Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninov was born in the Novgorod province in April 1873. The future composer received his first piano lessons from his mother. When Seryozha turned 4 years old, she began to spend time with him music lessons. And they did not pass without a trace.
S.V.: studying at the conservatory
When Seryozha was 9 years old, his family moved to the northern capital. The boy was immediately sent to study at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He ended up in Professor Demyansky's class. Three years later, Sergei had to transfer to the Moscow Conservatory, as his parents moved to this city. In 1892, he graduated from the educational institution with As a work for the exam, he wrote the opera “Aleko”, consisting of one act. In the same year, it was successfully staged on the stage of the Moscow Bolshoi Theater.
Biography of S. V. Rachmaninov: first performances
Sergei Vasilyevich appeared before the public as a talented pianist back in the winter of 1892. Everyone quickly became convinced of his extraordinary abilities. Even then, Rachmaninov’s playing was bright, strong, sounded rich and intense, and was distinguished by sharp rhythm. The composer's strong-willed intensity captured, captivated and attracted the attention of listeners and spectators.
Biography of S. V. Rachmaninov: recognition and first failure
His fantasy “The Cliff” brought real fame to the talented symphonist. It was written almost immediately after completing my studies at the conservatory. The press noted the subtlety and richness, harmony and brightness of the work, and the poetry of its mood. Of course, Rachmaninov’s individual charming style as a composer was felt already in the first experiments. In 1897, his First Symphony failed. Rachmaninov put so much mental energy and labor into it and at the same time remained misunderstood by the majority of musicians and critics.
This became a deep mental trauma for him. For some time, Rachmaninov fell silent: he was critically rethinking everything that he had created earlier. But the result of intense internal work was a colossal creative surge.
Biography of S. V. Rachmaninov: the first years of the 20th century
During this time, the composer composed a number of wonderful works in different genres. In 1901, Rachmaninov appeared before the public in a completely new light. The second piano concerto showed him as a creator who has all the means new technology. Another undoubted creative success of Rachmaninov was the Second Suite. Due to the nature of the music, at some points it even had something in common with the concert. The operas “Francesca da Rimini”, as well as “ Stingy Knight"were shown during one evening on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater. They caused a lot of disagreement and controversy, although they were met with interest. A special place in the composer's work is given to romances. The piano accompaniment of these works is distinguished by a variety of forms and colorfulness.
S. V. Rachmaninov. Brief biography: emigration
The composer first successfully toured America in 1909. But then he had no idea of staying abroad. But when Rachmaninov happened in his homeland, unlike many, he was sure that old Russia the end has come, and he will have no life here as an artist. Unexpectedly, he received an invitation from Sweden. He was offered to take part in a concert in Stockholm. Sergei Vasilyevich took advantage of this opportunity and, together with his wife and children, left Russia in 1917. First he goes to Switzerland, and from there to Paris. And since 1935, his family has lived in the USA. Only 10 years later, after a long break in creativity, he completed the Fourth Piano Concerto, which he began before the First World War, and processed several folk songs for choir and orchestra. Rachmaninov was very homesick for his homeland. He collected Soviet records, read all the press and books that came from the USSR.
Sergei Rachmaninov. Biography: last years of life
The composer's final concert season opened in 1942. It has begun solo performance autumn in Detroit. A month later, Rachmaninov donated a large amount of money from a concert held in New York to military needs, not for the first time. Part of the money went to the American Red Cross, and part was transferred to Russia through the Consul General. After a debilitating illness in March 1943, Sergei Vasilyevich died in Beverly Hills, surrounded by his closest people.
And I had a native land;
He's wonderful!
A. Pleshcheev (from G. Heine)
Rachmaninov was created from steel and gold;
Steel is in his hands, gold is in his heart.
I. Hoffman
“I am a Russian composer, and my homeland has left its mark on my character and my views.” These words belong to S. Rachmaninov - a great composer, a brilliant pianist and conductor. All major events Russian social and artistic life were reflected in his creative destiny, leaving an indelible mark. The formation and flowering of Rachmaninov’s creativity occurred in the 1890-1900s, when the most complex processes were taking place in Russian culture, the spiritual pulse beat feverishly and nervously. Rachmaninov's acutely lyrical sense of the era was invariably associated with the image of his beloved Motherland, with the infinity of its wide distances, the power and wild prowess of its elemental forces, and the tender fragility of the blossoming spring nature.
Rachmaninov's talent manifested itself early and brightly, although until the age of twelve he did not show any particular zeal for systematic music studies. He began learning to play the piano at the age of 4, in 1882 he was admitted to the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where, left to his own devices, he was fairly idle, and in 1885 he was transferred to the Moscow Conservatory. Here Rachmaninov studied piano with N. Zverev, then A. Ziloti; in theoretical subjects and composition - from S. Taneyev and A. Arensky. Living in a boarding house with Zverev (1885-89), he went through a harsh but very reasonable school of labor discipline, which turned him from a desperate lazy person and naughty person into an exceptionally collected and strong-willed person. “I owe the best that is in me to him,” Rachmaninov later said about Zverev. At the conservatory, Rachmaninov was strongly influenced by the personality of P. Tchaikovsky, who, in turn, followed the development of his favorite Seryozha and after graduating from the conservatory, he helped stage the opera “Aleko” at the Bolshoi Theater, knowing from his own sad experience how difficult it is for a beginning musician to make your way.
Rachmaninov graduated from the Conservatory in piano (1891) and composition (1892) with a Grand Gold Medal. By this time, he was already the author of several works, including the famous Prelude in C sharp minor, the romance “In the Silence of the Secret Night”, the First Piano Concerto, the opera “Aleko”, written as a thesis work in just 17 days! The subsequent Fantasy Pieces, op. 3 (1892), Elegiac trio “In Memory of the Great Artist” (1893), Suite for two pianos (1893), Musical Moments op. 16 (1896), romances, symphonic works - “The Cliff” (1893), Capriccio on Gypsy Themes (1894) - confirmed the opinion of Rachmaninov as a strong, deep, original talent. The images and moods characteristic of Rachmaninov appear in these works in a wide range - from the tragic sorrow of the “Musical Moment” in B minor to the hymn apotheosis of the romance “Spring Waters”, from the harsh elemental-volitional pressure of the “Musical Moment” in E minor to the subtle watercolor of the romance “Island” "
Life during these years was difficult. Decisive and powerful in his performance and creativity, Rachmaninov was a vulnerable person by nature and often experienced self-doubt. Material difficulties, everyday unsettlement, and wanderings in strange corners interfered. And although he was supported by people close to him, primarily the Satin family, he felt lonely. The great shock caused by the failure of his First Symphony, performed in St. Petersburg in March 1897, led to a creative crisis. For several years Rachmaninov did not compose anything, but his performing activity as a pianist intensified, and he made his conducting debut at the Moscow Private Opera (1897). During these years, he met L. Tolstoy, A. Chekhov, artists of the Art Theater, and began a friendship with Fyodor Chaliapin, which Rachmaninov considered one of “the most powerful, deep and subtle artistic experiences.” In 1899, Rachmaninov performed abroad for the first time (in London), and in 1900 he visited Italy, where sketches of the future opera Francesca da Rimini appeared. A joyful event was the production of the opera “Aleko” in St. Petersburg on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of A. Pushkin with Chaliapin in the role of Aleko. Thus, an internal change was gradually being prepared, and in the early 1900s. there was a return to creativity. New Age began with the Second Piano Concerto, which sounded like a mighty alarm bell. Contemporaries heard in him the voice of Time with its tension, explosiveness, and sense of impending change. Now the concert genre is becoming the leading one; it is in it that the main ideas are embodied with the greatest completeness and comprehensiveness. A new stage begins in Rachmaninov’s life.
