Editing Sviatoslav Richter (section)

==Reception==
===Memorable statements about Richter===
[[File:Stamp of Ukraine s1425.jpg|thumb|2015 Ukrainian Stamp commemorating the birth of Richter]]
The Italian critic Piero Rattalino has asserted that the only pianists comparable to Richter in the history of piano performance were [[Franz Liszt]] and [[Ferruccio Busoni]].<ref>See Piero Rattalino, Pianisti e Fortisti, Il terzo Uomo ("How many pianists can claim today to be at [Richter's] level? How many are his peers, in the whole history of piano playing? Although I may appear unduly selective, only two names come to mind: Franz Liszt and Feruccio Busoni. The first was born in 1811; the second in 1866, fifty-one years later. And Richter was born in 1915, forty-nine years after Busoni.).</ref>

[[Glenn Gould]] called Richter "one of the most powerful communicators the world of music has produced in our time".<ref name="autogenerated1">Bruno Monsaingeon, The Enigma (film biography of Richter).</ref>

[[Nathan Milstein]] described Richter in his memoir ''From Russia to the West'' as the following: "Richter was certainly a marvellous pianist but not as impeccable as he was reputed to be. His music making was too dry for me. In Richter's interpretation of [[Maurice Ravel|Ravel]]'s ''[[Jeux d'eau (Ravel)|Jeux d'eau]]'', instead of flowing water you hear frozen icicles."<ref>Milstein, Nathan. From Russia to the West the musical memoirs and reminiscences of Nathan Milstein. New York: H. Holt, 1990. p. 222</ref>

[[Van Cliburn]] attended a Richter recital in 1958 in the Soviet Union. He reportedly wept during the recital and, upon returning to the United States, described Richter's playing as "the most powerful piano playing I have ever heard".<ref>{{cite news |title=Year in Review — Arts & Culture |url=http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/1997/year.ender/obit/arts/index.html |work=CNN |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081219172919/http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/1997/year.ender/obit/arts/index.html |archive-date=December 19, 2008}}</ref>

[[Arthur Rubinstein]] described his first exposure to Richter as follows: "It really wasn't anything out of the ordinary. Then at some point I noticed my eyes growing moist: tears began rolling down my cheeks."<ref name="autogenerated1" />

[[Heinrich Neuhaus]] described Richter as follows: "His singular ability to grasp the whole and at the same time miss none of the smallest details of a composition suggests a comparison with an eagle who from his great height can see as far as the horizon and yet single out the tiniest detail of the landscape."<ref>Portrait of an Artist, by Heinrich Neuhaus, available at http://www.trovar.com/str/neuhaus.html</ref>

[[Dmitri Shostakovich]] wrote of Richter: "Richter is an extraordinary phenomenon. The enormity of his talent staggers and enraptures. All the phenomena of musical art are accessible to him."<ref>Foreword to V.I. Delson, Sviatoslav Richter, Moscow 1961, partial translation available at {{cite web |url=http://www.sonybmgmasterworks.com/artists/sviatoslavrichter/ |title=Sviatoslav Richter on SONY BMG Masterworks |access-date=November 23, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080720033407/http://sonybmgmasterworks.com/artists/sviatoslavrichter/ |archive-date=July 20, 2008 }}</ref>

[[Vladimir Sofronitsky]] proclaimed that Richter was a "genius", prompting Richter to respond that Sofronitsky was a "god".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sofronitsky.ru/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100715061535/http://www.sofronitsky.ru/|url-status=dead|title=Владимир Софроницкий|archive-date=July 15, 2010|website=www.sofronitsky.ru}}</ref>

[[Vladimir Horowitz]] said: "Of the Russian pianists, I like only one, Richter."<ref>Harold C. Schonberg, Horowitz – His Life and Music, Simon & Schuster, 1992.</ref>

[[Pierre Boulez]] wrote of Richter: "His personality was greater than the possibilities offered to him by the piano, broader than the very concept of complete mastery of the instrument."<ref name="autogenerated3">[http://www.richtercompetition.com/en_richter6.html The Music Room], Richter International Piano Competition</ref>

[[Marlene Dietrich]], who was Richter's friend, wrote in her autobiography, ''Marlene'': "One evening the audience sat around him on the stage. While he was playing a piece, a woman directly behind him collapsed and died on the spot. She was carried out of the hall. I was deeply impressed by this incident and thought to myself: "What an enviable fate, to die while Richter is playing! What a strong feeling for the music this woman must have had when she breathed out her life!" But Richter did not share this opinion, he was shaken".

''[[Gramophone (magazine)|Gramophone]]'' critic Bryce Morrison described Richter as follows: "Idiosyncratic, plain-speaking, heroic, reserved, lyrical, virtuosic and perhaps above all, profoundly enigmatic, Sviatoslav Richter remains one of the greatest recreative artists of all time."<ref>Bryce Morrison, Gramophone review of Sviatoslav Richter's Schumann EMI CD 62961.</ref>

===Memorable statements by Richter===
On listening to [[Johann Sebastian Bach|Bach]]: "It does no harm to listen to Bach from time to time, even if only from a hygienic standpoint."<ref>Monsaingeon, p. 196.</ref>

On [[Alexander Scriabin|Scriabin]]: "Scriabin isn't the sort of composer whom you'd regard as your daily bread, but is a heavy liqueur on which you can get drunk periodically, a poetical drug, a crystal that's easily broken."<ref>Monsaingeon, p. 267.</ref>

On picking small venues for performance: "Put a small piano in a truck and drive out on country roads; take time to discover new scenery; stop in a pretty place where there is a good church; unload the piano and tell the residents; give a concert; offer flowers to the people who have been so kind as to attend; leave again."<ref>[[Alain Lompech]] – A Free Spirit Among Artists, A Protean Pianist, Notes to Richter Performs Beethoven, Philips 438 624–2.</ref>

On his plan to perform without a fee: "Music must be given to those who love it. I want to give free concerts; that's the answer."<ref>Bruno Monsaingeon: ''Introduction'' to Sviatoslav Richter – Notebooks and Conversations p. XX.</ref>

On [[Heinrich Neuhaus|Neuhaus]]: "I learned a lot from him, even though he kept saying that there was nothing he could teach me. Music is written to be played and listened to and has always seemed to me to be able to manage without words... This was exactly the case with Heinrich Neuhaus. In his presence I was almost always reduced to total silence. This was an extremely good thing, as it meant that we concentrated exclusively on the music. Above all, he taught me the meaning of silence and the meaning of singing. He said I was incredibly obstinate and did only what I wanted to. It's true that I've only ever played what I wanted. And so he left me to do as I liked."<ref>Monsaingeon, p.28/9.</ref>

On playing: "I don't play for the audience, I play for myself, and if I derive any satisfaction from it, then the audience, too, is content."<ref>Monsaingeon, p.61.</ref>

After playing some [[Joseph Haydn|Haydn]] for a television programme whilst touring in the US, Richter said, after much coaxing by the interviewer and embarrassment on his own part, that Haydn was "better than [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]]".