1. I was not disappointed at all. I thought it was extremely well put together. In fact I thought it was nothing short of a miracle that Monsaingeon managed to make this film at all. Apparently Richter was a real pain throughout, and at one point threatened to walk out of the project. I very much liked the way old movie footage was superimposed with Richter reading from his diaries with performances of the pieces he was talking about.
2. Yes, very much. I did not have much information about him or about his ideas. In fact he is not even one of my favourite pianists (there is a certain ferocity in his playing that I think works very well in Liszt, Prokofiev and Rachmaninov, but – for me at least – does not work at all in Chopin and Bach, nevertheless, he is a supremely interesting pianist, and like Glenn Gould, I am always prepared to listen to his interpretations even though I may not like them). I did not find him dreary at all. I liked his dry sense of humour, his total lack of self-importance, his high critical standards especially towards his own playing, his complete indifference to politics, money and personal comfort, and his courage (playing repertory forbidden in soviet Russia is not a step taken lightly). In short, after seeing this movie I thought he was an amazing human being.
3. His father was a piano teacher and concert pianist. His mother played the piano (she was originally one of her father’s students). His house was probably a meeting point of musicians. This is like someone who decides to learn Japanese and is following a systematic course that involves, grammar, writing and reading and conversation as an adult, asking with amazement: “How can these Japanese children speak Japanese so well without academic training”. Simple, they have a much better training: total immersion in the environment. He says in the video that he started learning the piano at age 8. But I bet he was fooling around much before that. And he was playing scales all right: all the scales he was coming across in the pieces he was playing. What he was not doing was practising scales in isolation or finger exercises (again in isolation). But then, I for one, do not believe they are necessary.
4. He may be. I guess we would have to ask Monsaigeon, I am more inclined to think that he was following the score, and that he already knew the piece. (If he was sight reading though that would be amazing).
5. How in Russia, at the time, classical piano music was unrelated to fame or wealth, and how the love of it all seemed to be the only source of motivation for the musicians. (or at least some of the musicians). This was a very inspiring movie. It spurned me on to practise!
6. I do not think he learned the WTC in one month. What he said in the movie is that he memorised it in one month (still impressive though). But even if he learned it in one month, let us not forget that he was a fully accomplished musician (and a musical genius). At that stage he could learn pretty much anything pretty quick since he had already mastered the most important skill for a musician: how to learn and practise.
7. Yes, that was hilarious. In fact, he reminded me very much of Arnold Schwazzenegger (don’t they look similar? And similar acting skills). Nice wig!
Best wishes,
Bernhard.
Topic: Richter: The Enigma Video/DVD