Sergei Rachmaninoff
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Sergei Rachmaninoff
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| Born | April 1, 1873 (N.S.) or 20 March 1873 (O.S.) |
| Died | March 28, 1943 |
| Nationality | Russian |
| Education | Moscow Conservatory |
| Known for | Rhapsody on a Theme of Paginini, Piano Concertos, Prelude in C-sharp Minor |
| Height | 6 ft 6 in (198 cm) |
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff (Russian: Сергей Васильевич Рахманинов, Sergej Vasilevič Rakhmaninov, 1 April, 1873 (N.S.) or 20 March 1873 (O.S.) – 28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor, one of the last great champions of the Romantic style of European classical music. ("Sergei Rachmaninoff" was the spelling the composer himself used while living in the West throughout the latter half of his life. However, transliterations of his name include SergeyorSerge, and Rachmaninov, Rachmaninow, RakhmaninovorRakhmaninoff.)
Rachmaninoff is regarded as one of the most influential pianists of the 20th century. He had legendary technical facilities and rhythmic drive, and his large hands were able to cover the interval of a thirteenth on the keyboard (a hand span of approximately twelve inches). According to fellow composer Igor Stravinsky Rachmaninoff stood 6 feet 6 inches (198 cm) tall.[1] He also had the ability to play complex compositions upon first hearing. Many recordings were made by the Victor Talking Machine Company recording label of Rachmaninoff performing his own music, as well as works from the standard repertoire.
His reputation as a composer generated a variety of opinions, before his music gained steady recognition across the world. The 1954 edition of Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians notoriously dismissed his music as "monotonous in texture ... consist[ing] mainly of artificial and gushing tunes ..." and predicted that his popular success was "not likely to last" ([1]). To this, Harold C. Schonberg, in his Lives of the Great Composers, responded, "It is one of the most outrageously snobbish and even stupid statements ever to be found in a work that is supposed to be an objective reference." Indeed, not only have Rachmaninoff's works become part of the standard repertoire, but their popularity among both musicians and audiences has, if anything, increased since the middle of the twentieth century, with some of his symphonies and other orchestral works, songs and choral music recognized as masterpieces alongside the more familiar piano works.
His compositions include, among numerous others: four piano concerti; the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini; three symphonies; two piano sonatas; three operas; a choral symphony (The Bells, based on the poembyEdgar Allan Poe); the All-Night Vigil, for unaccompanied choir (often known as Rachmaninoff's Vespers); twenty-four Preludes (including the famous Prelude in C-sharp minor); the Six Moments Musicaux; seventeen Études-tableaux; many songs, of which the most famous are "V molchanyi nochi taynoi" ("In the silence of night"), Lilacs, and the wordless Vocalise; and the last of his works, the Symphonic Dances. Most of his pieces follow a melancholy, late-Romantic style akin to Tchaikovsky, although strong influences of Chopin and Liszt are apparent. Further inspiration included the music of Balakirev, Mussorgsky, Medtner (whom he considered the greatest contemporary composer and who, according to Schonberg's Lives, returned the compliment by imitating him) and Henselt.
Rachmaninoff was born in Semyonovo, near Novgorodinnorth-western Russia, into a noble family of Tatar descent, who had been in the service of the Russian tsars since the 16th century. His parents were both amateur pianists, and he had his first piano lessons with his mother on their family estate at Oneg; however, his parents noticed no outstanding talent in the youngster. Because of financial difficulties, the family moved to Saint Petersburg, where Rachmaninoff studied at the Conservatory before moving to Moscow. There, he studied piano under Nikolay Zverev and Alexander Siloti (who was his cousin and a former student of Franz Liszt). He also studied harmony under Anton Arensky, and counterpoint under Sergei Taneyev. It should be noted that, in his younger days, Rachmaninoff was found to be quite lazy, failing most of his classes and spending much of his time ice skating. It was the strict regime of the Zverev home (a place for many young musicians, including Scriabin) that instilled discipline in the boy.[citation needed]
Already, in his early years, he showed great skill in composition. While still a student, he wrote the one-act opera, Aleko (for which he was awarded a gold medal in composition), his first piano concerto, and a set of piano pieces, Morceaux de Fantaisie (Op. 3, 1892), which includes the popular and famous Prelude in C-sharp minor (According to Francis Crociata’s liner notes to RCA's 10-CD set of Rachmaninoff’s recordings, the composer later became annoyed by the public’s fascination with this piece, composed when he was just nineteen years old. He would often tease an expectant audience in the days when it was traditional for the audience to request particular compositions, by asking, "Oh, must I?" or claiming inability to remember anything else). Rachmaninoff confided in Zverev his desire to compose more, requesting a private room where he could compose in silence, but Zverev saw him only as a pianist and severed his links with the boy.
