Alexander Melnikov
interviewed by Willem Boone
http://pianistique.com/
(excerpt, March 2014)
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Willem Boone: Another very important influence in your career was Sviatoslav Richter, how did you get to know him?
Alexander Melnikov:
"My mother [Valentina Čemberdži, CG.] was a close friend of Oleg Kagan and Natalia Gutman, who played with Richter a lot. She got to know him and they became close friends. In 1986 she accompanied him during through Siberia (on his way to Japan), during which he also played in a lot of small and big places. She wrote a book about him. He was curious about me and he heard a few amateurish recordings of mine. He then wanted me to play for him. In 1993, he invited me to play all the Grieg sonatas, i.e. the piano sonata , cello sonata and the three violin sonatas. I remember I was afraid like hell. He gave me a few lessons and later, I turned pages for him during a Spanish tour and also in Moscow."
WB: When was that?
"The Spanish tour was in the early nineties, he played Haydn Variations in F minor, Beethoven opus 109 and 110 and Scriabin, it was partially the same programme as the one he played in Utrecht."
WB: That was with Chopin and Scriabin…
"Yes, I was there too to turn pages and also in Amsterdam in October 1992, when he played five Beethoven sonatas."
WB: I attended that concert! How were the lessons you took with him?
"It’s difficult to say. He was very much to the point and extremely precise. Other than that, I can’t really describe without going into details. If you trust someone completely, the things he says automatically become true, you take them for granted.. He had a clear idea about Grieg, he liked his music. You can read some very poetic descriptions in the Diaries published by Monsaingeon."
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