Years of wandering Svyatoslav Richter. England - America Automatic translate

The Pushkin Museum to them. A.S. Pushkin in the Memorial Apartment of Svyatoslav Richter presents the exhibition “Years of Travel of Svyatoslav Richter. England - America ”, dedicated to the travels of an outstanding pianist in England and America. The exposition is based on Richter’s art postcards brought by him from the cities in which concerts took place, letters sent to friends, as well as photographs. In addition to archival materials, viewers will also see engravings, portraits and theatrical sketches. In total, the exhibition has more than 150 items that recreate the real picture of the pianist’s travels.

Svyatoslav Richter is one of the most virtuosic pianists of the 20th century. During his life, he founded several music festivals, including the famous "December Evenings" in the Pushkin Museum. A.S. Pushkin, where he performed with famous contemporary musicians - cellists Mstislav Rostropovich and Natalya Gutman, violinist Oleg Kagan, violist Yuri Bashmet.

In 2017, a three-year cycle of programs related to the life of a pianist, “Years of Wanderings”, which combined the themes of lectures, concerts, performances and exhibitions, began to be held in Svyatoslav Richter’s Memorial Apartment. The current program as a “continuation of wanderings” is associated with Richter’s travels in England and America.

In October 1960, Richter went on a three-month tour of the United States of America, and in July 1961 he first performed in England, giving concerts in London, Cambridge, Manchester, Oxford and other cities. He came to America twice more, but the triumphal tour of 1960 was of particular importance in his biography. Both countries became the first "discoveries" of the West for Richter. An important section of the exhibition is devoted to the pianist’s contacts with famous musicians and, above all, Richter’s personal and creative friendship with prominent English composer Benjamin Britten (1913-1976).

The exhibition will feature engravings depicting the old English city of Oldborough (from B. Britten’s archive), portraits of composers whose compositions Richter and Britten performed together at the Oldborough Festival (V.A. Mozart, F. Schubert, R. Schumann and K. Debussy), as well as sketches of sets and costumes for the famous and iconic productions of Britten’s operas in Moscow from 1965 to 2003 (“A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, Bolshoi Theater 1965; “Let’s Create an Opera”, B.A. Pokrovsky Moscow Chamber Theater 1974; “Albert Herring” and “Turn of the Screw”, KS Stanislavsky Musical Theater, 2003; “December “Evenings”, 1983-1984. In addition, viewers will see very rare objects: for example, one of the last lifetime portraits of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart by Joseph Grassi.

Specially for the exhibition, an audio recording of fragments of the correspondence of Svyatoslav Richter and his wife Nina Dorliak with Benjamin Britten and Peter Pierce was made, in which actors from Moscow theaters took part. The famous pianist Boris Berezovsky played the role of Richter.

Viewers will also see three multimedia films, which include rare shots of productions of Britten’s operas in England and Moscow, as well as a unique newsreel: London in the 1960s and 1970s, Britten’s visits to Moscow, fragments of concerts, the Oldborough festival, where Richter and Britten jointly play music, rare shots from the life of the composer.

Materials for the exhibition were provided by: A.S. State Museum of Fine Arts Pushkin, Benjamin Britten and Peter Pierce Oldborough Foundation, Russian National Museum of Music, A.A. State Central Theater Museum Bakhrushin, State Academic Bolshoi Theater, Moscow Academic Musical Theater. K.S. Stanislavsky and V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, Moscow State Academic Chamber Musical Theater named after B.A. Pokrovsky, Russian State Archive of Film and Photo Documents (Krasnogorsk), as well as theater artist Alona Pikalova.