Sviatoslav Richter Collection

Sviatoslav Richter (1915-1997), one of the supreme pianists of the 20th century, is also one of the best-known, most extensively recorded, and in many ways most enigmatic figures in the annals of pianism. Born in what is now Ukraine and trained in Moscow, mainly by Heinrich Neuhaus, Richter's life and career have been thoroughly documented in all standard sources.

In addition to hundreds of commercial recordings and files of programs, articles, and reviews, IPAM's holdings dealing with Richter are comprehensive. They consist of three separate but related collections: (1) approximately 700 privately-recorded CDs and DVDs of Richter recitals and concerts covering the full extent of his career. These come from the collection of the late Ates Tanin of Toronto, Canada. (2) The Richter archive of Falk Schwarz of Cologne, Germany. Dr. Schwarz was the co-founder of "The Friends of Richter and Gilels," an international group devoted to documentation of Richter's activity throughout his life. Included here are the newsletters of that organization; a 1200-page "Konzertographie" of all of Richter's public performances as well as copies of Richter's own concert diaries; over 100 photographs; and seven volumes of clippings from magazines, newspapers and other publications from 1948 to 1988. (3) Approximately two dozen books on Richter, mainly Russian-language publications assembled by private collector Peter Greenleaf.