Sviatoslav was born in Zhitomir, in the Ukraine of German descent. His father, Theophile, was an organist and gave the young Sviatoslav his early musical training. Sviatoslav's mother, Anna, was a talented artist who loved music and was related to the Swedish soprano Jenny Lind.
The young Sviatoslav was essentially self-taught and developed his exceptional technique by playing whatever music he liked. By the age of eight he was playing opera scores, including the music of Richard Wagner. He had the ability to memorize any music at sight.
Sviatoslav grew up in Odessa, where his father taught at the Conservatory. His debut as a soloist came in 1934, at the Odessa House of Engineers. The recital was a great success and Sviatoslav's career as virtuoso was under way.
In 1937 Sviatoslav left Odessa for Moscow to study with the great pianist and pedagogue Heinrich Neuhaus. Sviatoslav did not take the entrance exam at the Conservatory. He simply asked Neuhaus to teach him. Neuhaus listened to his playing and declared that he had nothing to teach Sviatoslav but accepted him as a pupil anyway.
In 1940, while still a student at Moscow Conservatory, Sviatoslav made his Moscow debut. When Prokofiev completed his Seventh Sonata in 1942, he gave it to Sviatoslav for the premiere. Sviatoslav learned the piece in only four days. He also gave the first performances of Prokofiev's Eighth and Ninth Sonatas, the last of which was dedicated to Sviatoslav.
Sviatoslav's first competition victory came in 1945, in the All-Union Contest of Performers. He took first prize. Sviatoslav went on the win the Stalin Prize in 1949, as well as every kind of official and unofficial recognition from the Soviet government.
In 1945 Sviatoslav was accompanist to the Russian soprano Nina Dorliak in a program that included songs by Rimsky-Korsakov and Prokofiev. This was the first meeting in an association that would last the rest of their lives. Sviatoslav and Dorliak were never officially married, but they were constant companions.
In 1960 Sviatoslav was allowed bu Soviet authorities to travel to the West, and then only as far as Helsinki. Five months later he made his U.S. debut in Chicago. His New York debut consisted of a series of seven recitals in ten days at Carnegie Hall. In France, he had a second home and spent there considerable time.
Sviatoslav quickly was established in the first rank of performers and was very much in demand for recitals and recordings. He toured the world and performed with major orchestras, but soon decided that he did not want to continue this life style. It was against his nature to make so many commitments years in advance. He preferred to follow his impulse and explore new repertoire.
In addition to his career as pianist, Sviatoslav pursued painting. He produced many splendid watercolors. He also made one appearance as conductor, in 1952. This was the result of a minor injury to a finger. Sviatoslav was afraid that he would never play piano again and studied conducting for some weeks. The finger recovered quickly, and Sviatoslav returned to the keyboard.
During his later years he acquired a reputation for canceling engagements at the last minute, and for playing on very short notice, almost on a whim. In fact, Sviatoslav followed his muse and lived a precarious life style. When he needed money he would give a concert.
Sviatoslav's last concert was in Lubeck, Germany. He was eighty years old and in poor health. Sviatoslav died in Moscow, after suffering a heart attack.
The hidden aspects of his personality and the reason why he remained a remote figure in modern musical history became clear only after his death, when friends came forward to state what had been whispered for so long: Sviatoslav suffered untold miseries in his private life and public career because he was gay, at a time when the Soviet regime considered homosexuality a punishable crime.
Instead of living permanently with a male lover, Richter spent most of his adult life with soprano Nina Dorliak, who was an understanding mother figure as well as a steady friend to him. Dorliak, his elder by some 10 years, provided the stabilizing force and social front that Richter needed.
When he began to travel abroad in the late 1950s, he did form romantic attachments, but even these had to be kept secret, as the freedom to travel - even for a virtuoso such as himself - depended on the approval of Soviet authorities. Despite the obvious political pressures, Sviatoslav did protest in his own way, refusing to perform in Moscow in the late '50s.
