MID-MONTH RECORDINGS

Richter on Scriabin
By F A U B I O N B O W E R S citizens, he speaks of Rossiya, rather
than "the Union" or soyuz.

O NE DAY IN MID-MAY, thanks

to mutual friends, I called on the
Soviet pianist now scattering his
triumphs over America, Sviatoslav Rich-
That day he was dressed for summer—
the air conditioning was off-in a blue,
short-sleeved shirt. His elegant trousers
were well-tailored to fit his solid figure.
ter, to talk about Scriabin. Alexander His shoes were expensive and foreign.
Scriabin is that curious musical anomaly- When Richter speaks, he likes to make
bom on Christmas Day, 1871, and died at a point totally clear. If you, the listener,
Easter, 1915—who evoked a whole new frown or hesitate he throws in a French —Photo Pic, Pans.
world of musical sensations only to sink or German word to make his meaning
Richter — "a handsome
into near-oblivion. Richter, together with inescapable. "Le decadentisme" he em- peasant . . . an aristocrat."
Vladimir Horowitz, are Scriabin's chief phasized vidth his hands and a smile to
latter-day exponents. explain why he never plays an "all-Scria-
Richter's comfortable suite on the bin" program. Such has been the custom, "Do you play it?"
eleventh floor of the Stanhope Hotel, however, in the USSR, particularly for "No, I don't like it for myself. I play
with three bedrooms divided by a vast Richter's co-musicians: the late Sofronitz- five of the ten sonatas—the Second, Fifth,
sitting room and a concert grand piano, sky, son-in-law of Scriabin himself and Sixth, Seventh, and Ninth—and hundreds
overlooks the Metropolitan Museum of professor at the Moscow Conservatory; of other Scriabin pieces . . . pieces I
Art. You can also find Richter there, in and Neuhaus, Richter's own teacher and have never performed anywhere in pub-
between trips to Cleveland, Boston, mentor. Yevtushenko, the young poet in lic. I keep them to myself. Too much
Canada, etc. He travels with a young, vogue, recently wrote a poem, Moscow Scriabin isn't right. He is too difficult,
pretty, and polite secretary. Miss Karda- Freight Train, about students who work too subjective, for prolonged perform-
shova (provided by the Cultural Minis- all night unloading trains in order to ance. Ah, la decadence. I adore Scriabin,
try of the USSR), who speaks no English, buy a ticket to an all-Scriabin concert. and hate Scriabinists."
and a diminutive, red-headed, and af- However, an all-Scriabin recording is "We have mystics in America," I
fable Englishman, Mr. Phillips (provided a difterent matter to Richter. "I have pointed out, "who listen to his music
by the Hurok management), who speaks several in Russia, but only one is re- for the theosophical experience of flashes
an expert and accentless Russian. Avid leased here [MK 1582]. I like it, but of light, visions, magic. . . ."
Richter fans, they sit onstage at the side now it's so old [recorded during recitals "Our countries are the same. Scriabi-
when he plays. The Stanhope suite was in the USSR in 1952 and 1955]. How nists are tiresome people, and I stay
his base through his American tour, about that etude in ninths?" And Richter away from them. What a great composer
just concluded on the West Coast. played it in the air, like a little boy show- Scriabin was. You can say he had his
Richter eschews press interviews, ing his speed, lightness, and fiendishly weaknesses, but I don't like to talk about
partly because unpleasant questions broad chromatic intervals, which he them."
arose when he was known through rec- tosses off as casually as if they were "Please."
ords to be one of the great pianists of our octaves. "I don't like that other Scriabin "Why? No! He had tremendous
times, and yet was not on the list of So- record, the one with the Fifth Sonata strengths. Why concern ourselves with
viet cultural exports. However, his meet- [Deutsche Grammophon LPM 18 849] his weaknesses? Of course, you can say
the-press distaste stems primarily from . . . " I could not help recalling at this he is salon, lightweight and flattering to
the fact that, like any number of artists juncture the elaborate process the re- society ladies and gentlemen in some of
performing before the public eye, it be- cording entailed. Every concert note of his early works, or that he derived from
music Richter played during his Italian Chopin. But you take his very first etude
comes the art which counts.
summer season of 1962 was taped. The [C-sharp minor. Opus 2, written when
Again, like most pubHcity-shy persons,
result is a record of skimmed brilliance. Scriabin was sixteen]. Ah, what heart
once Richter receives you, he is ebul-
lient, affectionate, stimulated by outside Richter began our interview by saying, . . . das Herz. What strengths he had!
company, and desperately eager for you "I cannot understand why it is so un- I never play show-stoppers such as the
usual to play Scriabin in America. In D-sharp minor Etude (Opus 8), or the
to understand. Perhaps it is his titanic
Russia he is part of the mainstream of left-hand stuff. I play the Seventh Sonata
reputation, but close up he appears huge,
a lot in America, because it is rarely
broad-shouldered and a giant. His al- musical life . . . our heritage. We grow
played. It needs an airing.
most Frankenstein-like, square face is up with him, are nurtured by him, nour-
ruddy, framed in wisps of sand-colored ished on him. We absorb him, as soon "Scriabin's great pity is that he died
hair, and pierced by inteUigent, corn- as we are born. I cannot possibly re- at his best period. Think, the Sixth So-
flower-blue eyes. A hockey-stick line of member when I got interested in Scria- nata was a dead end . . . a cul-de-sac.
moles traces his right cheek and chin. bin. He was part of life, always. I was It's unknowable. Who knows what it
In looks, one's first impression is of a nine when I heard my first big Scriabin, means? I don't. It's an enigma . . . secret
handsome peasant from a gentle Tolstoy the Poem of Ecstasy [Fourth Symphony] . . . mysterious . . . hidden. It is like
novel. As soon as he speaks and his rest- in Odessa. Neuhaus influenced me, too. [pause] night. The French directions
less hands—soft, string-muscled, wrapped He enlarged my vision. I shall never for- help a little. "L'epouvante surgit" [the
around bones of steel—gesticulate, he get as long as I live how he played the frightening rises up], for example. From
becomes an aristocrat of real life. Like Tenth Sonata . . . never will I forget there where could he go? The same cul-
an aristocrat, and unlike many Soviet that." de-sac for the Seventh. That piece is all

