Editing Sviatoslav Richter (section)

===Early career===
[[File:Sviatoslav Richter photo.jpg|thumb|{{center|Richter, {{circa|1935}}}}]]

On March 19, 1934, Richter gave his first recital, at the Engineers' Club of [[Odessa]]; but he did not formally start studying piano until three years later, when he decided to seek out [[Heinrich Neuhaus]], a pianist and piano teacher, at the [[Moscow Conservatory]]. During Richter's audition for Neuhaus (at which he performed [[Frédéric Chopin|Chopin]]'s [[Ballade No. 4 (Chopin)|Ballade No. 4]]), Neuhaus apparently whispered to a fellow student, "This man's a genius." Although Neuhaus taught many pianists, including [[Emil Gilels]] and [[Radu Lupu]], it is said that he considered Richter to be "the genius pupil, for whom he had been waiting all his life", while acknowledging that he taught Richter "almost nothing".

Early in his career, Richter also tried composition, and it even appears that he played some of his works during his audition for Neuhaus. He gave up composition shortly after moving to Moscow. Years later, Richter explained this decision as follows: "Perhaps the best way I can put it is that I see no point in adding to all the bad music in the world".<ref>Kevin Bazzana – Sviatoslav Richter (1915–1997), Notes to Richter in Leipzig, Music & Arts CD 1025.</ref>

By the beginning of World War II, Richter's parents' marriage had failed and his mother had fallen in love with another man. Because Richter's father was a German, he was under suspicion by the authorities and a plan was made for the family to flee the country. Due to her romantic involvement, his mother did not want to leave and so they remained in Odessa. In August 1941, his father was arrested and later found guilty of espionage, being sentenced to death on October 6, 1941. Richter did not speak to his mother again until shortly before her death nearly 20 years later in connection with his first US tour.

In 1943, Richter met [[Nina Dorliak]] (1908–1998), an operatic soprano. He noticed Dorliak during the memorial service for [[Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko]], caught up with her at the street and suggested to accompany her in recital. It is often alleged that they married around this time, but in fact Dorliak only obtained a marriage certificate a few months after Richter's death in 1997.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Rasmussen|first=Karl|title=Sviatoslav Richter Pianist|publisher=Northeastern University Press|year=2010|isbn=978-1-55553-710-4|location=Lebanon NH|pages=260}}</ref> They remained living companions from around 1945 until Richter's death; they had no children.<ref>''Dmitry Dorliak, [[Andrej Andreevich Zolotov|Andrei Zolotov]] (2005)''. Transiences of Sviatoslav Richter. — Moscow: Khudoznik i kniga, p. 5 {{ISBN|978-5-901685-95-2}}</ref><ref>"In a Duo with Richter" by Nina Dorliak // Remembering Sviatoslav Richter. Sviatoslav Richter Through the Eyes of Colleagues, Friends and Admirers (2000). — Moscow: Konstanta, {{pp.|68|70}} {{ISBN|978-5-93123-010-8}}</ref> Dorliak accompanied Richter both in his complex private life and career. She supported him in his final illness, and died herself less than a year later, on May 17, 1998.

Since his death it has been suggested that Richter was homosexual and that having a female companion provided a [[Beard (companion)|social front]] for his true sexual orientation, because homosexuality was widely taboo at that time and could result in [[LGBT rights in Russia#Stalin|legal repercussions]].<ref>{{cite news | author=Benjamin Ivry | title=from Russia with (forbidden) love | url=http://www.salon.com/1998/01/05/05feature/ | work=salon | date=January 5, 2005 | access-date=September 8, 2007}}</ref><ref>letter from Nicolas Nabokov to Igor Stravinsky, February 3, 1963, Stravinsky, selected correspondence, Vol II {{ISBN|978-0-394-52813-7}} "We are writing to you from a concert by Sviatoslav Richter, who is playing Bach and Schubert brilliantly. He is a flaming fag."</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=1999-01-07 |title=Monster at the keyboard |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/1999/jan/07/features11.g25 |access-date=2023-12-12 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> Richter was an intensely private person and was usually quiet and withdrawn, and refused to give interviews. He never publicly discussed his personal life until the last year of his life when film-maker [[Bruno Monsaingeon]] convinced him to be interviewed for a documentary.