His pianistic and conducting activities receive universal recognition in Russia and abroad. For 2 years (1904-06) Rachmaninov worked as a conductor at the Bolshoi Theater, leaving in its history the memory of wonderful productions of Russian operas. In 1907, he took part in Russian historical concerts organized by S. Diaghilev in Paris, and in 1909 he performed for the first time in America, where he played his Third Piano Concerto under the baton of G. Mahler. Intense concert activity in the cities of Russia and abroad was combined with no less intense creativity, and in the music of this decade (in the cantata “Spring” - 1902, in the preludes of Op. 23, in the finales of the Second Symphony and Third Concerto) there is a lot of passionate enthusiasm and inspiration. And in such works as the romances “Lilac”, “”, in the preludes in D major and G major, “the music of the singing forces of nature” sounded with amazing insight.
But during these same years, other moods were also felt. Sorrowful thoughts about the homeland and its future fate, philosophical reflections about life and death give rise to tragic images of the First Piano Sonata, inspired by “Faust” by J. V. Goethe, the symphonic poem “Island of the Dead” based on the painting of the Swiss artist A. Böcklin (1909), many pages of the Third Concerto, romances op. 26. Internal changes became especially noticeable after 1910. If in the Third Concerto the tragedy is eventually overcome and the concert ends with a jubilant apotheosis, then in the works that followed it, it continuously deepens, bringing to life aggressive, hostile images, gloomy, depressed moods. Getting more complicated musical language, the wide melodic breathing so characteristic of Rachmaninov disappears. Such are the vocal-symphonic poem “Bells” (on Art. E. Poe, translated by K. Balmont - 1913); romances op. 34 (1912) and op. 38 (1916); Sketches-paintings op. 39 (1917). However, it was at this time that Rachmaninov created works filled with high ethical meaning, which became the personification of enduring spiritual beauty, the culmination of Rachmaninov’s melody - “Vocalise” and “All-Night Vigil” for a cappella choir (1915). “Since childhood, I have been fascinated by the magnificent melodies of the Octoechos. I have always felt that their choral treatment requires a special, special style, and, it seems to me, I found it in the Vespers. I can't help but admit it. that the first performance of it by the Moscow Synodal Choir gave me an hour of the happiest pleasure,” Rachmaninov recalled.
On December 24, 1917, Rachmaninov and his family left Russia, as it turned out, forever. He lived for more than a quarter of a century in a foreign land, in the USA, and this period was mainly filled with grueling concert activities, subject to cruel laws music business. Rachmaninov used a significant part of his fees for material support of compatriots abroad and in Russia. Thus, the entire fee for the performance in April 1922 was donated to the benefit of the starving people in Russia, and in the fall of 1941, Rachmaninov donated more than four thousand dollars to the Red Army relief fund.
Abroad, Rachmaninov lived a secluded life, limiting his circle of friends to people from Russia. An exception was made only for the family of F. Steinway, the head of the piano company, with whom Rachmaninoff had friendly relations.
During the first years of his stay abroad, Rachmaninov was haunted by the thought of his loss. creative inspiration. “After leaving Russia, I lost the desire to compose. Having lost my homeland, I lost myself.” Only 8 years after leaving abroad, Rachmaninov returned to creativity, creating the Fourth Piano Concerto (1926), Three Russian Songs for Choir and Orchestra (1926), “” for piano (1931), “” (1934), Third Symphony (1936 ), “Symphonic Dances” (1940). These works are Rachmaninov's last, highest rise. A mournful feeling of irreparable loss, a burning longing for Russia gives birth to enormous art tragic force, reaching its climax in the “Symphonic Dances”. And in the brilliant Third Symphony, Rachmaninov embodies for the last time the central theme of his work - the image of the Motherland. The artist’s sternly focused intense thought evokes it from the depths of centuries, it appears as an infinitely dear memory. In the complex interweaving of diverse themes and episodes, a broad perspective emerges, the dramatic epic of the destinies of the Fatherland is recreated, ending with a victorious affirmation of life. Thus, through all his work, Rachmaninov carries the inviolability of his ethical principles, high spirituality, loyalty and inescapable love for the Motherland, the personification of which was his art.
O. Averyanova
Characteristics of creativity
Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninov, along with Scriabin, is one of the central figures in Russian music of the 1900s. The work of these two composers attracted especially close attention from their contemporaries, they were hotly debated about it, and heated printed discussions ensued around some of their works. Despite all the dissimilarities in the individual appearance and figurative structure of the music of Rachmaninov and Scriabin, their names often appeared side by side in these disputes and were compared with each other. There were purely external reasons for such a comparison: both were students of the Moscow Conservatory, graduated almost simultaneously and studied with the same teachers; both immediately stood out among their peers for the strength and brightness of their talent, receiving recognition not only as highly talented composers, but also as outstanding pianists.
But there was also a lot that separated them and sometimes placed them on different flanks of musical life. The brave innovator Scriabin, who opened up new musical worlds, was contrasted with Rachmaninov as a more traditionally thinking artist, who relied in his work on the solid foundations of the Russian classical heritage. "G. “Rachmaninov,” wrote one of the critics, “is the pillar around which all the champions of the real direction are grouped, all those who cherish the foundations laid by Mussorgsky, Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky.”
However, despite all the differences in the positions of Rachmaninov and Scriabin in their contemporary musical reality, they were brought together not only General terms education and growth of a creative personality in his youth, but also some deeper features of the community. “A rebellious, restless talent” - this is how Rachmaninov was once described in print. It was this restless impetuosity, the excitement of the emotional tone, characteristic of the work of both composers, that made it especially dear and close to wide circles of Russian society at the beginning of the 20th century with their anxious expectations, aspirations and hopes.