58 SR/June 12, 1965

PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG
ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED
heat and fire. It is naked, undressed,
open, but stifling and you can't breathe,
it is so hot. And where can you go from
there? Nowhere. So Scriabin began to
compose entirely differently . . . the
Ninth and Tenth. The Ninth is my fa-
A Debussyist "Pelleas"
vorite. It is a storm, a storm of nature
in nature. It is elemental, I mean of the
natmal elements."
ductor but recreative guide, has brought

A
"Horowitz likes the Ninth best, too," FEW YEARS ago, in an article on
I said, "but Scriabin's own favorite was French theater music which ap- us in the new recordings an atmosphere
the Seventh. The Ninth, with its gro- • peared in Opera News, this writer on which we can build visions. Rarely
tesque, spooky March, was called The said, "Jet travel is obviously the fastest has orchestral texture on discs borne so
Black Mass. It's supposed to be evil, part form of transportation today; but for the fine a sheen. The dehcacy of statement,
of Scriabin's Satanic coloring." sensitized and willing, there is an even ebb and flow of nuance are near perfec-
"Ah, but nature can be evil, too. It's quicker way. Place on your turntable an tion. Only in one place, the climax of the
not all smisets and evening glow. The evocative recording of Pelleas et Meli- fourth-act love duet, is too massive an
Ninth is bad nature. What about an sande, touch the switch, and within instrumental force interposed between
earthquake, when the ground splits seconds you will be borne to another singers and listener. Otherwise this is the
open? That's not good. But please don't universe." The statement stands, espe- ideal balance.
misunderstand me. I am speaking my cially after a hearing of London's new Mehsande as a part does not call for
opinions, my feelings, my images that release (A 4379, $14.94, stereo OS A extended vocal range, but the music de-
I see in my head when I play. These are 1379, $17.94), which is in many ways mands a color and insight which, in their
not principles or laws to be followed... the most definitive of all recordings. elusiveness, pose a harder test than tech-
I think that the Ninth and Tenth Sonatas Two factors in particular make it so: nical display. On every count. Miss
purged themselves of all uncleanliness, the combined skills of conductor (Ern- Spoorenberg triumphs. How often, in
of wickedness. Scriabin moved with est Ansermet), producer (not mentioned the theater or on records, can a listener
them onto a higher level. He had to do by name in the album liner), and players feel that the singer is addressing her
something new after the Sixth and Sev- of L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in thoughts directly to him? Some tactical
enth, and he did. He took a further di- capturing the fantasy, shimmer, and phase of technique usually gets in the
rection and then . . . he died. Pity. For transparency of Debussy's tonal world; way. But this does not happen with Miss
his strengths we forgive him every weak- and the extraordinary artistry of the Spoorenberg, who communicates di-
ness. . . . little-known Dutch soprano, Erna Spoo-
"How very hard it is to talk about renberg, who sings Melisande. By this,
music in words. It is the most concrete one does not mean to deprecate in any
and, simultaneously, the most abstract sense the exquisitely molded Genevieve
art. That sounds contradictory, but it's of Josephine Veasey, the sterling Pelleas
true. Music is like one's subconscious of Camille Maurane, the dark and pow-
-'•f-t^x
mind. . . ." And Richter pinched the skin erful Golaud of George London. They
rectly from her psyche to our own. The
