Il Blog nel Centenario della nascita di Sviatoslav Richter
Roger Woodward "I remember..."
....You're not a hero, no one thanks you - you're regarded badly - but you can actually do something to alter things. But anyway, Richter was heard saying to Rostropovich in front of some Party official - and he must have said it so the Party official heard: "Anyway you don't need me now do you, you've got the Wall haven't you?"
- DSJ: Other memories of Richter?
- RW: But what a man ! I remember one day l was practising Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto - which was then a relatively unknown work - for the Krakow Spring Festival in l968. In the next room or two away l heard this Mozart D Minor Piano Concerto being practiced, and in particular this trill. It went on and on and on - how many ways can you practice a trill? The trill was being broken up and practiced in different rhythms - it was a cadential trill for the end of the exposition. And then I realised that this guy was literally pulling apart phrases. So I stopped my own practice for a while and listened. It drove me crazy! I wanted to go and see who it was but I couldn't let myself do that: the Poles did that all the time - they'd open doors and check who was playing - but I couldn't bring myself to do that. So I didn't! So, later, Richter was up in he mountains - he did this often as he was very fond of that region - this was the Zakopane region near the Tatra Mountains. They - Richter and a boyfriend of his - would stay around there and Richter would often give a concert in arestaurant or in his lodgings or some such place. Even then small minded people would complain, arguing that: "No, no he might ruin, the furniture or the piano!": And then some Party official would turn up and say: "Beat it - open the place up! This is the famous Richter here!" And then the the word would get out:"Richter's here ! He's going to play a concert!" And the tickets would go - whooom!! All the tickets were bought and of course then the owner's so. happy because - well of course they made a lot of money doing this. So Richter, like Szymanowski thirty years earlier, went very often to the Polish mountains - to and from Krakow. And so there
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it was, for that particular year, for the Krakow Spring Festival - l remember the announcement: 'Tomorrow night Sviatoslav Richter will play the Mozart D Minor Piano Concerto.""Wow it's him!" The trill. And, later, he was at my Prokofiev Concerto performance and came up afterwards during the reception. This very tall man with a kind face and a bald head - he was then much thinner. And it must have been his boyfriend with him then (you know they tolerated quite a lot then, in return for which they required his silence. He had cars, he had everything that he wanted or needed - he just had to keep quiet). He congratulated me - he was very kind - in a very quiet way. So measured - everything - and very precise. And warm - a very warm man - there are two kinds of people out there and he was one of the warm kind.
Source: DSCH JOURNAL 2001: From: INTERPRETERS ON SHOSTAKOVICH I: ROGER WOODWARD.
To Doct.Mr.Marek Mietelski
© Tutti i diritti sono riservati ai legittimi proprietari. La fonte originaria viene sempre citata o collegata con un link alla stessa. In questo Blog OGNI citazione o riproduzione di brani/foto/immagini o di parti d'opere sono UTILIZZATI a soli fini di ricerca scientifico-artistica, il cui utilizzo avviene secondo finalità illustrative o di discussione e per fini NON commerciali. Nessun Adsens è introdotto, come altre forme pubblicitarie finalizzate al profitto.
To Doct.Mr.Marek Mietelski
© Tutti i diritti sono riservati ai legittimi proprietari. La fonte originaria viene sempre citata o collegata con un link alla stessa. In questo Blog OGNI citazione o riproduzione di brani/foto/immagini o di parti d'opere sono UTILIZZATI a soli fini di ricerca scientifico-artistica, il cui utilizzo avviene secondo finalità illustrative o di discussione e per fini NON commerciali. Nessun Adsens è introdotto, come altre forme pubblicitarie finalizzate al profitto.