“Scriabin and Rachmaninov are two “masters of musical thoughts” of the modern Russian musical world<...>Now they share hegemony among themselves in the musical world,” admitted L.L. Sabaneev, one of the most zealous apologists of the first and an equally persistent opponent and detractor of the second. Another critic, more moderate in his judgments, wrote in an article devoted to the comparative characteristics of the three most prominent representatives of the Moscow musical school Taneyev, Rachmaninov and Scriabin: “If Taneyev’s music seems to shy away from modernity, wants to be just music, then in the work of Rachmaninov and Scriabin one can feel a reverent the tone of modern, feverishly tense life. Both are the best hopes of modern Russia.”
For a long time, the dominant view was that of Rachmaninoff as one of the closest heirs and successors of Tchaikovsky. The influence of the author of “The Queen of Spades” undoubtedly played a significant role in the formation and development of his work, which is quite natural for a graduate of the Moscow Conservatory, a student of A. S. Arensky and S. I. Taneyev. At the same time, he also adopted some of the features of the “St. Petersburg” school of composers: Tchaikovsky’s excited lyricism is combined in Rachmaninov with the stern epic grandeur of Borodin, Mussorgsky’s deep penetration into the structure of ancient Russian musical thinking and Rimsky-Korsakov’s poetic perception of the native nature. However, everything learned from teachers and predecessors was deeply rethought by the composer, subject to his strong creative will, and acquired a new, completely independent individual character. Rachmaninov's deeply original style has great internal integrity and organicity.
If you look for parallels to it in Russian artistic culture turn of the century, then this is, first of all, the Chekhov-Bunin line in literature, the lyrical landscape style of Levitan, Nesterov, Ostroukhov in painting. These parallels have been noted more than once by different authors and have become almost stereotyped. It is known with what ardent love and respect Rachmaninov treated the work and personality of Chekhov. Already in the later years of his life, reading the writer’s letters, he regretted that he had not gotten to know him more closely at one time. The composer was connected with Bunin for many years by mutual sympathy and common artistic views. They were brought together and related by a passionate love for their native Russian nature, for the signs of the already fading simple life in a person’s close proximity to the world around him, a poetic attitude, colored by deep soulful lyricism, a thirst for spiritual emancipation and deliverance from the fetters that constrain the freedom of the human person.
The source of inspiration for Rachmaninov was various impulses emanating from real life, the beauty of nature, images of literature and painting. “...I find,” he said, “that musical ideas are born in me with greater ease under the influence of certain extra-musical impressions.” But at the same time, Rachmaninov sought not so much to directly reflect certain phenomena of reality through the means of music, to “painting in sounds,” but rather to express his emotional reaction, feelings and experiences arising under the influence of various externally received impressions. In this sense, we can talk about him as one of the most striking and typical representatives of poetic realism of the 900s, the main tendency of which was successfully formulated by V. G. Korolenko: “We do not simply reflect phenomena as they are and do not create an illusion on a whim non-existent world. We create or manifest a new relationship of the human spirit to the world around us that is born in us.”
One of the most characteristic features of Rachmaninov’s music, which attracts attention primarily when getting to know it, is its most expressive melodicism. Among his contemporaries, he stands out for his ability to create widely and long-lasting melodies of great breath, combining the beauty and plasticity of the drawing with bright and intense expression. Melodism and melodiousness are the main quality of Rachmaninov’s style, which largely determines the nature of the composer’s harmonic thinking and the texture of his works, which, as a rule, are saturated with independent voices, either moving to the foreground or disappearing in the thick dense sound fabric.
Rachmaninov created his own very special type of melody, based on a combination of techniques characteristic of Tchaikovsky - intensive dynamic melodic development with the method of variant transformations, carried out more smoothly and calmly. After a rapid takeoff or a long, intense ascent to the top, the melody seems to freeze at the achieved level, invariably returning to one long-sung sound, or slowly, in soaring ledges, returns to its original height. The opposite relationship is also possible, when a more or less long stay in one limited altitude zone is unexpectedly disrupted by the progression of the melody for a wide interval, introducing a touch of acute lyrical expression.
In such an interpenetration of dynamics and statics, L. A. Mazel sees one of the most characteristic features of Rachmaninov’s melodic music. Another researcher gives the relationship of these principles in Rachmaninov’s work a more general meaning, pointing to the alternation of moments of “braking” and “breakthrough” that underlies many of his works. (A similar idea is expressed by V.P. Bobrovsky, noting that “the miracle of Rachmaninov’s individuality lies in the unique, inherent only to him, organic unity of two oppositely directed tendencies and their synthesis” - active aspiration and a tendency to “stay on what has been achieved for a long time.”). His penchant for contemplative lyricism, long-term immersion in any one state of mind, as if the composer wanted to stop fast-flowing time, was combined with enormous energy rushing outward, a thirst for active self-affirmation. Hence the strength and sharpness of contrasts in his music. He strove to bring every feeling, every state of mind to the extreme degree of expression.
In Rachmaninov’s freely unfolding lyrical melodies with their long, continuous breathing, one can often hear something akin to the “inescapable” breadth of Russian drawn-out folk song. At the same time, however, the connection between Rachmaninov’s creativity and folk song was of a very indirect nature. Only in rare, isolated cases did the composer resort to using genuine folk melodies; he did not strive for a direct similarity of his own melodies with folk ones. “In Rachmaninov,” the author of a special work on his melodicism rightly notes, “there is rarely a direct connection with certain genres folk art. The specific genre often seems to dissolve in the general “feeling” of the folk and is not, as was the case with his predecessors, the cementing beginning of the entire process of formation and formation of the musical image.” Attention has already been repeatedly drawn to such characteristic features of Rachmaninov’s melodic music, which bring it closer to Russian folk music. song, such as smooth movement with a predominance of progressive moves, diatonicism, an abundance of Phrygian turns, etc. Deeply and organically assimilated by the composer, these features become an integral property of his individual author's style, acquiring a special, expressive coloring peculiar only to him.
The other side of this style, just as irresistibly impressive as the melodic richness of Rachmaninov’s music, is the unusually energetic, powerfully captivating and at the same time flexible, sometimes whimsical rhythm. Both the composer's contemporaries and later researchers wrote a lot about this specifically Rachmaninoff rhythm, which involuntarily attracts the listener's attention. Often it is the rhythm that determines the main tone of the music. A. V. Ossovsky noted in 1904 regarding the last part of the Second Suite for two pianos that Rachmaninov in it “was not afraid to deepen the rhythmic interest of the Tarantella form to a restless and darkened soul, not alien at times to attacks of some kind of demonism.”
