Biography:

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. Early influences of Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and other Russian composers gave way to a thoroughly personal idiom notable for its song-like melodicism, expressiveness, dense contrapuntal textures, and rich orchestral colours.[4] The piano is featured prominently in Rachmaninoff’s compositional output and he used his skills as a performer to fully explore the expressive and technical possibilities of the instrument.

Born into a musical family, Rachmaninoff began learning the piano at the age of four. He studied piano and composition at the Moscow Conservatory, from which he graduated in 1892, having already written several compositions. In 1897, following the disastrous premiere of his Symphony No. 1, Rachmaninoff entered a four-year depression and composed little, until supportive therapy allowed him to complete his well-received Piano Concerto No. 2 in 1901. Rachmaninoff went on to become conductor of the Bolshoi Theatre from 1904 to 1906, and relocated to Dresden, Germany, in 1906. He later embarked upon his first tour of the United States as a concert pianist in 1909.

After the Russian Revolution, Rachmaninoff and his family left Russia permanently, settling in New York in 1918. Following this, he spent most of his time touring as a pianist in the US and Europe, from 1932 onwards spending his summers at his villa in Switzerland. During this time, Rachmaninoff’s primary occupation was performing, and his compositional output decreased significantly, completing just six works after leaving Russia. By 1942, his declining health led him to move to Beverly Hills, California, where he died from melanoma in 1943.

Life and career

1873–1885: Ancestry and early years

Rachmaninoff was born on 1 April [O.S. 20 March] 1873 into a family of Russian aristocracy.[c] The family tradition claims descent from a legendary Vasily, nicknamed “Rachman”, a supposed grandson of Stephen III of Moldavia.[5][6] Rachmaninoff’s family had strong musical and military leanings. His paternal grandfather, Arkady Alexandrovich, was a musician who had taken lessons from Irish composer John Field.[5][7] His father, Vasily Arkadievich Rachmaninoff (1841–1916), was a retired army officer and amateur pianist who married Lyubov Petrovna Butakova (1853–1929), the daughter of a wealthy army general who gave him five estates as part of her dowry. The couple had three sons: Vladimir, Sergei and Arkady and three daughters; Yelena, Sofia and Barbara; Sergei being their third child.[8][9][10][11]

Rachmaninoff was born in the family estate in the village of Semyonovo, near Staraya Russa, Novgorod Governorate. His birth was registered in the Semyonovo church book.[9] After Sergei turned four, the family moved to their estate in Oneg, about 110 miles (180 km) north of Semyonovo, where he was raised until the age of nine. He mistakenly cited it as his birthplace in his adult life.[12] Rachmaninoff began piano and music lessons organized by his mother at age four.[12] She noticed his ability to correctly reproduce passages from memory and upon hearing news of the boy’s gift, Arkady suggested she hire Anna Ornatskaya, a piano teacher and recent graduate of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, to live with the family and give the young Sergei formal piano lessons. Rachmaninoff dedicated his famous romance for voice and piano “Spring Waters” from 12 Romances, Op. 14, to Ornatskaya.[8]

Rachmaninoff’s father wanted him to be trained by the Page Corps and then join the military, but financial incompetence forced him to sell the family’s five estates to pay off debts and therefore could not afford his expensive military career.[13][14] His older brother Vladimir was sent to an ordinary military college.[11] The last estate in Oneg was auctioned off in 1882,[10] and the family moved to a small flat in Saint Petersburg.[15] In 1883, Ornatskaya arranged for Rachmaninoff, then 10, to study music at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory under her former teacher, Gustav Kross. Later that year, his sister Sofia died at the age of 13 of diphtheria, and his father, described by Rachmaninoff as a “compulsive gambler, a pathological liar and a skirt chaser”, left the family for Moscow.[16] His maternal grandmother, Sofia Litvikova Butakova, a widow of General Butakov, stepped in to help raise the children, covered household expenses,[11] and, with particular focus on their religious life, regularly took Rachmaninoff to Russian Orthodox Church services, where he first encountered liturgical chants and church bells, two features he would incorporate in his compositions.[17]

In 1885, Rachmaninoff suffered a further loss when his sister Yelena died at age 18 of pernicious anaemia.[18] She was an important musical influence on Rachmaninoff and had introduced him to the works of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.[19] As a respite, his grandmother took him to a farm retreat by the Volkhov River.[20] At the Conservatory, however, he had adopted a relaxed attitude, played truant, failed his general education classes and purposely altered his report cards.[21] Rachmaninoff performed at events held at the Moscow Conservatory during this time, including those attended by the Grand Duke Konstantin and other notable figures. However, upon his failing his spring exams, Ornatskaya notified his mother that his admission to further education might be revoked.[20] His mother then sought advice from Alexander Siloti, her nephew, who was an accomplished pianist and a former student of Franz Liszt. He recommended that Rachmaninoff transfer to the Moscow Conservatory to study under his former piano teacher, the stricter Nikolai Zverev,[22] which lasted until 1888.[23]

Credits: