Svyatoslav Richter died five years ago on this day

On Thursday, August 1st, it will be five years since the great musician Svyatoslav Richter died.

"He was above us," recalled later on father Vedernikov (before ordainment a violinist) who read the burial service for the musician in his flat in the house in Bolshaya Bronnaya street. Admirers of Richter's talent come to this day to his flat on the 16th floor where Richter's museum is now.

Svyatoslav Richter gave up to 120 concerts a year both in his country and abroad.

The pianist admitted that he liked to play in darkness. "I play in darkness hoping that it will help me to concentrate," he explained in one of his interviews. He performed only pieces he was in love with.

In his childhood Richter tried to write music pieces and even operas (his first experience was the unfinished opera "Bela"). That experience came in handy to him later on in life, when he staged Britten's operas at the so-called December Evenings. Richter was a great connoisseur of painting and, as his friends joked, had he not become a composer, he would have made a brilliant career as an art critic.