Rhythm appears in Rachmaninov as a carrier of an effective volitional principle, dynamizing the musical fabric and introducing the lyrical “flood of feelings” into the mainstream of a harmonious, architectonically complete whole. B.V. Asafiev, comparing the role of the rhythmic principle in the works of Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky, wrote: “However, in the latter, the fundamental nature of his “restless” symphonism was manifested with particular force in the dramatic collision of the themes itself. In Rachmaninov’s music, a very passionate unification in its creative integrity a lyrical-contemplative mindset with a strong-willed organizational mindset of the composer-performing “I” turns out to be that “independent sphere” of personal contemplation, which was controlled by rhythm in the sense of a volitional factor...” Rachmaninov’s rhythmic pattern is always very clearly outlined, regardless of its origin. whether the rhythm is simple, even, like the heavy, measured beats of a large bell, or complex, intricately flowery, the rhythmic ostinato, beloved by the composer, especially in the works of the 1910s, gives the rhythm not only formative, but in some cases also thematic significance.
In the field of harmony, Rachmaninov did not go beyond the classical major-minor system in the form in which it acquired in the works of European romantic composers, Tchaikovsky and representatives of the “Mighty Handful”. His music is always tonally definite and stable, but in using the means of classical-romantic tonal harmony he was characterized by some characteristic features, by which it is not difficult to establish the authorship of one or another composition. Such special individual features of Rachmaninov’s harmonic language include, for example, a certain slowness of functional movement, a tendency to remain in one key for a long time, and sometimes a weakening of gravity. Noteworthy are the abundance of complex multi-tertiary formations and rows of non- and undecimal chords, which often have a more colorful, phonic, rather than functional meaning. The connection of this kind of complex consonances is carried out mostly with the help of melodic connection. The dominance of the melodic-song principle in Rachmaninov’s music determines high degree the polyphonic richness of its sound fabric: individual harmonic complexes constantly arise as a result of the free movement of more or less independent “singing” voices.
There is one harmonic turn favored by Rachmaninoff, so often used by him, especially in the works of the early period, that it even received the name “Rachmaninoff harmony.” This revolution is based on a reduced introductory seventh chord of a harmonic minor, usually used in the form of a tertiary chord with the replacement of the II degree of the III and resolution into a tonic triad in the melodic position of the third.
As one of the remarkable features of Rachmaninov's music, a number of researchers and observers noted its predominant minor coloring. All four of his piano concertos, three symphonies, both piano sonatas, most of his etudes-paintings and many other works were written in minor key. Even the major often acquires a minor coloring due to lowering alterations, tonal deviations and the widespread use of minor minor steps. But few composers have achieved such a variety of nuances and degrees of expressive concentration in the use of the minor scale. L. E. Gakkel’s remark that in the sketches-paintings op. 39 “given the widest range of minor colors of existence, minor shades of vitality,” can be extended to a significant part of Rachmaninov’s entire work. Critics like Sabaneev, who had a prejudiced and hostile attitude towards Rachmaninov, called him an “intelligent whiner” whose music reflects the “tragic helplessness of a person deprived of willpower.” Meanwhile, Rachmaninov’s thick “dark” minor often sounds courageous, protesting and full of enormous volitional tension. And if the ear catches mournful notes in it, then this is that “noble sorrow” of the patriotic artist, that “muffled groan about native land”, which M. Gorky heard in some of Bunin’s works. Like this writer close to him in spirit, Rachmaninov, in the words of Gorky, “thought about Russia as a whole,” regretting its losses and feeling anxious about the fate of the future.
Rachmaninov's creative image in its main features remained integral and stable throughout the composer's entire half-century career, without experiencing sharp fractures or changes. He remained faithful to the aesthetic and stylistic principles learned in his youth until recent years life. And yet, we can observe a certain evolution in his work, which manifests itself not only in the growth of skill and enrichment of the sound palette, but also partially affects the figurative and expressive structure of the music. Along this path, three large periods, although unequal both in duration and in the degree of their productivity, are clearly outlined. They are separated from each other by more or less long temporary caesuras, periods of doubt, reflection and hesitation, when not a single completed composition came from the composer’s pen. The first period, which occurred in the 90s of the 19th century, can be called a time of creative formation and maturation of talent, which went towards establishing its path through overcoming natural influences at an early age. Works of this period are often not yet sufficiently independent, imperfect in form and texture (Some of them (First Piano Concerto, Elegiac Trio, piano pieces: Melody, Serenade, Humoresque) were later reworked by the composer and their texture was enriched and developed.), although in a number of their pages (the best moments of the youth opera “Aleko”, the Elegiac Trio in memory of P.I. Tchaikovsky, the famous prelude in C sharp minor, some of the musical moments and romances) the composer’s individuality is already revealed with sufficient certainty.
An unexpected pause came in 1897, after an unsuccessful performance of Rachmaninov's First Symphony - a work into which the composer invested a lot of work and spiritual energy, misunderstood by most musicians and almost unanimously condemned in the pages of the press, even ridiculed by some critics. The failure of the symphony caused deep mental trauma for Rachmaninoff; by his own later admission, he “was like a man who had had a stroke and whose for a long time both my head and my arms were paralyzed.” The three subsequent years were years of almost complete creative silence, but at the same time of concentrated reflection, critical re-evaluation of everything previously done. The result of this intense internal work of the composer on himself was an unusually intense and vibrant creative upsurge at the beginning of the new century.
During the first three or four years of the coming 20th century, Rachmaninov created a number of works of various genres, remarkable in their deep poetry, freshness and spontaneity of inspiration, in which the richness of creative imagination and the originality of the author’s “handwriting” are combined with high, complete craftsmanship. Among them are the Second Piano Concerto, Second Suite for two pianos, sonata for cello and piano, cantata “Spring”, Ten Preludes op. 23, opera "Francesca da Rimini", some of the best examples of Rachmaninov's vocal lyrics ("Lilac", "Excerpt from A. Musset"), This series of works established Rachmaninov's position as one of the most important and interesting Russian composers of our time, bringing him wide recognition recognition in the circles of the artistic intelligentsia and among the masses of listeners.
