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Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff [a] [b] (1 April [ O.S. 20 March] 1873 – 28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music.
- 28 March 1943 (aged 69), Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
- Overview
- Early life
- Major creative activity
- Later years
- Legacy
Sergey Rachmaninoff (born March 20 [April 1, New Style], 1873, Oneg, near Semyonovo, Russia—died March 28, 1943, Beverly Hills, California, U.S.) composer who was the last great figure of the tradition of Russian Romanticism and a leading piano virtuoso of his time. He is especially known for his piano concerti and the piece for piano and orchestra...
Rachmaninoff was born on an estate belonging to his grandparents, situated near Lake Ilmen in the Novgorod district. His father was a retired army officer and his mother the daughter of a general. The boy was destined to become an army officer until his father lost the entire family fortune through risky financial ventures and then deserted the family. Young Sergey’s cousin Aleksandr Siloti, a well-known concert pianist and conductor, sensed the boy’s abilities and suggested sending him to the noted teacher and pianist Nikolay Zverev in Moscow for his piano studies. It is to Zverev’s strict disciplinarian treatment of the boy that musical history owes one of the great piano virtuosos of the 20th century. For his general education and theoretical subjects in music, Sergey became a pupil at the Moscow Conservatory.
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Composers & Their Music
At age 19 he graduated from the conservatory, winning a gold medal for his one-act opera Aleko (after Aleksandr Pushkin’s poem Tsygany [“The Gypsies”]). His fame and popularity, both as composer and concert pianist, were launched by two compositions: the Prelude in C-sharp Minor, played for the first time in public on September 26, 1892, and his Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, which had its first performance in Moscow on October 27, 1901. The former piece, although it first brought Rachmaninoff to public attention, was to haunt him throughout his life—the prelude was constantly requested by his concert audiences. The concerto, his first major success, revived his hopes after a trying period of inactivity.
At the time of the Russian Revolution of 1905, Rachmaninoff was a conductor at the Bolshoi Theatre. Although more of an observer than a person politically involved in the revolution, he went with his family, in November 1906, to live in Dresden. There he wrote three of his major scores: the Symphony No. 2 in E Minor (1907), the symphonic poem The Isle of the Dead (1909), and the Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor (1909). The last was composed especially for his first concert tour of the United States, highlighting his much-acclaimed pianistic debut on November 28, 1909, with the New York Symphony under Walter Damrosch. Piano Concerto No. 3 requires great virtuosity from the pianist; its last movement is a bravura section as dazzling as any ever composed. In Philadelphia and Chicago he appeared with equal success in the role of conductor, interpreting his own symphonic compositions. Of these, the Symphony No. 2 is the most significant: it is a work of deep emotion and haunting thematic material. While touring, he was invited to become permanent conductor of the Boston Symphony, but he declined the offer and returned to Russia in February 1910.
The one notable composition of Rachmaninoff’s second period of residence in Moscow was his choral symphony The Bells (1913), based on Konstantin Balmont’s Russian translation of the poem by Edgar Allan Poe. This work displays considerable ingenuity in the coupling of choral and orchestral resources to produce striking imitative and textural effects.
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After the Russian Revolution of 1917, Rachmaninoff went into his second self-imposed exile, dividing his time between residences in Switzerland and the United States. Although for the next 25 years he spent most of his time in an English-speaking country, he never mastered its language or thoroughly acclimatized himself. With his family and a small...
Rachmaninoff’s music, although written mostly in the 20th century, remains firmly entrenched in the 19th-century musical idiom. He was, in effect, the final expression of the tradition embodied by Tchaikovsky—a melodist of Romantic dimensions still writing in an era of explosive change and experimentation.
May 9, 2023 · Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) was a Russian pianist and composer best known for his piano concertos and symphonies. He overcame an early ravaging by critics and several years of depression to create works which are today amongst the most popular and most-performed of any 20th-century composer.
- Mark Cartwright
- What is Rachmaninoff's most famous piece?Rachmaninoff's most famous piece is his Second Piano Concerto, used in many film soundtracks and the popular song All by Myself.
- How old was Rachmaninoff when he died?Rachmaninoff was 69 when he died of cancer at his home in Beverly Hills on 28 March 1943.
- Did Rachmaninoff marry his cousin?Rachmaninoff married his first cousin Natalya Satina in 1902; they had two daughters.
- Did Rachmaninoff like Tchaikovsky?Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky were friends who admired each other's music.
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- 19 min
- Piano Concerto No.2 in C minor, Op.18. Following the disastrous premiere of his First Symphony Rachmaninov composed almost nothing for around three years.
- Sonata for Cello and Piano in G minor, Op.19. After the success of his Op.18 Rachmaninov threw himself into his work. This fine cello sonata appeared not long after the Second Piano Concerto’s confidence-restoring premiere, its magical ‘Andante’ at times reminiscent of the earlier work’s ‘Adagio’.
- 10 Preludes, Op.23. Rachmaninov composed 24 piano preludes: one in each major and minor key. The famous C sharp minor Prelude came first, in 1892; the complete Op.23 set followed 11 years later, and the final 13 preludes arrived in 1910.
- Symphony No.2 in E minor, Op.27. The premiere of Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony took place in St Petersburg, the scene of the First Symphony fiasco. But this time, with Rachmaninov on the podium (rather than a probably drunk Glazunov), things went to plan and the symphony, one of Rachmaninov’s best works, went on to become an audience favourite.
May 24, 2021 · Listen to exciting Rachmaninoff works performed by famous Carnegie Hall artists. Available on Apple Music and Spotify . Photography courtesy of the Carnegie Hall Rose Archives. Russian composer and pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff’s association with Carnegie Hall spanned more than 30 years.
Biography. Sergei Rachmaninov (also spelled Rachmaninoff, 1873–1943) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninov, it seemed, could do nothing right by most of his contemporary critics' and composers' standards. As a person, he appeared somewhat cold and aloof - Stravinsky once called him "a six-and-a-half foot tall scowl".
Apr 3, 2023 · BERLIN — What should we think of Sergei Rachmaninoff 150 years after his birth? His music remains immensely popular with both artists and audiences, a draw for its deeply felt and grandly...
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