# Richter & Gilels



## Atabey

I wonder how the relationship was between these two Russian giants of piano of the 20th century.Any help on topic will be much appreciated.

Thank you.
A.Atabey


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## YsayeOp.27#6

Atabey said:


> I wonder how the relationship was between these two Russian giants of piano of the 20th century.Any help on topic will be much appreciated.


They studied with Neuhaus.


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## Air

When the Iron Curtain was raised in the 50s, the whole school of Russian pianists came to America, first Emil Gilels and later Richter. Gilels was received very positively, but humbly made the statement "wait until you hear Richter".

I thinks this speaks a lot about his character.

Richter, on the other hand, tended to be more critical, but IMO, is the better of the 2 pianists and IMO, one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century.


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## Atabey

airad2 said:


> When the Iron Curtain was raised in the 50s, the whole school of Russian pianists came to America, first Emil Gilels and later Richter. Gilels was received very positively, but humbly made the statement "wait until you hear Richter".
> 
> I thinks this speaks a lot about his character.
> 
> Richter, on the other hand, tended to be more critical, but IMO, is the better of the 2 pianists and IMO, one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century.


Thank you Ysaye and airad2,

I concur that Gilels was second to Richter but after all who was not.Richter respected and admired Gilels.Richter was known for not performing the works which are performed by other pianists in a way he felt was unsurpassable.He did not perform Rach 3 because of Horowitz's performance.He did nor perform Beethoven's Emperor after hearing his teacher Neuhaus's performance.I heard somewhere that the reason behind his avoidance of Brahms 1st and Beethoven's 4th was his admiration of Gilels's performances.Do you know anything to confirm that?

Other things about the relationship between them that i would like to ask you if you have any knowledge on are following:
1-It is said that Richter stopped greeting Gilels when he saw him in street because he was put off by his jealousy and Gilels, who was in his final years by then, was deeply saddened by the incident.
2-Full extent of what happened in 1958 Tchaikovsky Piano Competition which was won by Van Cliburn.Gilels and Richter were both jury members.

In my opinion, Richter was, (considering his breath-taking poetry, his amazing technique and his astonishingly large repertoire) overall *the best* pianist of the 20th century. Gilels was a stunning virtuoso with a heart-breaking sonority and one of the greatest pianists of 20th century and most poosibly the unluckiest piano virtuoso for being the pianist that is constantly compared with Richter.


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