A relatively short period of time from 1901 to 1917 was the most fruitful in his work: during these decade and a half, most of Rachmaninov’s mature, independent in style works were written, which became an integral property of Russian musical classics. Almost every year brought new opuses, the appearance of which became a notable event in musical life. Despite Rachmaninov's incessant creative activity, his work did not remain unchanged during this period: at the turn of the first two decades, symptoms of an impending shift were noticeable in him. Without losing its general “generic” qualities, it becomes more severe in tone, anxious moods intensify, while the direct outpouring of lyrical feeling seems to be inhibited, light transparent colors appear on the composer’s sound palette less often, the overall coloring of the music becomes darker and thicker. These changes are noticeable in the second series of piano preludes op. 32, two cycles of sketches-paintings and especially such monumental large compositions as “Bells” and “All-Night Vigil”, which put forward deep, fundamental questions of human existence and the purpose of human life.
The evolution experienced by Rachmaninov did not escape the attention of his contemporaries. One of the critics wrote about “The Bells”: “Rachmaninov seemed to be looking for new moods, new manner expressing your thoughts... You feel reborn here a new style Rachmaninov, which has nothing in common with Tchaikovsky’s style.”
After 1917 comes new break in Rachmaninov's work, this time much longer than the previous one. Only a whole decade later, the composer returned to composing music, having arranged three Russian folk songs for choir and orchestra and completed the Fourth Piano Concerto, begun on the eve of the First World War. Throughout the 30s, he wrote (not counting several concert transcriptions for piano) only four, although significant in concept, large works.
In an atmosphere of complex, often contradictory quests, an acute, intense struggle of directions, and the breaking of the usual forms of artistic consciousness, which characterized the development of musical art in the first half of the 20th century, Rachmaninov remained faithful to the great classical traditions of Russian music from Glinka to Borodin, Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and their closest, direct students and followers Taneyev, Glazunov. But he did not limit himself to the role of the custodian of these traditions, but actively and creatively perceived them, affirming their living, inexhaustible power, ability for further development and enrichment. A sensitive, impressionable artist, Rachmaninov, despite his adherence to the legacy of the classics, did not remain deaf to the calls of modernity. In his attitude to the new stylistic trends of the 20th century, there was a moment of not only confrontation, but also a certain interaction.
Over the course of half a century, Rachmaninov’s work experienced a significant evolution, and works not only of the 1930s, but also of the 1910s differ significantly both in their figurative structure, and in language, means of musical expression from the early, not yet completely independent opuses of the end of the previous one. centuries. In some of them, the composer comes into contact with impressionism, symbolism, and neoclassicism, although he perceives elements of these movements in a deeply unique and individual way. With all the changes and turns, Rachmaninov’s creative image remained internally very integral, preserving those basic, defining features to which his music owes its popularity among widest circle listeners: passionate, captivating lyricism, truthfulness and sincerity of expression, poetic vision of the world.
Yu. Keldysh
Rachmaninov the conductor
Rachmaninov went down in history not only as a composer and pianist, but also as outstanding conductor of our time, although this side of his activity was not so long and intense.
Rachmaninov's conducting debut took place in the fall of 1897 at the Mamontov Private Opera in Moscow. Before this, he had not had to lead an orchestra or study conducting, but the musician’s genius talent helped Rachmaninov quickly learn the secrets of mastery. Suffice it to remember that he barely managed to complete the first rehearsal: he did not know that the singers needed to indicate the introductions; and a few days later, Rachmaninov already coped with his duties perfectly, conducting the opera “Samson and Delilah” by Saint-Saëns.
“The year of my stay at Mamontov’s opera was of great importance for me,” he wrote. “There I acquired genuine conducting technique, which served me in great service in the future.” During the season of work as the second conductor of the theater, Rachmaninov conducted twenty-five performances of nine operas: “Samson and Delilah”, “Rusalka”, “Carmen”, “Orpheus” by Gluck, “Rogneda” by Serov, “Minion” by Tom, “Askold’s Grave”, “The Enemy” strength", "May Night". The press immediately noted the clarity of his conducting style, naturalness, lack of posing, an iron sense of rhythm transmitted to the performers, subtle taste and a wonderful sense of orchestral colors. With the acquisition of experience, these traits of Rachmaninoff the musician began to manifest themselves in full, complemented by confidence and authority in working with soloists, choir and orchestra.
In the next few years, Rachmaninov, busy with composition and pianistic activity, conducted only occasionally. The heyday of his conducting talent occurred in the period 1904–1915. For two seasons he has been working at the Bolshoi Theater, where his interpretation of Russian operas is particularly successful. Historical events in the life of the theater are called critics anniversary performance“Ivan Susanin,” which he conducted in honor of the centenary of Glinka’s birth, and “Tchaikovsky Week,” during which “ Queen of Spades", "Eugene Onegin", "Oprichnik" and ballets.
Composer, pianist, conductor Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninov was born on April 1 (March 20, old style) 1873 into a noble family on the Oneg estate in the Novgorod province (according to other sources, in the Semenovo estate in the Novgorod province, now the Novgorod region). Grew up in a musical family. His grandfather, Arkady Rachmaninov, a pianist, is known as the author of salon romances.
From a young age, Sergei Rachmaninov began to systematically study music. In 1882 he entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory.
Among the works written during his studies are Concerto No. 1 for piano and orchestra (first edition, 1891), a youth symphony (1891), and a symphonic poem “Prince Rostislav” (1991).
In 1891, Rachmaninov graduated from the conservatory with a Grand Gold Medal as a pianist, and in 1892 - as a composer. Thesis work Rachmaninov's one-act opera "Aleko" (1892) based on the poem "Gypsies" by Alexander Pushkin. In 1893 it was staged at the Bolshoi Theater. Since the winter of 1892, Rachmaninov's public performances as a pianist began.
Among his works of the 1890s, the symphonic fantasy “The Cliff” (1893), “Musical Moments” for piano (1896) and a number of romances stand out. Impressed by the death of Tchaikovsky in 1893, the Elegiac Trio “In Memory of the Great Artist” was created.
In 1895, Rachmaninov composed the First Symphony, the premiere of which in 1897 turned out to be a major failure. A strong shock led Rachmaninov to a creative crisis. For several years he withdrew from composing music, concentrating on performing activities.
In 1897-1898, Rachmaninov conducted performances of the Moscow Private Russian Opera of Savva Mamontov, and then his international performing career began. Rachmaninov's first foreign performance took place in London in 1899. In 1900 he visited Italy.
In 1898-1900 he repeatedly performed in an ensemble with Fyodor Chaliapin.
By the early 1900s, Rachmaninov managed to overcome his creative crisis. The next decade and a half became the most fruitful in his biography. The first major works of this period are the Second Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1901) and the Sonata for Cello and Piano (1901). The cantata “Spring” (1902) based on Nekrasov’s poetry is imbued with a joyful, spring attitude.
