The world's most fabled and, internationally, the least widely heard pianist is 44-year-old Russian Sviatoslav Richter. Most Westerners who have managed to attend one of his concerts are convinced that he is one of the greatest pianists now playing. But unlike such famed Russian contemporaries as Pianist Emil Gilels and Violinist David Oistrakh, Richter is not a Communist Party member and has never been allowed to travel to the West. Last week the West traveled to Richter. In Leningrad the touring Philadelphia Orchestra (TIME, June 9) joined him in a performance of Prokofiev's prickly, sardonic Fifth Piano Concerto.
The orchestra had never...