Product Description
Sviatoslav Richter (1915-1997) is widely recognized as one of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century. In this translation of the first full-scale biography of Richter, Danish composer Karl Aage Rasmussen combines his artistic appreciation of Richter's career with a sympathetic telling of the pianist's life based on family archives and interviews with people who worked and lived with him. Richter enjoyed early success in the Soviet Union, winning the Stalin Prize in 1949. He traveled and performed throughout Russia and Eastern Europe, and earned notice in the West via his recordings. In 1960 he toured in the West to great acclaim, including a run of successful performances at Carnegie Hall. He would remain an active performer throughout his life.

Richter was an intensely private and withdrawn individual who disliked the glare and trappings of celebrity, even preferring to play small halls where the audience could concentrate on the details of his performance. The book also details his chronic depression and homosexuality, and the impact that this may have had in curbing his political activities. Rasmussen celebrates one of the giants of twentieth-century music while painting a realistic portrait of the often troubled double life that many Soviet citizens, especially public artists, were forced to lead. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Misstatement of facts.
On page 106 he states "Truman decided to demonstrate his superiority in the power play with Stalin; the A-bombs were dropped on the civilian populations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki even though Truman knew that Japan was prepared to surrender."This is completely false.Japan had refused to surrender. It would have cost millions of lives if the U.S had to invade.The droping of the bombs forced them to surrender.It had nothing to do with any power play with Stalin.

great subject, lackluster biography
Richter is among the most compelling pianists ever.At his best, playing Schubert, Beethoven, Schumann, Scriabin and Debussy, he created worlds of sound so textured and rich that one never tires of revisiting them.At the same time, he was a complicated, self-absorbed individual whose talent was so great that he lived much of his life being indulged, and taken care of, by those around him.For example, he never learned to drive a car; he had drivers prepared to ferry him to Finland or Siberia at his whim.Rasmussen assembles the facts of Richter's long life, which are astonishing, given his 4000 concerts and acquaintance with the who's who of Russian and European musical culture.But his writing (translated from Danish) is wooden, and many of the best passages are quotations from his sources, from Gould to Dieskau.A composer should have shown more explanatory power in unriddling the elements of Richter's unique voice.A biographer should have provided more insight into the contradictions and angst that underlay his art.Worth reading, yet ultimately unsatisfying

Fascinating, but Anti-USA propaganda
A lot of interesting biographicalinfo about this great musician,
but the writing is mediocre and stuffed with anti-USA propaganda -
a lot of complete crap - such as that Truman bombed Japan when he knew japan was prepared to surrender,
thus intimidating Stalin and robbing the poor Rooskies of their promised indemnities.
Therefore Stalin was forced to liquidate about a third of his population because he couldn't afford to feed them, I guess.
I guess the faculties of "Northwestern University" in Boston is staffed with Communists....

Richter - The Legend in Detail
A very detailed and thorough biography of Sviatoslav Richter, undoubtedly one of the greatest pianists of all time.Essential reading for the Richter fanatic.If you know the Bruno Monsaingeon film about Richter, it will compliment it well, although after having had the film on VHS, I could only recently get the DVD in a region 2 format.Why it is not available in region 1 is crazy.This book is a wonderful and interesting story of one of the greatest musical communicators ever.Super!

still an enigma
This is a very thoughtful biography of the enigmatic Richter.It is written for the musical layperson and goes a long way to filling some of the many gaps left by Monsaingeon's frustrating/fascinating "Notebooks and Conversations." Rasmussen discusses elements of Richter's personal life, such as his homosexuality, in the context of what it meant to be a gay man under the repressive Soviet regime.The author also successfully avoids too much psychologizing and conjecture - this is a well-told biography of one of the most interesting musical personalities of the 20th century. ... Read more

Product Description
(Denmark) Gyldendal, 2007 1st printing 12mo 5.5 x 8.7 ins 401pp photos in monochrome and color, wraps. Text in Danish. Biography of a great Russian pianist. ... Read more