Richter conduct Prokof'ev (18 Feb '52)

❈ Richter conduct Prokof'ev ❈

Sergei Prokof'ev
Symphony-Concerto in E minor, Op. 125

1. Andante
2. Allegro
3. Andante con moto - Allegretto - Allegro marcato

February 18, 1952. Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory

Sviatoslav Richter, conducting
Mstislav Rostropovich, cello

Moscow Youth Symph. Orchestra

..."In those days new music was not much liked and Prokofiev's second 'cello concerto was turned down. But I liked it. Prokofiev revised it with Rostropovich's help. I no longer remember from whom the idea that I should conduct it came, Neuhaus or Rostropovich. In any case I was told, 'we want to try it out, you conduct'. And I said, 'very well, I shall see'. At the time, 1952, I had broken a finger of my right hand in a brawl with which, in fact, I had nothing whatever to do. I was with two friends in a refreshment bar outside Moscow when a drunken man came in and behaved appallingly. Two soldiers tried to restrain him but the drunken man, a young fellow of twenty-five or so, was very strong and flung the soldiers to the floor. I was finally able to get hold of him and persuade him to give in. The next day one of my fingers was so swollen that I went to the doctor. He thought it was an ulcer. But during the following night the finger hurt so much that I went to another doctor, a surgeon. He took an X-ray and said a liny piece of bone had split off and something had to be done quickly. The surgeon then set the finger again with hot wax and. thank goodness, it did not remain stiff, which was the great danger. Naturally I thought about what I should do if I were no longer able to play with my right hand. First I studied Ravel's Concerto for the left hand. At night, as I fell asleep, the thought came to me: everyone knows that your finger does not work, and I shall now take advantage of this to conduct. People would certainly support me under these circumstances. And so it turned out. I learned to conduct in ten days with Kondrashin, who taught me how to give upbeats etc. The finger was now all right again, but naturally I did not admit it. Then I only had three rehearsals with orchestra. That was very foolhardy, but everything went well. After the concert I received letters telling me I ought not to give up now, I must continue to conduct. But I stopped all the same. 'Later,' I said, 'I shall do it later,' but many years have already passed and I still go on saying 'later'. I simply have too much to do as a pianist. Something else then happened that same evening, after my appearance as a conductor. I was staying with Neuhaus at the time, as I had already done so often, and I really did behave a little immodestly. I sat down at the piano, immediately after we came back, and played Chopin's Study in A minor, Op No 2. Normally it never came off very well, but that night it went perfectly! The reason for my elation was that the conducting had gone so well! Neuhaus thereupon came in from another room and simply said to me : 'Slava, that was a little too quick!" The A minor Study has occasionally come off well, but always as an encore. The same is true of the G sharp minor Study. I do not consider it absolutely essential to have played all the Chopin studies. In fact I am against this playing of everything, every sonata, every study, etc. For me the exception is The Well-tempered Clavier. As a student I suppose I studied about five preludes and fugues out of it with Neuhaus. Later I worked at the whole work on my own."

[..]

From 'Musiker im Gesprach: Sviatoslav Richter' by Jürgen Meyer-Josten. © Copyright 1982 by CF Peters. This text is a compilation of various informal talks Jürgen Meyer-Josten conducted with Sviatoslav Richter in the course of several years. Jürgen Meyer-Josten is head of the music department at Bavarian Radio in Munich. Translated from the German by John Nowell. Source: British Institute of Recorded Sound 1983 (Snippet Google Books)