shown me this barn but there had to be organized much concerning the lighting and everything, acoustics, too, and the barn is a very old barn from the 12th century, the monks built them. And they actually built as a barn. But it looks like a church, because of the influential. "
(Oleg Kagan, Karl Richter and the orchestra rehearsing Bach Concerto in D)
And then I came again, especially because I've heard that people have found this hall, and that was the?, the architect of? And I had to give a concert here in the theatre of Tours like as an evidence that I really want to make music here, and there one has shown me this barn but there had to be organized much concerning the lighting and everything, acoustics, too, and the barn is a very old barn from the 12th century, the monks built them. And they actually built as a barn. But it looks like a church, because of the influential. "
(Oleg Kagan, Karl Richter and the orchestra rehearsing Bach Concerto in D)
"It was still a long time a barn, only on the ten day festival was than that, they opened it, and then the festival took place. It became famous, also lost a little. But of course, still it is beautiful."
"Because it became famous it has lost something?"
"Yes, yes, yes, I think that's always the case..."
„There's a danger when you're famous?"
„Yes, it's uncomfortable. I think in general that, you know... The most comfortable thing is modesty. It is much more comfortable for those who are modest than for those who are not. For them, it's much more comfortable. But now, that's not quite the topic."
„Why not, this also is a topic."
(Laughs) „But the barn cannot be humble!"
„No, not the barn, but people while playing (?), they can be modest."
„No, I don't mean the artists, or something like that, I mean people in general. As a human being. I think that modesty helps a lot. Then everything goes well, you don't have any enemies (laughs)... It's like that."
„But I made the experience that in art, it's like that the really great artists never have been modest. Or not? Has Beethoven been modest? Mozart?"
„Yes! But has it been an easy life for Beethoven?"
„No, certainly not, not even for Mozart."
„No, no. Mozart has not been modest, either."
„They all haven't been modest."
„(Laughs) Yes, maybe. Bruckner has been modest, but (???). Well. All very individual."
„When I heard you playing Schubert, I found this more exciting than I've heard so far. Because it just deciphered much more of the nature of Schubert than anything I've heard before."
"Thank you! (Laughs)"
"The message you want to deliver, maybe you have to be not quite as identical with one thing."
"Absolutely! You have to believe that what you do is good and strive to do what's written in the score. You are not adding anything new from yourself."
"In context of your previous sentence that you probably are most identical with Wagner: Maybe then you were not that good if you conducted Wagner. I'm now asking this as a provocative question."
"Yes, in contucting, because I am not a conductor."
"Yes, well, if he had written piano music."
"But I did play it on the piano. Everything, I did not so bad. (Laughs) Yes, yes, I did it when I was young. It makes no sense when it's written for orchestra but i did show it in the music academy. I played the whole opera. There also was a bit of the second piano, and, um... The most important thing is that in Wagner's music you hold everything together from the beginning to the end. Only then Wagner will be apparent. If you let go of it only a little bit there will be a terrible boredom."
"Is this different with Schubert?"
„Even more easy. It is not as long as Wagner (laughs). And maybe not as, how do you say... It has not everything to be the maximum. Maybe, you sometimes can play Schubert lovely and don't feel until the end, then it also will be very good."
„I just can't believe so."
„No? But of course with feeling! But not quite as like death and life. Only this way. No, in Schubert's music you can also do things differently. A little bit of intimate, domestic playing, then you also get this charme. But of course, you can also play it completely straight forward."
„But the image of Schubert is dominated so much by the 19th century, by the domestic music and the four-handed. And when you take a look at his F minor Fantasy for four hands, this is big(???) literature."
„Of course, everything is big. However, the style is that you in fact can make a little music at home, domestic music. It stays like that, it stays."
„But in Beethoven's music, for example, in his op. 131 c sharp minor, the late string quartet, this isn't possible, either. This is already a matter of dead and life."
„Yes, this really isn't possible. Also the last sonatas, you actually really have to see it like that. A matter of death and life. Well. But i think, in art you have to do everything..."
„On death of life."
„Yes."
„I think so, too."
„You can only do it this way, only then it will be convincing."
„Also baroque music."
„Yes. So, you understand, this... maybe... simple, but everything in his place."
„There has always been the big argument if you should play Händel exclusively on a cembalo."
„Yes. You have to play it this way and this way. Of course, it is written for cembalo, however on the piano it sounds great, too. And I think, when you are playing cembalo exclusively, for our time this is a bit difficult. You have to play it this way or this way, but there are many possibilities, you can play it this way or this way. You shouldn't be that particular about it, this „only this way" in this case. Because, also this trills, the way you play them is not so important. That's also what Neuhaus always said. Do it the way you like it, the way it is comfortable. In this time, I think, there was much more freedom."