In 1904-1906, Rachmaninov worked as a conductor at the Bolshoi Theater, where his “specialty” was operas by Russian composers of the 19th century. At the same time, he wrote two one-act operas - “Francesca da Rimini” (1904) to a libretto by Modest Tchaikovsky based on Dante Alighieri and “The Miserly Knight” (1904) based on Pushkin. Both operas were released in 1906 at the Bolshoi Theater under the direction of the author. The third opera of this period, Monna Vanna, based on the play of the same name by Maurice Maeterlinck, remained unfinished.
Major instrumental opuses of the 1900s are Symphony No. 2 (1907) and Concerto No. 3 for piano and orchestra (1909). The symphonic poem “Island of the Dead” (1909), inspired by the painting of the same name by the Swiss painter Arnold Böcklin, popular at the turn of the century, stands out with its gloomy coloring.
Since 1906, Rachmaninov spent three winters in Dresden, returning home in the summer. He performed quite often in Europe at that time as a pianist and conductor. In 1907 he took part in Russian historical concerts organized by Sergei Diaghilev in Paris, in 1909 he performed for the first time in the USA, and in 1910-1911 he played in England and Germany.
In the 1910s, Rachmaninov paid much attention to large choral forms. His liturgical compositions - the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom (1910) and All-Night Vigil (1915). In 1913, the monumental poem “The Bells” was written based on poems by Edgar Allan Poe for soloists, choir and orchestra.
Small forms are also richly and variedly represented in his work of the 1900-1910s: romances (including the famous “Lilac” to the words of Ekaterina Beketova, “It’s good here” to the words of Galina Galina, “Daisies” to the words of Igor Severyanin and many others ), pieces for piano (including two notebooks of preludes and two notebooks of “Etudes-pictures”).
The February Revolution of 1917 was a joyful event for Rachmaninov. Soon, however, the feeling of joy gave way to anxiety, which grew in connection with the unfolding events. The October Revolution was greeted with caution by the composer. In his opinion, due to the breakdown of the entire system, artistic activity in Russia could cease for many years, so the composer took advantage of the offer that came from Sweden to perform in a concert in Stockholm. In December 1917, Rachmaninov went on tour to Scandinavia, from where he never returned to Russia. In 1918, he and his family settled in the United States.
In America, Sergei Rachmaninov achieved enormous success. Listeners were attracted not only by Rachmaninov’s high performing skills, but also by his manner of playing, external asceticism, which hid the bright nature of a brilliant musician.
His interpretations of his own music and works of romantic composers - Frederic Chopin, Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt - enjoyed particular success. Gramophone recordings of Rachmaninov's playing give an idea of his phenomenal technique, sense of form, and responsible attitude to detail.
Numerous concert performances did not leave Rachmaninov the strength and time to compose music. During the first nine years of emigration, Rachmaninov did not write a single new work.
In 1926 he completed the Piano Concerto No. 4 (begun in Russia in the mid-1910s). Then came “Three Russian Songs” for choir and orchestra (1926), “Variations on a Theme of Corelli” for piano (1931), “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini” for piano and orchestra (1934), Symphony No. 3 (1935-1936) and "Symphonic Dances" for orchestra (1940). In the last two works, the theme of longing for a lost Russia sounds with particular force.
During the Second World War, Rachmaninov gave several concerts in the USA and sent all the money raised to the fund Soviet army, which provided her with very significant help.
On March 28, 1943, Rachmaninov died after a serious illness surrounded by his loved ones in Beverly Hills, California, USA.
Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninov - composer, virtuoso pianist and conductor. He synthesized in his work the principles of the St. Petersburg and Moscow schools of composition (as well as the traditions of Western European music) and created his own original style, which subsequently influenced both Russian and world music of the 20th century.
The creative image of Rachmaninoff the composer is often defined by the words “the most Russian composer.” This brief and incomplete description expresses both the objective qualities of Rachmaninov’s style and the place of his heritage in the historical perspective of world music. It was Rachmaninov’s work that acted as the synthesizing denominator that united and fused the creative principles of the Moscow (P. Tchaikovsky) and St. Petersburg schools into a single and integral Russian style. The theme “Russia and its destiny,” which is general for Russian art of all types and genres, found an exceptionally characteristic and complete embodiment in Rachmaninov’s work. In this regard, Rachmaninov was both a successor to the tradition of the operas of Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Tchaikovsky’s symphonies, and a connecting link in the continuous chain of national tradition (this theme was continued in the works of S. Prokofiev, D. Shostakovich, G. Sviridov, A. Schnittke and etc.). The special role of Rachmaninov in the development of the national tradition is explained by the historical position of Rachmaninov’s work - a contemporary of the Russian revolution: it was the revolution, reflected in Russian art as a “catastrophe”, “end of the world”, that was always the semantic dominant of the theme “Russia and its fate” (see N. Berdyaev, “The origins and meaning of Russian communism”).
Rachmaninov's work chronologically belongs to that period of Russian art, which is commonly called the “Silver Age”. Main creative method The art of this period was symbolism, the features of which were clearly manifested in the work of Rachmaninov. Rachmaninov's works are full of complex symbolism, expressed through symbolic motifs, the main one of which is the motif of the medieval chorale Dies Irae. This motif symbolizes Rachmaninov’s premonition of a catastrophe, “the end of the world,” “retribution.”
Very important in Rachmaninov’s work Christian motives: being a deeply religious man, Rachmaninov not only made an outstanding contribution to the development of Russian sacred music (Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, 1910, All-Night Vigil, 1916), but also embodied Christian ideas and symbolism in his other works.
22. P. Tchaikovsky: overview of the main genres, style features. Ballet reform of P.Tchaikovsky-M.Petipa).
Tchaikovsky wrote many works for children and about children. This is a “Children's Album” (24 pieces for piano). Here are scenes from children's life ("Game of Horses", trilogy: "Doll's Illness", "Doll's Funeral", "New Doll"), and pictures of nature ("Winter Morning", "Song of the Lark"), and melodies of different nations (“Italian song”, “Old French song”, “German song”, “Neapolitan song”, “Russian song”). Deep penetration into child psychology, into the realm of children's fantasy contributed to the creation of simple, bright plays. Tchaikovsky's "Children's Album" had a great influence on the composition of works for children by Russian and Soviet composers.
The composer wrote “Sixteen Songs for Degei” based on poems by A. Pleshcheev, K. Aksakov and other poets. The most famous songs from this cycle are “My Kindergarten”, “Cuckoo”, “My Lizochek”. The young musicians’ repertoire has also firmly included 12 plays, united in the “Seasons” cycle.