Rachmaninoff's first serious pieces for the piano were composed and performed as a student, at the age of thirteen, during his residence with Nikolai Zverev. At this time (1886) he met Pyotr Tchaikovsky, whose works he was studying with Zverev, and who later played an important role in Rachmaninoff's artistic development. In 1892, in his capacity as a member of the Moscow Conservatory graduation board, Tchaikovsky joined many other musicians in recommending that Rachmaninoff be awarded the Gold Medal for his opera Aleko. Later, on Tchaikovsky's promotion, Aleko was included in the repertory and performed at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
In 1892, at age nineteen, he completed his Piano Concerto No. 1 (Op. 1, 1891), which he revised in 1917.
The sudden death of Tchaikovsky in 1893 made a strong impression on Rachmaninoff, affecting his emotional state, his personality as well as his creativity.
Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 1 (Op. 13, 1896) premiered on 27 March 1897 in one of a long-running series of "Russian Symphony Concerts," but was torn apart by critics. In a particularly vitriolic review by a nationalist composer César Cui, it was likened to a depiction of the ten plagues of Egypt and suggested that it would be admired by the "inmates" of a music conservatory in hell. (Remarkably, César Cui is the only member of the group of Russian nationalist composers known as The Five whose music is hardly ever performed now.) It is often mooted that the criticisms stem from inadequacy of the performance; the conductingofAlexander Glazunov is often remembered as a problem: he liked the piece, but was a weak conductor and starved of rehearsal time.
Rachmaninoff's wife and other witnesses later suggested that Glazunov may have been drunk and, although this was never intimated by Rachmaninoff, it would not seem out of character.[2][3]
In early January 1900, Rachmaninoff and singer Feodor Chaliapin were invited to Leo Tolstoy's house. Rachmaninoff had greatly respected the author. That evening, Rachmaninoff played one of his compositions, then accompanied Chaliapin in his song “Fate,” one of the pieces Rachmaninoff had written after his First Symphony. After they had finished, Tolstoy took Rachmaninoff aside and started, "Tell me, is such music needed by anyone? I must tell you how I dislike it all. Beethoven is nonsense, Pushkin and Lermontov also." (The song "Fate" is based on the two opening measures of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.) And when they were leaving, Tolstoy said, "Forgive me if I've hurt you by my comments," and Rachmaninoff replied, "How could I be hurt on my own account, if I was not hurt on Beethoven’s?"
The disastrous reception of his Symphony No 1, the evening with Tolstoy and his distress over the Eastern Orthodox Church's objection to his marrying his cousin, Natalia Satina, contributed to a period of severe depression.
Rachmaninoff wrote little music over the following years, until he began a course of autosuggestive therapy with psychologist Nikolai Dahl, himself an amateur musician. Rachmaninoff quickly recovered confidence and overcame his writer's block. A result of these sessions was the composition of Piano Concerto No. 2 (Op. 18, 1900–01), dedicated to Dr. Dahl. The piece was very well received at its premiere, at which Rachmaninoff was soloist, and remains one of his most popular compositions.
Rachmaninoff's spirits were further bolstered when, after years of engagement, he was finally allowed to marry Natalia. They were married in a suburb of Moscow by an army prieston29 April 1902. Despite his infamous affair with the 22-year-old singer Nina Koshetz in 1916[2], his and Natalia's union lasted until the composer's death. After several successful appearances as a conductor, Rachmaninoff was offered a job as conductor at the Bolshoi Theatre in 1904, although political reasons led to his resignation in March 1906, after which he stayed in Italy (inFlorence and then Marina di Pisa) until July. He spent the following three winters in Dresden, Germany, intensively composing, and returning to the family estate of Ivanovka every summer.