(At the rehearsals)
Richter: (???) „I won't let anybody play faster. He (the violinist) wants to play faster. That's good this way. But at the moment it seems conversely to me, that the orchestra wants to play faster, you know, like a law. (...) Yes, Andante, but you have to (???) him!"
„How much are you involved in the program selection?"
„Well, I make a few suggestions. I'm interested in a thing that doesn't turn into routine. That's why I always want to have something new, that's why I want to do this festival with musique joyeuse, a bit delicate music."
„This will be next year?"
„No, unfortunately it doesn't work anymore next year. It is the year after next. With Johann Strauss, with Operette von Lehar, I will play Saint Saens, Gershwin, and Maazel will be conducting, Tchaikovsky ballet. Because it was like this: We had a topic, when it was (???) it was very new music, then we had exclusively pianists, then we had exclusively Schubert, and last year there only were Bach and Mozart. And this year it is choral music, so we only play something like that.
„But your father has been a German? And your mother has been Russian?"
„Yes, but not completely, half-German, too. And a somewhat Polish. My father died as a German from Poland."
„And where do you feel truly at home?"
„Also here. And everywhere. In Moscow, of course, in Vienna, Paris, maybe..."
„I know this from myself."
„Yes, this... Venice, of course. You know what Neuhaus used to say? It is so beautiful what he said. My teacher, he said, every artist has a second home. That is his native home and the second home is Italy. It is true, isn't it? Well. But it is beautifully said. The artist shines through."
„In my case it is that, always when I am far away, in Asia, for example, I suddenly become homesick for a German landscape. Do you feel the same? For a Russian or something?"
„No. I am always very happy when I am coming! But no, for me this isn't the case. I don't know."
„That you are at home everywhere?"
„Maybe not everywhere. I don't like some countries, I absolutely dislike America, England is also foreign to me, but I'm feeling quite good, especially in a nation where there is this famous festival (Aldeburgh), but London I don't like. And the Nordic countries I don't like very much, either. And you know, it's strange, but do you know which country I don't like very much?"
„Germany."
„Germany. Yes. I don't know why. But it's like that."
„I used to feel the same in the past. At this time I used to hate it."
„Not hated! But.."
„In my case this is fixing differently, in my case this is fixing over language. When I become homesick, then this is happening because I didn't speak the German language for a long time. Then I feel a necessity, and I have taken a book with me which I read and suddenly feel a terrible home-sickness. And then I smell the scent of a landscape and this landscape is connected to language."
„Yes, I understand. But for me, this isn't the case. The Russian and the German language are exactly two languages that are my native language. I used to speak equally Russian and German. When I was a child. I went to a German schoolin Odessa, too. Everything in German. And I am a German as well. In our passport it is written, I am a German.
But I think that this is a great chance for me -- in this case that I really absolutely understand Russian art, Russian music just like a Russian and just like a German, too. And in French art, I'm in love with. This is a love, this is something different. But everything is very connate to me. Because at times it is the case that German art is a bit foreign to the Russian. Or the Russian to the German, for me this isn't the case. Not either way."
„How much do you practice a day for a concert? When you are under pressure."
„Under pressure... Well, in general, my principle is every day, indeed every day, three hours. Even when I don't do anything, tote it around with myself, I have to catch up on it later then. But when I'm under pressure, then it is six hours, eight... More is difficult but today it probably will be nine."
„Do you still work with fingerings? Do you write them down or do you memorize them?"
„No, I don't do that. I'm working according to the clock. A few times this page, and so on. This is the right way. Like an application (???). Without any fantasy. But by repeating, it gets better and better."
„What happens when there's an audience? When you play in recital?"
„You don't know. Sometimes it is happening that it gets better, sometimes it is catastrophe. You never know, you have no assurance. That's why I always think, when I'm already practicing, then, maybe the result won't be enough for this recital, but for a later one. This is a comfortable way of thinking. If it isn't working now, maybe it will be working later."
„Also in romantic music or very difficult pieces, there you are making a concrete fingering?"
„Well, some things I actually do memorize. Difficult -- do you think that this (what he is currently playing at the festival) is not difficult? It is very difficult. (Laughs) Well, difficult, romantic music... What can be more difficult than Mozart? This is the hardest thing that exists."
„Mozart?"
„Absolutely."
„Why?"
„I don't know. You know, in Mozart it is this way, you play a totally easy thing and in Haydn the same and in Beethoven nearly the same, but in Mozart it is really hard. There is nearly nothing but you have to absolutely find it somehow, the key. This is music. Everything else, it is nothing. This is difficult, really very difficult. I have not yet found the key completely.
(???)
Bach? Probably this was very virtuous for this time. Today we are not feeling this anymore, but it has stayed, something you can never (???) completely. Very specially virtuous. Even if it is not fast, it is dangerous. Terribly dangerous. If a small detail goes wrong, everything is already lost."
