"If Gilels was in the mainstream tradition of piano playing, Sviatoslav Richter belongs with the great individualists. Alkan? Busoni? Michelangeli? All represented a kind of maverick approach to music and the keyboard, marching to a different drummer. … At the conservatory, his magnetism, his dedication, the aura that always has surrounded him made themselves felt. … Everything he did was different from what other pianists did. His enormous hands could span a twelfth — C to G. A compulsive practicer, he was sometimes known to work twelve hours a day. He would even practice after a recital. Or he might not touch the piano for months. In all things he was different. Neuhaus was struck by the way Richter adapted his mind to that of the composer. "When Richter plays different compositions it seems that different pianists are playing." He developed an enormous repertoire, from Bach and Handel (he is one of the few who plays the Handel Suites) to Prokofieff, Shostakovich and Benjamin Britten."