Rachmaninoff made his first tour of the United States as a pianist in 1909, an event for which he composed the Piano Concerto No. 3 (Op. 30, 1909) as a calling card. This successful tour made him a popular figure in America.
Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, which meant the end of the old Russia, and the loss of his estate, on 22 December 1917, Rachmaninoff with his wife and two daughters left Saint Petersburg for Helsinki on an open sledge, having only a few notebooks with sketches of his own compositions. Then he took a train to Stockholm, arriving there for Christmas. They never returned to their homeland. Rachmaninoff then settled in Denmark and spent a year giving concerts in Scandinavia. He left from Kristiania (Oslo) to New Yorkon1 November 1918, which marked the beginning of the American period of the composer's life. After Rachmaninoff's departure, his music was banned in the Soviet Union for several years. His compositional output slowed, partly because he was required to spend much of his time performing to support his family, but mainly because of homesickness; he felt that, when he left Russia, it was as if he had left behind some of his inspiration. A more obvious reason to cut down on composing was that he was in great demand as a concert pianist, and touring took most of his time and energy. While still in Russia, he had had about ten pieces in his piano repertoire (that is, of other composers; in Russia he mostly performed his own compositions). When he came to the US, he re-invented himself as a concert pianist; in fact he became one of the top pianists of his generation, the generation that is now referred to as the Golden Age of Piano Playing.
Rachmaninoff played most of his public performances on Steinway & Sons pianos. He owned two New York Steinways D-274 in his Beverly Hills home on Elm Drive, he also owned a New York D in his New York home, however, in 1933, he chose a Hamburg D for his new home, villa Senar, in Switzerland. [citation needed]
After emigration, Rachmaninoff had an extremely busy concert schedule. He played over a thousand solo piano concerts in America, in addition to his tours in Europe. He made over one hundred studio recordings of his own music as well as the music of his favorites, Chopin and Beethoven, among others. Due to his busy concert career, Rachmaninoff had a decreased output as composer. Between 1892 and 1917 (living mostly in Russia), Rachmaninoff wrote thirty-nine compositions with opus numbers. Between 1918 and his death in 1943, while living in the U.S. and Europe, he completed only six. His revival as composer became possible only after he built himself a new home, Villa SenaronLake Lucerne, Switzerland, where he spent summers from 1932 to 1939. There, in the comfort of his own villa which reminded him of this family estate Ivanovka back in Russia, Rachmaninoff composed the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.
Settling in the U.S., Rachmaninoff began making recordings for Thomas Edison in 1919, recording on an upright piano that the inventor admitted was below average; however, the discs provided the composer with some much-needed income. The next year he signed an exclusive contract with the Victor Talking Machine Company and continued to make recordings for Victor until February 1942.
In 1931, together with other Russian exiles, he helped found a music school in Paris which would later bear his name, the Conservatoire Rachmaninoff. His Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, today one of his best-known works, was written in his home, Villa Senar, Switzerland in 1934. He went on to compose his Symphony No. 3 (Op. 44, 1935–36) and the Symphonic Dances (Op. 45, 1940), his last completed work. Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra premiered the Symphonic Dances in 1941 in the Academy of Music. Rachmaninoff fell ill during a concert tour in late 1942, and was subsequently diagnosed with advanced sarcoma.
Rachmaninoff and his wife became American citizens on 1 February 1943. His last recital, given on 17 February 1943 at the Alumni Gymnasium of the University of TennesseeinKnoxville, prophetically featured Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2 in B flat Minor, which contains the famous Funeral March. A statue called "Rachmaninoff: The Last Concert", designed and sculpted by Victor Bokarev, now stands in World Fair Park in Knoxville as a permanent tribute to Rachmaninoff.
As Rachmaninoff became more and more aware of the fact that he would never again return to his beloved homeland, he was overwhelmed with melancholia. Most people who knew him later in life described him as the saddest man they had ever known. In a 1961 interview, conductor Eugene Ormandy declared: "Rachmaninoff was really two people. He hated his own music and was usually unhappy about it when he performed or conducted it in public so that the public saw only this side of him. But, among his close friends, he had a very good sense of humor and was in good spirits." [3]
Rachmaninoff died on March 28, 1943, in Beverly Hills, California, just four days before his 70th birthday, and was interred on June 1inKensico CemeteryinValhalla, New York.