All these plays are marked by the characteristic features of Tchaikovsky's work - beautiful, vivid imagery, sincerity of expression. Many, even inexperienced listeners, well understand the thoughtful and melodious melodies heard in the plays from this cycle - “On Troika”, “Barcarolle”, the sad “Autumn Song”, the cheerful animation of “Maslenitsa” - pictures of Russian life. The visual here is inextricably fused with the lyrical, and the entire cycle is the pages of the life of nature and people drawn by the composer.
Opera occupies a large place in Tchaikovsky's work. The composer believed that opera “should be the most accessible music of all types of music...” Tchaikovsky’s operas harmoniously combine the revelation of the complex inner world of the characters, their emotional experiences with the drama of the action. This is inherent in all the composer’s operas: “Eugene Onegin”, “The Queen of Spades”, “The Enchantress”, “Mazepa”, “Iolanta”, etc. The wonderful world of fairy tales was embodied in the ballets “Swan Lake” (1876), “The Sleeping Beauty” (1889; based on the fairy tale by Charles Perrault) and “The Nutcracker” (1892; based on the fairy tale by Hoffmann). And although the ballets were written at different stages composer and do not resemble each other (in “Swan Lake” the dramatic sphere predominates, in “Sleeping Beauty” - epic, in “The Nutcracker” - characteristic), but they are all deeply lyrical and all have a common theme for Tchaikovsky - the desire of man for happiness , overcoming obstacles in a tense struggle.
Tchaikovsky's ballets, created in collaboration with choreographers L. Ivanov and M. Petipa, resolved the main problem of the ballet theater - the relationship between music and dance. They opened the era of symphonic ballet. Therefore, Tchaikovsky, a great symphonist and opera composer, entered the history of music as a reformer of the ballet genre. His ballet music, which combines features of other genres, consistently uses symphonic methods of development. The most important feature of Tchaikovsky’s work is its bright national character
his music.
Naturally and organically “live” in the finales of the Second (1872) and Fourth (1877) symphonies, the Ukrainian song “Crane” and the Russian “Birch Tree Stood in the Field”. “Vanya was sitting on the sofa” is sung simply and touchingly in the slow movement of the First String Quartet. Tchaikovsky knew and loved his homeland. While still living in Votkinsk, where he was born, the future composer listened to folk singing. Later he often visited Ukraine;
his sister Alexandra Ilyinichna was married to L.V. Davydov, the son of the famous Decembrist. Tchaikovsky lived for a long time with his relatives in Kamenka.
The composer traveled a lot home country during the author's lifetime. In many countries, the composer acted as a promoter of Russian music and conducted his compositions. He visited the Czech Republic, Germany, France, and Italy more than once. In 1891, Tchaikovsky traveled to America, and in 1893, to England, where he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Cambridge. But abroad he missed Russia. From the mid-1880s, Tchaikovsky lived near Moscow, and later on the outskirts of the then small town of Klin. His last home has been preserved intact; here is the House-Museum of P. I. Tchaikovsky.
But Tchaikovsky knew not only the nature of Russia. He also knew the unjust structure of Russian society.
A student of the St. Petersburg School of Law, at the age of 19 he became an assistant to the head of one of the departments of the Ministry of Justice. During three years of service, about 20 cases of peasants passed through the hands of the young lawyer, which mainly contained requests for intercession against the cruelty of landowners.
And it is no coincidence that when, having left the service, he entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory, one of his first independent works was the overture “The Thunderstorm” based on the drama by A. N. Ostrovsky.
He understood “service to society” seriously and in many ways. After graduating from the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1866, he began working in Moscow: a conservatory was also opened here, and Tchaikovsky became one of its first teachers. Responding to the needs of domestic music education, he created the first Russian textbook on harmony. In the late 60s and early 70s, Tchaikovsky actively collaborated as a music critic in the Russian Vedomosti newspaper. In his articles, he fought against blind admiration for Italian opera, defending Russian musical creativity. Tchaikovsky ardently defended education, the interests of the broad masses in the field of national art, and deep confidence in the creative forces of Russia. symphony in the second part, through the bizarre images of the third scherzo, through overcoming evil, “fate”, the composer leads us to the grand finale - “a picture of festive fun”, to the affirmation of the objective value of the world. This concept is close to the main idea of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. In many ways, Tchaikovsky acted as the heir to Beethoven's symphony.
V. I. Lenin loved Tchaikovsky’s music. Thus, in a letter to his mother dated February 4, 1903, he wrote about the Sixth (“Pathetique”) Symphony: “We recently attended a good concert for the first time this winter and were very pleased - especially with Tchaikovsky’s last symphony (Symphony pathetique).”
Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninov (1873-1943) - an outstanding Russian composer, pianist and conductor. In his musical activity creatively reworked the principles of Western European music, successfully combining the traditions of the Moscow and St. Petersburg schools of composition.
His works are distinguished by deep emotionality, an extraordinary lyrical sense of life, patriotism and democracy. In his works, the composer sought to convey all the greatness of the Russian spirit, using the language of folk chant and bell ringing. The name of Rachmaninov as a pianist is on a par with the most outstanding performers planets.
Childhood and youth
Sergei Rachmaninov was born on March 20 (April 1), 1873 in the family estate of his mother Oneg, located in the Novgorod province. In these places it passed early childhood. The beautiful nature of the Russian north-west forever sank into the soul of the future composer, and its images will appear more than once in his works. Thanks to his grandmother, with whom young Sergei visited local monasteries, he forever fell in love with ancient Russian ritual chants and folk songs.
The love of music was passed on to the composer through his mother’s blood, because his older relatives were directly related to it. Rachmaninoff’s grandfather studied with D. Field, and later became a pianist, composed music and performed in concerts in different cities. Father Vasily Arkadyevich was naturally endowed with musical talent, and mother Lyubov Petrovna taught her son to play the piano from an early age.
Later, A. Ornatskaya became his new teacher, who contributed to the placement of her ward at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. However, his studies here clearly did not work out, and at the family council it was decided to send Sergei to Moscow to the private boarding school of a professor at the local conservatory, N. Zverev. Later, A. Ziloti and S. Taneyev would also become his mentors. At this time, Sergei met P. Tchaikovsky, who predicted a great future for him.
Composer's debut
In 1892, Rachmaninov graduated from the Moscow Conservatory as a composer and pianist, and the very next year he received a gold medal for the opera “Aleko,” which was written on a libretto provided to all students graduating in the free composition class. P. Tchaikovsky really liked this work, who was present at the final exam and gave Sergei an A with three pluses. On his recommendation, the opera was accepted for production at the Imperial Bolshoi Theater. It was a huge success among the general public. Critics noted the extraordinary drama of the work, its internal richness and expressiveness of the melody.
