Sergueï Rachmaninov

A complete musician, Sergei Rachmaninov established himself as a composer, pianist and conductor, leaving behind the memory of one of the greatest virtuosos of his time and a body of work dominated by his famous Piano Concerto No. 2. Born Sergueï Vassilievitch Rachmaninov in Semionovo, in the Russian Empire, on April 1, 1873, he was no exception to the family tradition, with his grandfather a pupil of John Field and his father an amateur pianist. At the age of four, he began to learn the piano, and for two years was taught by Anna Omazkaya, a graduate of the St. Petersburg Conservatory. When his father, an army officer, squandered his fortune, he abandoned his wife and their six children in a St. Petersburg apartment and moved to Moscow. A student at the Conservatory from 1882 to 1885, the young Rachmaninov was as gifted at the piano as he was fascinated by Orthodox chant and the sound of church bells. Within two years, he lost two of his three sisters, a loss that affected him deeply. On the advice of his cousin Alexandre Ziloti, a former pupil of Franz Liszt, his mother enrolled him at the Moscow Conservatory, where Nikolai Zverev taught for four years. His fellow student was Alexander Scriabin, with whom he became friends, and he met Tchaikovsky, who congratulated him. Rachmaninov was awarded a scholarship to study piano with Ziloti, music theory, harmony and fugue with Anton Arensky and counterpoint with Sergei Taneyev. However, Zverev disliked his composing ambitions and, in 1889, their disagreement forced the student to move in with an uncle named Satin and fall in love with a young neighbor, Vera Skalon, for whom he intended several compositions. During the family's stays at the summer residence in Ivanovka, he wrote his Opus 1, the Piano Concerto No. 1 (1891), followed by the Youth Symphony and the symphonic poem Prince Rostislav. In his final year at the conservatory, he composed the Trio élégiaque no. 1 and won a gold medal in the final exam for the one-act opera Aleko, composed in seventeen days from Pushkin's play The Gypsies and premiered at Moscow's Bolshoi Theater a year later, on May 9, 1893. At the age of nineteen, Rachmaninov was considered a composer in his own right, and among his Morceaux de fantaisie Op. 3 he unveiled his famous Prelude in C sharp minor. Other pieces followed, including the Trio élégiaque no. 2, dedicated to the recently deceased Tchaikovsky, the symphonic poem Le Rocher, dedicated to Rimsky-Korsakov, and the Suite pour deux pianos no. 1, also known as Fantaisie-Tableaux. In 1895, the pianist set off on a tour of Russia with a violinist, Teresina Tua, which he did not complete. Prior to this, he completed his Symphony no. 1, which was premiered by Alexander Glazunov on March 15, 1897, to much critical acclaim. After the Six Moments musicaux for experienced pianists at the end of 1896, Rachmaninov spent three years giving lessons, unable to commit a single note to paper. He accepted an offer to conduct the Moscow Private Opera for a season, then returned briefly to composition with Morceau de fantaisie et une fugue in 1899. After an invitation to London, his depression intensified as did his lack of inspiration. He wrote a melody, Le Destin, which was to form part of the Twelve Romances completed in 1902. Even a visit to Tolstoy did little to cheer him up. He underwent hypnotherapy with Dr. Nicolas Dahl, to whom he dedicated the Piano Concerto No. 2, marking his return to composition. Premiered by the composer and conducted by Ziloti on September 11, 1901, it was a great success and remains his best-known work. The Suite for Two Pianos no. 2 and the Sonata for Cello and Piano followed, before his marriage was authorized on April 29, 1902 to his first cousin Natalia Satina, who gave him two daughters. From 1904, Rachmaninov conducted the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra for two seasons, including the operas Le Chevalier avare and Francesca da Rimini. The Russian Revolution of 1905, which broke out in the meantime, led him to find a more suitable place to compose. The family settled in Dresden until 1909, and Rachmaninov composed the symphonic poem Isle of the Dead, inspired by Döblin's painting seen in Paris, followed by Symphony No. 2, premiered in 1908 and widely performed today. Invited to the United States the following year, he conducted his Piano Concerto No. 3 in New York, premiered by its dedicatee, pianist Josef Hofmann. On his return to Russia, in 1901 he completed the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom and thirteen Preludes op. 32, in addition to the ten of op. 23 (1903) and op. 2 (1892). The following year saw the birth of the six Études-Tableaux op. 33, completed by the nine of op. 39 in 1917. He conducted the Moscow Philharmonic Society for two years (1911-1913), then stayed in Rome, where he composed the choral symphony Les Cloches (1913), followed by Vêpres (1915). From the Fourteen Romances for soprano of the same year is extracted the famous Vocalise, often repeated. When the Revolution broke out in 1917, his Ivanovka estate was requisitioned. He then prepared to leave Russia and embarked on a recital tour of Scandinavia between February and October 1918, before finally leaving for the United States to embark on a solo career. Arriving in New York on November 12, he formed a partnership with the Steinway label and organized entire seasons of tours across the country. In 1920, he signed a recording contract with the Victor Talking Machine Company, which later became RCA Victor. Between two concert seasons, he returned to Europe for a few London recitals in 1922. Only six new works saw the light of day, including the Piano Concerto No. 4, premiered in Philadelphia on March 18, 1927 under the direction of Leopold Stokowski, to whom he dedicated his Trois chants russes. After a first meeting in January 1928, he found in Vladimir Horowitz an outstanding pianist, an admirer and a faithful friend. He resumed his European sojourns, in Clairefontaine near Paris and in Switzerland, where he built the Villa Senar in Weggis, the source of Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (1934) and Symphony No. 3 (1936). Remaining attached to his homeland, he supported the Soviet Union during the Second World War by donating concert proceeds to the Red Army. In 1940, he composed his last work, the Symphonic Dances, premiered in Philadelphia by his dedicatee Eugene Ormandy. He recorded several of his works, performed at the Hollywood Bowl in July 1942 and settled in Beverly Hills. Naturalized as an American citizen with his wife, he gave a final recital in Knoxville on February 17, 1943, playing Chopin's Sonata No. 2 and his famous "Funeral March". His health continued to decline, and after a diagnosis of melanoma, Sergei Rachmaninov died of cancer on March 28, 1943, at the age of 69.

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