Sviatoslav Richter: Notebooks and Conversations

Description

Throughout a life dedicated to music, Richter maintained a stubborn silence about his own ideals and aspirations. Here at last he opens up his heart in these exceptional interviews with Bruno Monsaingeon, who became close to Richter not long before the pianist's death in 1995. These conversations take us on a journey which begins with Richter's childhood memories, follows his early career and his development into 'an artist of the people', and finally charts his rise to international acclaim.

Bruno Monsaingeon is a violinist, film-maker, and writer whose films about some of the greatest musicians of our day - among them Glenn Gould, Yehudi Menuhin, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and David Oistrakh - have been acclaimed throughout the world. His multi-award-winning film, Richter the Enigma, is one of several that reveal an intimate knowledge of Russian culture. He is the author of Mademoiselle, a series of interviews with Nadia Boulanger (also published in English by Amadeus Press), and of three books on Glenn Gould.

"'This book is almost impossible to put down.' Financial Times; 'For anybody interested in 20th-century musical life [the Notebooks and Conversations] make fascinating reading, because Richter met everybody from Britten to Karajan, and had an opinion (usually scathing) about them all. But you don't have to be an aficionado to enjoy this rant: a genius on the rampage is always great entertainment.' Richard Morrison, The Times; 'Though most of the [notebook] entries are brief, they are vivid in their immediacy, and Richter's remarks about opera productions, conductors (he despised von Karajan and thought that Carlos Kleiber was the greatest) and individual works are constantly engaging.' Economist"