Background Notes: Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)

Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff was one of six children born to a landowning family near Novgorod, Russia, where his mother began teaching him piano at the age of four. But his father soon ran through the family savings, forcing them to sell all their lands and move to St. Petersburg. As a child Rachmaninoff returned frequently to his grandmother’s farm in Novgorod and tagged along to church services, where he developed a deep love for vocal music and a fascination with the sound of bells.

At ten Rachmaninoff entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where his cousin Alexandre Siloti (a conductor and pianist trained by Lizst) and a strict but talented teacher named Nikolai Zverev took charge of his musical education. While still very young, Rachmaninoff was able to meet and play for his hero, Piotr Tchaikovsky. But Zverev discouraged his composing, and Rachmaninoff soon broke away to live with cousins at a country villa called Ivanovka. As a student he composed an opera and his piano Prelude in C sharp minor. He was also drawn to choral music, writing pieces for mixed chorus when barely 20. His first major work, the First Symphony, had a disastrous premiere in 1897 (some reports blame a drunken conductor). This sent the young musician into a deep malaise, and for a few years he confined himself to conducting and playing piano. But a hypnotherapist succeeded in lifting his writer’s block, and by 1900 Rachmaninoff again felt confident enough to present his compositions to the public.

In 1902 he married one of his cousins, Natalia Satina. As the political scene in Russia became more chaotic, they traveled to Dresden, Germany so that he could concentrate more fully on composing. While there Rachmaninoff produced a string of large-scale compositions (including his Second Symphony and First Piano Concerto), followed by a well-received tour of America as pianist and conductor. He returned to Russia in 1909 to divide his time between conducting and composing, producing his first sacred masterwork, the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, his Thirteen Preludes for piano, and a massive choral symphony, The Bells, based on the poem by Edgar Allen Poe.

In 1915, in despair over the ravages of the First World War, Rachmaninoff wrote his All-Night Vigil. A setting of 15 anthems based largely on existing plainchants, it is widely regarded as his finest and most expressive work: a profound plea for peace in a time of senseless destruction. Soon after the war, the Bolsheviks took power. Rachmaninoff initially favored the new political regime, but hope for the new order turned quickly to fear. When an invitation to present some concerts in Sweden arrived, he packed his family and a few belongings and fled Russia, never to return. Around the same time, the family villa at Ivanovka (which he had inherited) was destroyed.

With his established conducting career left behind and composition an uncertain means of support, Rachmaninoff turned once more to his piano skills. Over the next twenty-five years he would give more than one thousand concerts throughout America, Europe, Canada, and Cuba. He was among the first musicians to appreciate the fledgling recording industry, and recorded much of his own music as piano soloist as well as several performances as conductor. Though this left little time for composing, the 1920s and ‘30s did see his Fourth Piano Concerto, Third Symphony and the popular Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. His final work, the Symphonic Dances, premiered in 1940. Though he continued touring, his health was failing. Rachmaninoff gave his last concert in February of 1943 and died a month later, a few days shy of his 70^th birthday.