The Russian composer Sergey Rachmaninov is best known for his piano concertos, which are among the most popular—and the most difficult—in the repertoire. He also had a successful career as a conductor, and after 1918 achieved international fame as a concert pianist and recording artist. His music was often lushly romantic, with broad and memorable melodies.
Rachmaninov was born into a landowning family on April 2, 1873, in Semyonovo, Russia. His father was a retired army officer and a spendthrift; his mother, Rachmaninov’s first teacher, was an amateur pianist. The family’s bankruptcy meant that they lost their last estate and had to move to an apartment in St. Petersburg. Here Sergey attended the conservatory, studying harmony and piano. At 15, he was accepted by Alexander Ziloti at the Moscow Conservatory.
For his graduation from the conservatory he wrote an opera, Aleko, with a libretto taken from Pushkin’s The Gypsies. This was so successful that it was produced in Moscow in 1893, and Rachmaninov was offered a contract by the publisher Gutheil, for whom he wrote Five Short Pieces for Piano Op. 3, including the Prelude in C sharp Minor, which was destined to become a popular encore piece.
On graduating Rachmaninov took a job teaching music to support himself while composing. But the negative reception given to his Symphony No. 1 in 1897 plunged him into depression. A hypnotist helped him overcome this, enabling him to write his famous Piano Concerto No. 2, which he performed for the first time in Moscow in late 1901, with Ziloti conducting.
In 1902 Rachmaninov married his cousin, Natalia Satin, and in 1903 their first daughter, Irina, was born. This decade was a busy and highly productive one for Rachmaninov. As well as conducting for two seasons at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, he composed many pieces, including his operas Francesca and The Miserly Knight, his second symphony (1907), the Piano Sonata No. 1 (1907), the Piano Concerto No. 3 (1909), and his orchestral piece, The Bells.
The Russian Revolution in 1917 threw the country into turmoil. An invitation to play in Stockholm gave Rachmaninov the chance to leave, and he and his family departed for Sweden, leaving Russia forever.
Since he left all his possessions behind in Russia, Rachmaninov now embarked on a punishing career as a concert pianist to earn money. He moved on to the U.S., where he gave 36 concerts in four months. At the end of the 1919–20 season, he signed a recording contract with the Victor Talking Machine Company. The constant travelling and the demands of his performing schedule meant that Rachmaninov had little time for composing after he left Russia. Nevertheless during his years of exile he composed his fourth piano concerto (1926), the Variations on a Theme of Corelli (1931), and the well-known Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, which was an instant success at its premiere in New York in 1934. The Symphony No. 3 was premiered in Philadelphia in 1936. The Symphonic Dances (1940) was his last work. In its finale he used the Dies Irae (“day of wrath”) chant from the Mass for the Dead, as he did in much of his music, perhaps reflecting his melancholy and pessimistic nature.
Rachmaninov continued to compose songs (79 were published during his lifetime) and to perform as a concert pianist while making classic recordings of his own and other’s piano works. Early in 1943, Rachmaninov developed a cough that was ultimately diagnosed as cancer. He died on March 28, 1943.
Alan Blackwood
SEE ALSO:
CHAMBER MUSIC; OPERA; ORCHESTRAL MUSIC
FURTHER READING
Haylock, Julian. Rachmaninov: An Essential Guide to His Life and Works (London: Pavilion, 1996);
Norris, Geoffrey. Rachmaninoff (New York: Schirmer Books, 1994);
Walker, Robert Matthew. Rachmaninoff (New York: Omnibus Press, 1984).
SUGGESTED LISTENING
Horowitz Plays Rachmaninov; Piano Concertos; Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.