„You don't have any huge encyclopaedic need, have you?"
„No, for heaven's sake. I especially like playing what i fall in love with. And other things, I can also hear them and not necessarily play them completely. And then, it is still good, because I want to play many pieces but I don't have enough time. And now, probably it already is time for me to go. But I will drain the wine. Well, then, see you tomorrow! Have a nice day."
„Thank you!"
"Because it became famous it has lost something?"
"Yes, yes, yes, I think that's always the case..."
„There's a danger when you're famous?"
„Yes, it's uncomfortable. I think in general that, you know... The most comfortable thing is modesty. It is much more comfortable for those who are modest than for those who are not. For them, it's much more comfortable. But now, that's not quite the topic."
„Why not, this also is a topic."
(Laughs) „But the barn cannot be humble!"
„No, not the barn, but people while playing (?), they can be modest."
„No, I don't mean the artists, or something like that, I mean people in general. As a human being. I think that modesty helps a lot. Then everything goes well, you don't have any enemies (laughs)... It's like that."
„But I made the experience that in art, it's like that the really great artists never have been modest. Or not? Has Beethoven been modest? Mozart?"
„Yes! But has it been an easy life for Beethoven?"
„No, certainly not, not even for Mozart."
„No, no. Mozart has not been modest, either."
„They all haven't been modest."
„(Laughs) Yes, maybe. Bruckner has been modest, but (???). Well. All very individual."
„When I heard you playing Schubert, I found this more exciting than I've heard so far. Because it just deciphered much more of the nature of Schubert than anything I've heard before."
"Thank you! (Laughs)"
"The message you want to deliver, maybe you have to be not quite as identical with one thing."
"Absolutely! You have to believe that what you do is good and strive to do what's written in the score. You are not adding anything new from yourself."
"In context of your previous sentence that you probably are most identical with Wagner: Maybe then you were not that good if you conducted Wagner. I'm now asking this as a provocative question."
"Yes, in contucting, because I am not a conductor."
"Yes, well, if he had written piano music."
"But I did play it on the piano. Everything, I did not so bad. (Laughs) Yes, yes, I did it when I was young. It makes no sense when it's written for orchestra but i did show it in the music academy. I played the whole opera. There also was a bit of the second piano, and, um... The most important thing is that in Wagner's music you hold everything together from the beginning to the end. Only then Wagner will be apparent. If you let go of it only a little bit there will be a terrible boredom."
"Is this different with Schubert?"
„Even more easy. It is not as long as Wagner (laughs). And maybe not as, how do you say... It has not everything to be the maximum. Maybe, you sometimes can play Schubert lovely and don't feel until the end, then it also will be very good."
„I just can't believe so."
„No? But of course with feeling! But not quite as like death and life. Only this way. No, in Schubert's music you can also do things differently. A little bit of intimate, domestic playing, then you also get this charme. But of course, you can also play it completely straight forward."
„But the image of Schubert is dominated so much by the 19th century, by the domestic music and the four-handed. And when you take a look at his F minor Fantasy for four hands, this is big(???) literature."
„Of course, everything is big. However, the style is that you in fact can make a little music at home, domestic music. It stays like that, it stays."
„But in Beethoven's music, for example, in his op. 131 c sharp minor, the late string quartet, this isn't possible, either. This is already a matter of dead and life."
„Yes, this really isn't possible. Also the last sonatas, you actually really have to see it like that. A matter of death and life. Well. But i think, in art you have to do everything..."
„On death of life."
„Yes."
„I think so, too."
„You can only do it this way, only then it will be convincing."
„Also baroque music."
„Yes. So, you understand, this... maybe... simple, but everything in his place."
„There has always been the big argument if you should play Händel exclusively on a cembalo."
„Yes. You have to play it this way and this way. Of course, it is written for cembalo, however on the piano it sounds great, too. And I think, when you are playing cembalo exclusively, for our time this is a bit difficult. You have to play it this way or this way, but there are many possibilities, you can play it this way or this way. You shouldn't be that particular about it, this „only this way" in this case. Because, also this trills, the way you play them is not so important. That's also what Neuhaus always said. Do it the way you like it, the way it is comfortable. In this time, I think, there was much more freedom."
(At the rehearsals)
Richter: (???) „I won't let anybody play faster. He (the violinist) wants to play faster. That's good this way. But at the moment it seems conversely to me, that the orchestra wants to play faster, you know, like a law. (...) Yes, Andante, but you have to (???) him!"
„How much are you involved in the program selection?"
„Well, I make a few suggestions. I'm interested in a thing that doesn't turn into routine. That's why I always want to have something new, that's why I want to do this festival with musique joyeuse, a bit delicate music."
„This will be next year?"