The great support of Tchaikovsky, who had the highest authority in the musical world, inspired Rachmaninov to new achievements. At this time, the symphony “The Cliff”, the cycle “Musical Moments” appeared, as well as a number of romances, including “In the Silence of a Secret Night” and “ Spring waters" The death of the great composer impressed Rachmaninov so much that he wrote the “Elegiac Trio,” in which he brilliantly conveyed all the pain of parting with his mentor.
The composer's first works brought him wide fame, but did not add to his wealth. Rachmaninov was forced to get a job at the Mariinsky Women's School. In 1897, he worked for one season as a conductor in the private Russian opera of S. Mamontov and managed to raise this genre to new heights. Soon Sergei Vasilyevich suffered a new setback: the premiere of his First Symphony was a complete failure. Part of the reason for this was due to the erroneous actions of the musicians performing under the direction of the inexperienced conductor A. Glazunov. Contributed to the fiasco and the innovative nature of the presented musical material. This failure affected Rachmaninov’s state of mind so much that he stopped writing music for several years and even had to be treated by a psychiatrist. However, this did not stop him from doing other things. In 1899, Sergei Vasilievich went on his first international tour as a performer, giving a concert in London. At the same time, he repeatedly performed with F. Chaliapin.
On the way to new achievements
Only in 1900 did the composer complete the Second Piano Concerto, which marked the beginning of a new period of his work. In 1901, this work was performed in Moscow in the original performance together with an orchestra led by A. Ziloti. The second concert instantly gained great popularity and became an integral part of the repertoire of the world's best pianists. Later, fragments of the work will be repeatedly heard in various films. Immediately after this, Rachmaninov wrote a Sonata for cello and piano, which turned out to be filled with a poetically excited tone. The chanting themes of the work amaze with their emotional richness and extraordinary fullness of sound.
Universal recognition of Rachmaninoff's genius as a composer brought him to the stage of the Bolshoi Theater, where he served for two seasons. During this period, he wrote two one-act operas, “The Miserly Knight” and “Francesco de Rimini,” which, however, did not gain great fame, unlike “Aleko.” Another opera, “Monna Vanna,” remained unfinished. In 1906, Sergei Vasilyevich went on a trip to the Apennines, and then moved to Germany and lived in Dresden for three years.
In 1909, Rachmaninov wrote the Third Piano Concerto, which is not inferior in melody and freshness of inspiration to the Second Concerto, surpassing it in maturity and firmness of thought. According to Asafiev, it was from this work that the “titanic style of Rachmaninov’s pianoforte” began to take shape. Soon he goes on tour overseas, and upon returning, he receives the position of inspector of Russian music.
New music
From the beginning of the second decade of the 20th century, Rachmaninov became interested in large choral forms, creating the brilliant liturgical compositions “Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom" and "All-Night Vigil". In a letter to his friend, a professor at the Moscow Conservatory, he described his work on the liturgy as follows: “I haven’t written anything for a long time with such pleasure.” The debut performance of the work by the Synodal Choir took place in Moscow in November 1910.
In 1913, another monumental work was published - the musical poem “The Bells”, written to the words of a poem by E. Poe, translated by K. Balmont. Rachmaninov was prompted to write music by an anonymous letter, to which was attached a Russian translation of Poe’s poem with the comment that he should set it to music perfectly. This poetic work immediately sank into Sergei Vasilyevich’s soul, and he began to work “with feverish fervor” on his composition.
During these years, he wrote several romances: “Lilac”, “Daisies” (based on poems by I. Severyanin), “It’s good here”, as well as a number of short pieces for piano. In total, Rachmaninov’s creative biography includes about 80 romances, most of which he dedicated to women. Thus, in 1916, he created six works dedicated to the outstanding performer Nina Koshits. Sergei Vasilyevich personally accompanied her at concerts on several occasions and showed his enthusiastic love. After leaving the country, Rachmaninov would not write another romance.
Life in exile
In 1917, during the revolutionary hard times, when the Bolsheviks came to power, Rachmaninov went on tour with his family to Scandinavia and never returned to his homeland. This step was extremely difficult for him, because at one moment the spiritual connection that connected him with his country was interrupted. “Having left the country, I lost the desire to compose,”- Rachmaninov will say later. In 1918, he, his wife and children, went to the USA. Here he proved himself, first of all, as a talented pianist, who gave many concerts over a quarter of a century. He was best able to perform his own works, as well as various interpretations of works by romantic composers - Liszt, Chopin, Schumann. Also here he very rarely performed as a conductor, although he was invited to conduct the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Cincinnati Orchestra.
Being very busy largely explains Sergei Vasilyevich’s long creative stagnation. Only in the period 1926/27, after a pause of almost ten years, did he write his Fourth Concerto. Moreover, the author several times revised this work dedicated to N. Medtner. The first performance of the concert took place in Philadelphia in March 1927. In 1934, Rachmaninov wrote Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. This work includes 24 variations dedicated to the 24 caprice of the great Italian, who inspired more than one composer. The rhapsody is most often performed without interruption, but inside it is organically divided into three parts.
In 1941, Rachmaninov finished writing his last piece"Symphonic Dances" In this symphonic suite one can clearly hear the author’s favorite church motifs, as well as musical notes opera "The Golden Cockerel" by Rimsky-Korsakov. In general, all of his foreign works are imbued with a certain tragedy, mysticism, and an awareness of separation from their soil. Despite serious illness(lung cancer), Sergei Vasilyevich continued his active concert activities. Just a month and a half before his death, he inspiredly played Beethoven's first concerto, and only a serious attack of illness forced him to interrupt the tour. Sergei Rachmaninoff passed away on March 28, 1943 in Burerly Hills and was buried in Kensico Cemetery.
Personal life
In the life of the great composer there were many women who at different times acted as his muses. Among them is Verochka Skalon, for whom he wrote a romance based on the poems of A. Fet “In the Silence of the Secret Night.” Then came into his life new love- the wife of his close friend P. Ladyzhensky ─ Anna. She captivated him with her black gypsy eyes and extraordinary femininity. As a sign of worship to her, the romance “Oh no, I pray, don’t go” appeared. In 1893, Rachmaninov developed a new hobby - Natalya Satina, whom he knew well since adolescence, since at one time he lived in her parents' house. According to tradition, the composer wrote a romance for her, this time “Don’t sing, beauty, in front of me.” Their relationship developed into marriage, which the couple entered into in 1902. A year later their eldest daughter, Irina, was born, and in 1907, their youngest daughter, Tatyana.
