DECEMBER NIGHTS OF SVIATOSLAV RICHTER

“Now I have a second home in Moscow and my own month – December…”

Svyatoslav Richter

The Svyatoslav Richter December Nights International Music Festival brings together fine arts, music, recitals, theatre, and dance. Already during Richter’s lifetime, the festival became a legend and a hallmark of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. For more than forty years, the festival has developed a strong tradition that sets it apart from many other musical events in Russia and abroad. In addition to the idea of the synthesis of arts increasingly expressed over time the exhibitions and music programs, the festival is also famous its performers. Among the outstanding foreign stars who have performed at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts are András Schiff, Martha Argerich, Ian Bostridge, Robert Hall, Isaac Stern, Peter Schreier, Tõnu Kaljuste and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, and Paul Hillier and his Ars Nova Copenhagen vocal ensemble.

An outstanding musician and a man of encyclopedic knowledge, Svyatoslav Richter set such high standards for the festival that keeping the festival’s traditions after his death became a difficult task. Nevertheless, the team of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts and Yuri Bashmet, who became the artistic director of the festival in 1998, have managed to ensure both the continuity of Richter’s ideas and the highest level of the December Nights’ participants.

‘I would like to have my own trademark. So that I am known by it.
Yet what would it be? The union of all the arts that God invented!’

Svyatoslav Richter (1915–1997)

“In December 1981, Richter announced the opening of the December Nights festival. Together with him came his “entourage,” comprised of remarkable young musicians, each of whom was a jewel of the performing arts: Oleg Kagan, Natalia Gutman, Yuri Bashmet, Viktor Tretyakov, Eliso Virsaladze, and Elizaveta Leonskaya. Richter supported the rising talent of Yevgeny Kissin and engaged young artists such as director Yuri Borisov and conductor Vladimir Ziva. The maestro was joined by the well-known Borodin Quartet headed by Valentin Berlinsky and the magnificent singer Galina Pisarenko. Richter’s name brought in great Russian and world performers to the “December Nights,” and we eagerly welcome Galina Ulanova, Pyotr and Sergey Kapitsa, Innokenty Smoktunovsky, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Dmitry Zhuravlyov, Alfred Schnittke, Yuri Lyubimov, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Irina Shostakovich, Giya Kancheli, Tengiz Abuladze, Yevgeny Pasternak, Lev Naumov, Irakli Andronikov, Zara Dolukhanova, Oleg Tabakov, Yevgeny Mironov…”

Irina Antonova (1922–2020)

“The concept of the festival, which is based on the idea of synthesis of plastic arts and music, makes it a unique event among many contemporary music festivals. The “December Nights” create a special emotional atmosphere resonating with the chosen theme and stimulating the perception. This atmosphere makes the spectators rise above their daily moods, summons up their spirit, and sharpens their senses.”

Inna Pruss (1931–2018)

“I have taken part in almost all the world’s biggest festivals, but the “December Nights” is a special festival. It is not only due to its carefully prepared thematic programs seeking consonances between music and painting and aiming at polyphony and, ultimately, the mutual enrichment of the two arts. The festival is unique primarily because Richter’s spirit is omnipresent at each of its concerts, spreading a special kind of energy over the entire festival. Of course, this is also a festival of stars, which is evidenced by the concert programs over the years. I am proud to be a regular participant in the Nights.”

Yuri Bashmet, Artistic Director of the Svyatoslav Richter December Nights International Music Festival