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Sergei Rachmaninov (1873—1943)

1. Sergei Rachmaninov was born on April 1, 1873 in Semyonovo. As a young man he consistently amazed his teachers with his jaw-dropping ability as a pianist and composer. He created a frenzy with his First Piano Concerto when he was just 18.

2. The premiere of Rachmaninov’s First symphony in March 1897 was brutally punished by the critics. The deficiencies of the performance, conducted by Alexander Glazunov, were not commented on by the critics, but according to a memoir from Alexander Ossovsky, a close friend of Rachmaninov, Glazunov made poor use of rehearsal time and the concert’s program itself, which contained two other premieres.

3. Many pianists fear Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 3, deemed one of the most technically challenging concertos in the classical repertoire. Joseph Hofmann, to whom the work was dedicated, never performed it in public. The concerto had its first performance on November 28th, 1909, by Rachmnaninov himself. Several weeks later, Gustav Mahler conducted it.

4. It was after completing his first major choral work, Cantata Vesna (The Spring) in 1902, when Rachmaninov made the surprise announcement he was marrying his cousin, Natalya. This caused a bit of a stir, as in Russia first cousins were not permitted to marry. But they proceeded with the marriage, and their daughter Irina was born in May 1903.

5. Rachmaninov composed his Symphony No. 2 in Dresden, where he and his family lived for the best part of four years from 1906. Writing the symphony was a daunting affair for the composer; however, it was a resounding success and has remained one of the most popular of all of his works.

6. Rachmaninov had a very deep and personal religious faith which he expressed beautifully in 1915 through his unaccompanied All-Night Vigil. It is separated into two parts – the evening Vespers and the morning Matins – both full of exquisitely rich harmonies.

7. The 1917 Russian Revolution meant the end of Russia as the composer had known it. In December 1917, he left Petrograd for Helsinki on an open sled with his wife and daughters. Now in his 40s, Rachmaninov launched a third and more lucrative strand of his career as a concert pianist.

8. Rachmaninov saw the United States as the future, and from his arrival there in 1918 he found himself in great demand. So much so his composing became limited to the summer months. Things reached fever pitch during the 1922—23 concert season when Rachmaninov gave more than seventy performances between November and the end of March. He made enough money to build a house in Los Angeles which was an exact replica of his original Moscow home.

9. By the time of his final tour in 1943, Rachmaninov was already seriously ill with lung cancer brought on by a lifetime of heavy smoking. It seems almost prophetic his final recital on February 17, 1943 included Chopin’s famous funeral march. He died a month later in Beverly Hills, four days before his 70th birthday.

10. Only a decade after Rachmaninov’s death, the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians predicted the “enormous popular success few of Rachmaninov’s works had in his lifetime is not likely to last, and musicians never regarded them with much favor.” They could not have been more wrong.