Rachmaninoff wrote five works for piano and orchestra: four concerti, and the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Of the concerti, the Second and Third are the most popular. The Third is widely considered one of the most difficult of all piano concertos, and thus is a favorite among virtuoso pianists, although Rachmaninoff felt that the Third "fell more easily under the fingers" than the famous Second. Rachmaninoff admired the way Vladimir Horowitz played the Third, observing that "He swallowed it whole!", and such was Horowitz's performance that Rachmaninoff himself seldom played the concerto after hearing Horowitz.
Works for piano solo include the Preludes, Opp. 23 and 32 which, together with the Prelude in C-sharp minor, Op. 3 No. 2, from Morceaux de Fantaisie, Op. 3, traverse all 24 major and minor keys. Especially difficult are the two sets of Études-Tableaux, Opp. 33 and 39, which are very demanding study pictures. There are also the Six Moments Musicaux, Op. 16, the Variations on a Theme of Chopin, Op. 22, and the Variations on a Theme of Corelli, Op. 42. He wrote two piano sonatas, both of which are monumental works and fine post-romantic examples of the genre. Rachmaninoff also composed works for two pianos, four hands, including two Suites (the first subtitled Fantasie-Tableaux), a version of the Symphonic Dances Op. 45, and a Russian Rhapsody Op. posth.
Rachmaninoff wrote three symphonies, the first of which, in D minor, was a gargantuan failure at its premiere. He tore up the score and for many years it was believed lost; however after his death, the orchestral parts were found in the Leningrad Conservatory and the score was reconstructed, leading to its second performance (and American premiere) on 19 March 1948 at an all-Rachmaninoff concert, marking the fifth anniversary of the composer's death. The second and third symphonies are both considered among his greatest works. Other orchestral works include The Rock Op. 7, Capriccio on Gypsy Themes Op. 12, The Isle of the Dead Op. 29, and the Symphonic Dances Op. 45.
Rachmaninoff wrote two major a cappella choral works: the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom and the All-Night Vigil (also known as the Vespers). The Bells, a work for choir and orchestra, is based on the translated poetry of Edgar Allan Poe; its four-movement program signifies the circle of life: youth, marriage, maturity, and death. The cantata Spring ("Весна") is lesser known and rarely performed; the same can be said about his Three Russian Songs and his early Concerto for Choir (a cappella). The All-Night Vigil and The Bells are widely admired: Rachmaninoff himself considered them his favorites among all his works.[4]
His chamber music includes two piano trios, both which are named Trio Elégiaque, the second of which is a memorial tribute to Tchaikovsky, and a Cello Sonata. In his chamber music, the piano tends to be perceived by some to dominate the ensemble.
He completed three operas: Aleko, The Miserly Knight, and Francesca da Rimini. He started another opera Monna Vanna in 1907, but did not finish it. It was completed by Igor Buketoff and had its first performance in 1984.
He also composed songs for voice and piano, based on works by Aleksey Tolstoy, Aleksandr Pushkin, Johann von Goethe, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Victor Hugo and Anton Chekhov, among others.
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Rachmaninoff's style is fundamentally Russian: his music shows the influence of the idol of his youth, Tchaikovsky. His harmonic language expanded above and beyond that of Tchaikovsky, however. Rachmaninoff's frequently used motifs include the Dies Irae, often just the fragments of the first phrase. This is especially prevalent in The Bells, The Isle of the Dead, the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, and in all of his symphonies.
Especially important is Rachmaninoff's use of unusually wide-spread chords for bell-like sounds: this occurs in many pieces, most notably in the cantata The Bells, the Second Piano Concerto, the E flat major Etude-Tableaux (Op. 33 No. 7), and the B-minor prelude (Op. 32 No. 10). He was also fond of Russian Orthodox chants. He uses them most perceptibly in his Vespers, but many of his melodies found their origins in these chants. The opening melodies of the First Symphony is derived from chants. (Note that the opening melody of the Third Piano Concerto is not derived from chants; when asked, Rachmaninoff said that "it had written itself").[5]
Rachmaninoff had great command of counterpoint and fugal writing. The above-mentioned occurrence of the Dies Irae in the Second Symphony is but a small example of this. Very characteristic of his writing is chromatic counterpoint.