„No, unfortunately it doesn't work anymore next year. It is the year after next. With Johann Strauss, with Operette von Lehar, I will play Saint Saens, Gershwin, and Maazel will be conducting, Tchaikovsky ballet. Because it was like this: We had a topic, when it was (???) it was very new music, then we had exclusively pianists, then we had exclusively Schubert, and last year there only were Bach and Mozart. And this year it is choral music, so we only play something like that.
„But your father has been a German? And your mother has been Russian?"
„Yes, but not completely, half-German, too. And a somewhat Polish. My father died as a German from Poland."
„And where do you feel truly at home?"
„Also here. And everywhere. In Moscow, of course, in Vienna, Paris, maybe..."
„I know this from myself."
„Yes, this... Venice, of course. You know what Neuhaus used to say? It is so beautiful what he said. My teacher, he said, every artist has a second home. That is his native home and the second home is Italy. It is true, isn't it? Well. But it is beautifully said. The artist shines through."
„In my case it is that, always when I am far away, in Asia, for example, I suddenly become homesick for a German landscape. Do you feel the same? For a Russian or something?"
„No. I am always very happy when I am coming! But no, for me this isn't the case. I don't know."
„That you are at home everywhere?"
„Maybe not everywhere. I don't like some countries, I absolutely dislike America, England is also foreign to me, but I'm feeling quite good, especially in a nation where there is this famous festival (Aldeburgh), but London I don't like. And the Nordic countries I don't like very much, either. And you know, it's strange, but do you know which country I don't like very much?"
„Germany."
„Germany. Yes. I don't know why. But it's like that."
„I used to feel the same in the past. At this time I used to hate it."
„Not hated! But.."
„In my case this is fixing differently, in my case this is fixing over language. When I become homesick, then this is happening because I didn't speak the German language for a long time. Then I feel a necessity, and I have taken a book with me which I read and suddenly feel a terrible home-sickness. And then I smell the scent of a landscape and this landscape is connected to language."
„Yes, I understand. But for me, this isn't the case. The Russian and the German language are exactly two languages that are my native language. I used to speak equally Russian and German. When I was a child. I went to a German schoolin Odessa, too. Everything in German. And I am a German as well. In our passport it is written, I am a German.
But I think that this is a great chance for me -- in this case that I really absolutely understand Russian art, Russian music just like a Russian and just like a German, too. And in French art, I'm in love with. This is a love, this is something different. But everything is very connate to me. Because at times it is the case that German art is a bit foreign to the Russian. Or the Russian to the German, for me this isn't the case. Not either way."
„How much do you practice a day for a concert? When you are under pressure."
„Under pressure... Well, in general, my principle is every day, indeed every day, three hours. Even when I don't do anything, tote it around with myself, I have to catch up on it later then. But when I'm under pressure, then it is six hours, eight... More is difficult but today it probably will be nine."
„Do you still work with fingerings? Do you write them down or do you memorize them?"
„No, I don't do that. I'm working according to the clock. A few times this page, and so on. This is the right way. Like an application (???). Without any fantasy. But by repeating, it gets better and better."
„What happens when there's an audience? When you play in recital?"
„You don't know. Sometimes it is happening that it gets better, sometimes it is catastrophe. You never know, you have no assurance. That's why I always think, when I'm already practicing, then, maybe the result won't be enough for this recital, but for a later one. This is a comfortable way of thinking. If it isn't working now, maybe it will be working later."
„Also in romantic music or very difficult pieces, there you are making a concrete fingering?"
„Well, some things I actually do memorize. Difficult -- do you think that this (what he is currently playing at the festival) is not difficult? It is very difficult. (Laughs) Well, difficult, romantic music... What can be more difficult than Mozart? This is the hardest thing that exists."
„Mozart?"
„Absolutely."
„Why?"
„I don't know. You know, in Mozart it is this way, you play a totally easy thing and in Haydn the same and in Beethoven nearly the same, but in Mozart it is really hard. There is nearly nothing but you have to absolutely find it somehow, the key. This is music. Everything else, it is nothing. This is difficult, really very difficult. I have not yet found the key completely.
(???)
Bach? Probably this was very virtuous for this time. Today we are not feeling this anymore, but it has stayed, something you can never (???) completely. Very specially virtuous. Even if it is not fast, it is dangerous. Terribly dangerous. If a small detail goes wrong, everything is already lost."
„You don't have any huge encyclopaedic need, have you?"
„No, for heaven's sake. I especially like playing what i fall in love with. And other things, I can also hear them and not necessarily play them completely. And then, it is still good, because I want to play many pieces but I don't have enough time. And now, probably it already is time for me to go. But I will drain the wine. Well, then, see you tomorrow! Have a nice day."
„Thank you!"
Thanks to hotbebimauz for this translation - Belshep