Contents:
- GAY PIANISTS: N YOU TELL?
- IS, GAY AND CLOSETED , SVIATOSLAV RICHTER (1915-1997) IS THE BT PIANIST EVER?
GAY PIANISTS: N YOU TELL?
' ' Though Richter was gay, he lived wh the sger Na Dorliac for nearly 50 aware of Richter's petulant nature, as well as his refal to be filmed, Monsageon ially taped their nversatns. Stephen wr: Vladimir Horowz once said that there were three typ of pianist: Jewish, gay and bad.
The world famo classil gay pianist Vladimir Horowz is quoted as once sayg 'There are three typ of pianists: Jewish, gay, and bad'. Wh historilly closeted homosexuals, one n often terpret a stra of personal tratn or secret passn their work. Boy Band Members Who Are Out As Gay, Bisexual or Queer.
Richter lived wh (they never married) the soprano Na Dorliak; he was generally assumed to be gay. The Brish imprar Victor Hochhser spent hours searchg gay bars Paris, only to hear the unmistakable Richter touch through an open wdow of an apartment block at two the morng: Richter was playg four-hand wh the Amerin Juli Katchen, whom he had jt met.
IS, GAY AND CLOSETED , SVIATOSLAV RICHTER (1915-1997) IS THE BT PIANIST EVER?
The hidn aspects of his personaly and the reason why he remaed a remote figure morn mil history beme clear only after his ath, when iends me forward to state what had been whispered for so long: Richter suffered untold miseri his private life and public reer bee he was gay, at a time when the Soviet regime nsired homosexualy a punishable crime. The Soviet mil world regard Slava's homosexualy as mon knowledge, and had no problems wh .
Dperately clgg to a land that officially rejected his emotnal and sexual inty was his personal alternative to the choice of exile ma by other Rsian gay artists like Rudolf Nureyev. This somber readg is one of many Tchaikovsky ncertos rerd by Richter that leave the listener wh the odd feelg that he never que intified wh the mic of the most famoly gay Rsian poser. Whereas the 19th century gay Frenchman's works are too often prented as ksch and mp, Richter's readg is sober, ser and human, arguably real mic performed wh sobriety and a direct approach -- by refg to trivialize Sat-Saens, the pianist also refed to trivialize himself.