Talk:Karl Richter (conductor)

Untitled
Perhaps we should have a disambiguation; we already have one other Karl Richter and de:Wikipedia has several. -- Infrogmation 17:30, 9 August 2006 (UTC) Also: In the German edition of WIKIPEDIA ther is information about two Space Missions from NASA that include music by K Richter,these are VOYAGER and PIONEER. It will be good to include this onformation on the english WIKIPEDIA for K Richter. In other words the German language WIKIPEDIA has more information than the English WIKIPEDIA page on K Richter. Please see if they can have the same information. Thanks. Hugo.

On the sentence « He avoided the fluctuations in tempo that was one characteristic of the prevailing Romantic manner of conducting Bach, but otherwise made no attempt to be historically authentic in his performances, using modern instruments right to the end of his career », I agree with the 1st part as strongly as I disagree with the 2nd. Karl Richter always was visibly more authentic than many others; he simply thought, apparently, that "modern" instruments were more authentic to Bach's music, thoughts and habits, as well as to the era's general and popular ones, than all the current instruments disputedly called "period" or "original", that are actually very recently designed and built in the purpose of narrowing History, but with no proof that this purpose is reached. Hence I propose to replace that sentence with something like:

« In his continual hunt for perfection and authenticity, Karl Richter consistently kept from the fluctuations in tempo that were then one characteristic of the prevailing Romantic manner of conducting Bach, as well as from the disputedly called "Historically informed performance" or "period" or "original" instruments (designed in the recent years in an attempt to authenticity), apparently finding the older traditional "modern" instruments more authentic ».

I just edited the page that way, but knowing that this is politically sensible I also inform about it here, to keep record of the previous writing. Please anyone feel free to remove my edit if (whatever true it may be) you find it disturbing. Versailles, Mon 2 Jul 2007 17:29:25 +0200 Michel Merlin 15:29, 2 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Your edit is simply dripping with partisanship, so I edited it to be less POV. Oh, and by the way, "disputedly" isn't even a word. --Vlmastra 17:18, 29 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Coming to this debate 2 years later, I find Vlmastra's "partisanship" more intrusive.


 * The wording of the article as it has been is quite unfair to Richter, who was considered quite "authentic" for the time in which he worked. And to imply that any conductor working from the 50's to the 70's made a conscious choice not to use period instruments and playing techniques shows ignorance of the history of performance practice. It was not a matter of choice: throughout Richter's career, the modern orchestra was at the height of its refinement; conversely, there were not enough truly competent performers of early instruments who could keep their instruments in tune to fill up an orchestra.


 * Would you rather hear an excellent pianist play Bach on a Steinway, or on a battered and out-of-tune harpsichord? This was the choice a conductor in the 50's and 60's had to make. Within the modern orchestra, Richter worked for greater textural clarity and elimination of romantic excesses of rubato and dynamic shading that were then normal.


 * I'm re-writing the contentious sentence to try to avoid both extremes of partisanship.Junggai (talk) 09:21, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

Let's try avoid useless heat. I don't feel more "dripping with partisanship" than the "did not use historically authentic performance practices", which implies without backing that Karl Richter were historically unauthentic, or than the "less POV", which I challenge. Please anyone either keep this reply posted, or obtain removal of the 3 POVs I just quoted. Thanks BTW for the correction (once corrected, "disputably" is shown accurate by... this dispute! ;-) ).Michel Merlin 12:13, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

I don't know but I think we can do a better job on this Karl Richter. I'm interested in his history. For someone that has been described as one of the brightest interpreters of Bach in the last century, I think some more info on his personal life and technique would be in order. -- Borninbronx10 (talk) 12:13, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

== Karl Richter a smoker? ==

Was Karl Richter a heavy smoker? Was his death at age 54 connected with smoking? In almost every interview I've seen he's holding a cigarette and his front teeth seem to be stained by smoking. Now suppose there's a consensus he was and it was, and suppose there's a consensus that would be a significant element to add to his biography, how would one go about validating such information for purpose of inclusion? Would his interviews be sufficient sources, or would any conclusion drawn from them considered "original research"? Incidentally, I once saw an interview of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, from the 60s or 70s, with Fischer-Dieskau smoking. Now, if you can't keep yourself from having a smoke even the time of an interview, then it must be pretty bad, and he was not even trying to keep it private. What went on with those people? I even heard of one female English classical singer in the 50s who was a habitual smoker. Looking at that from this century, it feels like this was going on in another galaxy. Signed: Basemetal ( write to me here) 06:03, 30 November 2012 (UTC) Basemetal  12:42, 14 September 2016 (UTC)

Smoker? Looks like he has been living on the streets; any records on his adolescent years? Xwiggen (talk) 20:43, 13 November 2014 (UTC)

I want a copy of Karl Richter's dental records. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jhamidi (talk • contribs) 17:56, 5 May 2016 (UTC)

Otto Büchner (1924–2008)
His Konzertmeister Otto Büchner, who had great influence to Richters special sound, should also be mentioned -- 92.206.107.189 (talk) 19:41, 21 August 2022 (UTC)