of his knuckles as if to say "under the are utterly first-class; but the over-all
timbre of this voice, inexpressibly haunt-
skin." Then, feeling that was not quite sound of the recording, the musical and
ing, brings the essence of Debussy as if
right, he tapped his head with his fore- poetic atmosphere, plus the voice of
from another world. Mary Garden as
finger as if to indicate that music rises Spoorenberg, which has gone to this
Melisande was before my time, and Bidu
from the depths of the under-mind and listener's heart, generate a very special
Sayao sang the role when many of us
penetrates deep within the skin layers. quality.
were away at war; but I have heard most
Richter brought the conversation back Pelleas et Melisande as a rewarding of the others from Lucrezia Bori onward
to Scriabin. "Do you know where all, all visual experience is unknown to the —and none, in retrospect, comes near the
of Scriabin comes from . . . in one single younger generation of American opera- quahty of this performer.
passage? Guess." He raced to the piano goers. For those who, growing up at the The chief virtue of Camille Maurane
and played the sinister, sickly-sweet, Metropolitan about thirty-five years ago, is his ability to liquefy poetry into music,
singing, slow middle-section tune of saw and heard this opera with settings to extract from both elements a rhyth-
Liszt's Mephisto Waltz. Yes, I thought, by Joseph Urban that matched the music mic flow that enhances the charm of
it was Liszt who first put the devil in in luminosity, it is a total theater work, a either, George London has captured the
music. "Hear how it's all there," Richter composite of tints for eye and ear. The gnawing introspection of Golaud; and
sang, "the indefinitely held suspensions German constructivist mounting of 1948 Josephine Veasey offers a subdued, ap-
of ninths and elevenths, the building of at the New York City Center (in a re- pealing Genevieve.
chords not in thirds but in fourths and vival for Maggie Teyte) and a more Rather on the debit side is the Arkel
fifths [the opening]. . . ." And Richter recent display of scenic remnants at the of Gnus Hoekman, who lacks the true
smiled as if he had just synthesized a Metropolitan could give no idea of the basso sonority which those who heard
diamond of musical knowledge. work's optical magic, even with Anser- Rothier or Kipnis can remember; and I
"Do you play, then, the Poeme Satan- met conducting. did not care for the Yniold of Rosine
ique of Scriabin?" No local remounting of Pelleas stands Bredy, adequately sung but with an ex-
"No, not it, nor its mate, Tragique. I in prospect either now or in the future. aggerated accent on the childish nature
don't like them myself for me." It is, in a sense, lost to us on the s t a g e - of the part. It should also be noted that
My last question asked how Scriabin all the more reason to concentrate ton- a list of musical motives printed in the
was received in Europe and America, ally on this wonderful score, to evoke for album liner, the theme of Golaud is er-
where, due to Richter, many were hear- ourselves the alternately melting and roneously listed as "Fate," while an un-
ing him for the first time. glinting images that are the counterpart important, purely secondary motive is
The answer was unequivocal: "Wlien of Debussy's music. Ansermet, freed ascribed to Golaud. These are small
I play well, Scriabin is liked. When I play from the dead hand of the last revival points. The recording is a treasure.
badly, he is not. It's as simple as t h a t . . . . " and obviously in charge not only as con- —ROBERT LAWRENCE.
SR/June 12, 1965 59
PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG
ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED