“Prayer is when
you talk to God. Meditation is when you’re listening. Playing the piano allows
you to do both at the same time.” - Kelsey Grammer
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninov - Born: April 1, 1873 - Oneg, Novgorod, (or Semyonovo) , Russia. Died: March 28, 1943 - Beverly Hills, California, USA.
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninov (Сергей Васильевич Рахманинов) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor, one of the last great champions of the Romantic style of European classical music. He came from a music-loving, land-owning family; young Sergei’s mother fostered the boy’s innate talent by giving him his first piano lessons. After a decline in the family fortunes, the Rachmaninovs moved to St. Petersburg, where Sergei studied with Vladimir Delyansky at the Conservatory.
As his star continued to rise, Sergei went to the Moscow Conservatory, where he received a sound musical training: Piano lessons from the strict disciplinarian Nikolay Zverev and Alexander Siloti (Rachmaninov’s cousin), counterpoint with Taneyev, and harmony with Arensky. During his time at the Conservatory, Rachmaninov boarded with Zverev, whose weekly musical Sundays provided the young musician the valuable opportunity to make important contacts and to hear a wide variety of music.
As Rachmaninov’s conservatory studies continued, his burgeoning talent came into full flower; he received the personal encouragement of Tchaikovsky, and, a year after earning a degree in piano, took the Conservatory’s gold medal in composition for his opera “Aleko” (1892). Early setbacks in his compositional career - particularly, the dismal reception of his "Symphony No. 1" (1895) - led to an extended period of depression and self-doubt, which he overcame with the aid of hypnosis.
With the resounding success of his Piano Concerto No. 2 (1900-1901), however, his lasting fame as a composer was assured. The first decade of the twentieth century proved a productive and happy one for Rachmaninov, who during that time produced such masterpieces as the Symphony No. 2 (1907), the tone poem “Isle of the Dead” (1907), and the “Piano Concerto No. 3” (1909).
On May 12, 1902, the composer married his cousin, Natalya Satina. By the end of the decade, Sergei Rachmaninov had embarked on his first American tour, which cemented his fame and popularity in the USA. He continued to make his home in Russia but left permanently following the Revolution in 1917; he thereafter lived in Switzerland and the USA between extensive European and American tours. While his tours included conducting engagements (he was twice offered, and twice refused, leadership of the Boston Symphony Orchestra), it was his astounding pianistic abilities that won him his greatest glory.
Rachmaninov was possessed of a keyboard technique marked by precision, clarity, and a singular legato sense. Indeed, the pianist’s hands became the stuff of legend. He had an enormous span (he could, with his left hand, play the chord C-E flat-G-C-G) and his playing had a characteristic power, which pianists have described as “cosmic” and “overwhelming”. He is, for example, credited with the uncanny ability to discern, and articulate profound, mysterious movements in a musical composition, which usually remain undetected by the superficial perception of rhythmic structures.
Fortunately for posterity, Sergei Rachmaninov recorded much of his own music, including the four piano concerti and what is perhaps his most beloved work, the “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini” (1934). He became an American citizen a few weeks before his death in Beverly Hills, California, on March 28, 1943.
Here is his glorious Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18. The work is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets in B♭ (I mov.) and A (II & III mov.), 2 bassoons, 4 horns in F, 2 trumpets in B♭, 3 trombones (2 tenor, 1 bass), tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, solo piano, and strings. It is written in three-movement concerto form. It is performed here by Evgeny Kissin with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France conducted by Myung-Whun Chung. A dazzling performance!
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninov - Born: April 1, 1873 - Oneg, Novgorod, (or Semyonovo) , Russia. Died: March 28, 1943 - Beverly Hills, California, USA.
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninov (Сергей Васильевич Рахманинов) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor, one of the last great champions of the Romantic style of European classical music. He came from a music-loving, land-owning family; young Sergei’s mother fostered the boy’s innate talent by giving him his first piano lessons. After a decline in the family fortunes, the Rachmaninovs moved to St. Petersburg, where Sergei studied with Vladimir Delyansky at the Conservatory.
As his star continued to rise, Sergei went to the Moscow Conservatory, where he received a sound musical training: Piano lessons from the strict disciplinarian Nikolay Zverev and Alexander Siloti (Rachmaninov’s cousin), counterpoint with Taneyev, and harmony with Arensky. During his time at the Conservatory, Rachmaninov boarded with Zverev, whose weekly musical Sundays provided the young musician the valuable opportunity to make important contacts and to hear a wide variety of music.
As Rachmaninov’s conservatory studies continued, his burgeoning talent came into full flower; he received the personal encouragement of Tchaikovsky, and, a year after earning a degree in piano, took the Conservatory’s gold medal in composition for his opera “Aleko” (1892). Early setbacks in his compositional career - particularly, the dismal reception of his "Symphony No. 1" (1895) - led to an extended period of depression and self-doubt, which he overcame with the aid of hypnosis.
With the resounding success of his Piano Concerto No. 2 (1900-1901), however, his lasting fame as a composer was assured. The first decade of the twentieth century proved a productive and happy one for Rachmaninov, who during that time produced such masterpieces as the Symphony No. 2 (1907), the tone poem “Isle of the Dead” (1907), and the “Piano Concerto No. 3” (1909).
On May 12, 1902, the composer married his cousin, Natalya Satina. By the end of the decade, Sergei Rachmaninov had embarked on his first American tour, which cemented his fame and popularity in the USA. He continued to make his home in Russia but left permanently following the Revolution in 1917; he thereafter lived in Switzerland and the USA between extensive European and American tours. While his tours included conducting engagements (he was twice offered, and twice refused, leadership of the Boston Symphony Orchestra), it was his astounding pianistic abilities that won him his greatest glory.
Rachmaninov was possessed of a keyboard technique marked by precision, clarity, and a singular legato sense. Indeed, the pianist’s hands became the stuff of legend. He had an enormous span (he could, with his left hand, play the chord C-E flat-G-C-G) and his playing had a characteristic power, which pianists have described as “cosmic” and “overwhelming”. He is, for example, credited with the uncanny ability to discern, and articulate profound, mysterious movements in a musical composition, which usually remain undetected by the superficial perception of rhythmic structures.
Fortunately for posterity, Sergei Rachmaninov recorded much of his own music, including the four piano concerti and what is perhaps his most beloved work, the “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini” (1934). He became an American citizen a few weeks before his death in Beverly Hills, California, on March 28, 1943.
Here is his glorious Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18. The work is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets in B♭ (I mov.) and A (II & III mov.), 2 bassoons, 4 horns in F, 2 trumpets in B♭, 3 trombones (2 tenor, 1 bass), tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, solo piano, and strings. It is written in three-movement concerto form. It is performed here by Evgeny Kissin with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France conducted by Myung-Whun Chung. A dazzling performance!
