A great yearning

'Don't you think that a great yearning is like the birds' heading south -- a sign that somewhere life is in bloom?'

Lou Andreas-Salomé

Menschenkinder (1899); translated by Raleigh Whitinger

The Human Family, p. 173 (University of Nebraska Press)

Lou Andreas-Salomé (1861-1937) was a prominent German novelist and a pioneering psychoanalyst to whom Freud sometimes referred patients.

A 2016 film told the story of her extraordinary life, and Raleigh Whitinger and I have just published the first English translation of her 1921 novel, Das Haus under the title Anneliese's House (Boydell and Brewer). 

• VIDEO: How to watch the film
• My review of the film
  
• Anneliese's House from Boydell and Brewer
  
• Lou Andreas-Salomé on love
• 'A Prayer to Life' by Lou Andreas-Salomé

The gods still reign

Don't talk to me

of civilization

and its decline:

the gods still reign.

These lines, translated by Julia Vickers, come from a poem Lou Andreas-Salome (1861-1937) wrote as a teenager. Salome went on to become a prominent German novelist, critic and pioneering psychoanalyst. A new film by Cordula Kablitz-Post tells the story of her extraordinary life. It was released in the United States in Spring 2018 and is now available on iTunes, Vimeo and Amazon.

• Lou Andreas-Salomé's 'Prayer to Life'
• Trailer for 'Lou Andreas-Salome: The Audacity to Be Free'
• A behind-scenes look at the film

Naked at the keyboard

"Although I love listening to it, I try to avoid playing such music as it makes me feel completely naked emotionally. But, if you decide to perform it, be good enough to undress."

       Sviatoslav Richter on Rachmaninov's Études-tableaux, Op. 33 and 39

Russian pianist Sviatoslav Richter (1915-97) was one of the great musicians of the 20th-century. A consummate technician, he was known for his penetrating and soul-shaking interpretations. When someone was needed to play at Boris Pasternak's funeral in 1960, Richter was the inevitable choice. The photograph shows him in 1971.

• AUDIO: Richter plays Études-tableaux in Prague, 1984
• VIDEO: Helene Grimaud plays Études-tableaux, Op. 33, Nos. 2 and 1
• VIDEO: Nikolai Lugansky plays a selection of Études-tableaux, Op. 33 and 39
• AUDIO: Excerpts from all 25 etudes, performed by Rustem Hayroudinoff
  
• AUDIO: NPR web feature for the 2015 centenary of Richter's birth
• AUDIO: Listen to excerpts from many of Richter's recordings