Richter and technical problems?
“I never gave up a piece if it did not come out as I wanted it to. I went on working at it until I mastered it.” (Richter)
Lazar Berman
M.Z. - Richter and technical problems? Is it possible to speak of technical hardships as applied to the pianist whom many critics hold to be the first virtuoso of our time?
L.B. - In order to answer this question let's turn to the years of the pianist's youth. As
he himself has said, his study of the piano began rather late, when he was about nine years old. And those were not “studies” as such in the strict sense of the word. He used to inflate the motor bellows for his father who was an organist, and play some musical games, which undoubtedly developed his imagination and fantasy and allowed him in the future to treat music and studies, playfully. But there was no system to his studies; neither was there any technical drill. Very soon his studies were left entirely to drift. It is most likely that he never played scales regularly; neither is he likely to know from his own experience what the three steps of Czerny Etudes are, or any other instructive literature. Certainly, Richter's Conservatory tutor Heinrich Neuhaus did not go in for perfecting his technique. True, Richter was endowed with unique technical capabilities. But that still could not allow him to forever avoid concrete technical problems which he had to solve by himself. That must be the reason this method evolved— when encountering some difficult, to take it by storm. But what hard labor it demanded! And he has become the Richter who ravished the whole world because he represents in himself an example of rare industry. That is why he succeeded in overcoming all the hurdles even when it did not come easy to him. “Failures never dismayed me,” Richter remembered of the years of his youth. “I never gave up a piece if it did not come out as I wanted it to. I went on working at it until I mastered it.”
he himself has said, his study of the piano began rather late, when he was about nine years old. And those were not “studies” as such in the strict sense of the word. He used to inflate the motor bellows for his father who was an organist, and play some musical games, which undoubtedly developed his imagination and fantasy and allowed him in the future to treat music and studies, playfully. But there was no system to his studies; neither was there any technical drill. Very soon his studies were left entirely to drift. It is most likely that he never played scales regularly; neither is he likely to know from his own experience what the three steps of Czerny Etudes are, or any other instructive literature. Certainly, Richter's Conservatory tutor Heinrich Neuhaus did not go in for perfecting his technique. True, Richter was endowed with unique technical capabilities. But that still could not allow him to forever avoid concrete technical problems which he had to solve by himself. That must be the reason this method evolved— when encountering some difficult, to take it by storm. But what hard labor it demanded! And he has become the Richter who ravished the whole world because he represents in himself an example of rare industry. That is why he succeeded in overcoming all the hurdles even when it did not come easy to him. “Failures never dismayed me,” Richter remembered of the years of his youth. “I never gave up a piece if it did not come out as I wanted it to. I went on working at it until I mastered it.”
Richter has never taught at any educational institution, devoting himself instead entirely to performing. The exceptions are the rare consultations he gave some pianists at their request. Lazar Berman recalls that in the mid-50's he asked Richter to advise him on the performance of the Eighth Sonata of Prokofiev.
“Richter is not a pedagogue. Had he been a pedagogue we would have probably met several times and worked for an hour or an hour and a half. We met only once. Our meeting lasted for five hours. And after that I played the Prokofiev Sonata so that it is still one of the best compositions in my repertory. He simply “bared” it to me, despite the fact that when I was going to consult him I believed it was almost ready and I understood everything in it.”
from "Russia's great modern pianists"
by Dr. Mark Zilberquit (марк александрович зильберквит)
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