His later works, such as the Piano Concerto No. 4 (Op. 40, 1926) and the Variations on a Theme of Corelli (Op. 42, 1931), are composed in a more emotionally detached style, making them less popular with audiences despite the striking originality of the music. In these later compositions, Rachmaninoff sought a greater sense of compression and motivic development in his works at the expense of melody. Nevertheless, some of his most beautiful (nostalgic and melancholy) melodies occur in the Third Symphony, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, and Symphonic Dances, the last-named of which is considered his swan song, and which has references to the Alliluya of the Vespers and the first theme of his First Symphony (neither of which would have been recognized by most listeners at the premiere).
Rachmaninoff's pianism is generally considered among the finest of the twentieth century. It displayed features characteristic of the Russian school of piano playing: effortless technical ability; interpretative freedom; creative freedom in dynamics and phrasing.
Rachmaninoff made his first recordings for Edison Records on their "Diamond Disc" records, since they claimed the best audio fidelity in recording the piano at the time. Rachmaninoff did not consider himself a great pianist and believed his own performances to be variable in quality; he therefore requested to personally approve any recorded performances to be commercially issued. Despite this, the Edison Company issued multiple alternative takes of Rachmaninoff's recordings, a common occurrence in the gramophone record industry at the time, possibly for reasons of simple carelessness or because of the ease of mass production of records from multiple masters.
Rachmaninoff was so angered by this that he left Edison and subsequently started recording for the Victor Talking Machine Company (in 1920) and its successor, RCA Victor. The company was pleased to abide by Rachmaninoff's restrictions, and proudly advertised him as one of the great artists who recorded for the Victor Company. Rachmaninoff also made a number of piano rolls; initially disbelieving that a roll of punched paper could provide an accurate record, he was invited to listen to a master roll of his first recording in 1919 for the Ampico company. After the performance, he was quoted as saying "Gentlemen — I, Sergei Rachmaninoff, have just heard myself play!" He continued to record for Ampico until around 1929.
Many of Rachmaninoff's recordings are acknowledged as classics. Particularly renowned are his renditions of Schumann's Carnaval and Chopin's Funeral March Sonata, which many consider the finest performance of that work, along with many shorter pieces. He recorded all four of his piano concertos with the Philadelphia Orchestra, including two versions of the second concerto with Leopold Stokowski conducting, and a world premiere recording of the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, soon after the first performance (1934) with the Philadelphians under Stokowski. The first, third, and fourth concertos were recorded with Eugene Ormandy.
Rachmaninoff wanted to record several other major piano works, including Beethoven's Waldstein Sonata, Liszt's Sonata in B minor and his own Symphonic Dances in a two-piano collaboration with Vladimir Horowitz, but RCA turned him down. He also wanted to record his second symphony.
Rachmaninoff also made three greatly admired recordings conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra in his own Third Symphony, his symphonic poem Isle of the Dead, and his orchestration of Vocalise.
His final recordings were made for RCA Victor in February 1942; a Musicians Union recording ban prevented him from making further recordings before his death the following year.
Whenever Rachmaninoff played in a concert that was broadcast, he specifically requested that one of his recordings be played instead by the station or network. However, at least one private recording of him playing in public has survived and was included by RCA Victor in its boxed set of his complete recordings (1919-42), released in 1973 on LP and later reissued on CD.[6]
For many years Rachmaninoff's lengthy second symphony was played in concert or recorded in abridged versions. The first recording of the Second Symphony, abridged, was made by the Cleveland Orchestra with Nikolai Sokoloff conducting in 1928. Unabridged performances became more common in later years, spurred by recordings including one by Eugene Ormandy in the composer's centenary year of 1973.
Rachmaninoff's performances on piano can be heard on many recordings including: Rachmaninoff Plays Rachmaninoff (electrical recording) and the piano roll reconstructions: A Window In Time and A Window In Time 2.
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Bruce Beresford was signed in March 2006 to direct a feature film based on Rachmaninoff's life, as seen through the eyes of his widow. It is to be called Rhapsody.[7]
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Rachmaninoff was aware of the appeal of this melody, reportedly saying of it "This one is for my agent."[8]
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