Richter incontrò Elisabeth Furtwängler
| Rarità fotografiche Bernstein,Schwarzkopf e la vedovaFurtwängler  |
| Con Lenny Bernstein a New York. 1960 |
 |
| Tra Elisabeth Schwarzkopf e Elisabeth Furtwängler, vedova di Wilhelm |
È ben nota l'ammirazione sconfinata che Richter riservava per il grandissimo direttore, Wilhelm Furtwängler. Se ne amareggiò per tutta la sua vita per non averlo potuto personalmente incontrare. Fu forse grazie alla sua amica Elisabeth Schwarzkopf che indirettamente ebbe un contatto con Furtwängler: alla sinistra di Richter, della seconda fotografia, è ritratta la vedova del direttore: Elisabeth Furtwängler (1910-2013). A proposito di Wilhelm, la Schwarzkopf, intervistata da Gramophone nel Dicembre 1990, disse:
« Furtwängler was very humble when we preparing all those lieder which fiendishly difficult to play. He was practising night and day and then, we landed a performance where everything was miles too slow, so slow it wasn't true. But in spite of the slowness, he gave them a magic. He was a composer as well as a conductor and when he played the wrong notes, he could rescue it and do things which only somebody who knows how to compose and conduct can do. He had an overall view, but he was known to be very slow in those years, partly because he was beginning to go deaf. We had great difficulties on stage convincing him that we wanted it fast; until he heard us it got slower and slower. I can't say that that was the problem with the songs, he just could not play them fast enough. So, what could I do. It was a very great service which he rendered to Hugo Wolf because it was the first time a Wolf recital was put on in Salzburg after the war, and by a great name like Furtwängler. When he was accompanying also the orchestra was so slow, you did not think with him. It was like being on salt water. You were carried all the way. I remember before the last revival of Figaro, he was ill, and a very good conductor whom we all knew, Rudolf Moralt, took over. He tried to conform to the tempi that Furtwängler had rehearsed and we sank like nothing, we did not know where to breathe or what to do - it was really wicked, it was not good. And then, he did the next performance with faster tempi again and it was fine. With Furtwängler you knew that he would never draw attention to himself. This was something which I have only ever noticed with Sviatoslav Richter, this utter absorption in the work of art, nothing else mattered but the music....
© Tutti i diritti sono riservati ai legittimi proprietari.