Sergei Rachmaninoff
1873-1943

Brilliant composer, talented pianist, and control-demanding conductor, Sergei Rachmaninoff was born on a family estate near Novgorod, Russia. His father and grandfather were already very good amateur pianists, thus Sergei followed in their footsteps, as he began piano lessons at a very young age. Although he was born with that musical exposure, he was expected to go on to military school for a career there. At the age of nine, Rachmaninoff traveled to St. Petersburg due to his father's ill judgement with money, as he lost the family fortune. There, Sergei entered as a scholarship student at the conservatory.

However, Rachmaninoff was not a good student, as he often cut class and wandered about the grand city, sometimes even spending his time at the skating rink. His grandmother always took him to church services, where he admired the singing and the tolling of the bells. Even though he deeply enjoyed music, his teachers foresaw no such relation for him with music. Later, however, when he entered the Moscow conservatory at fifteen, he discovered new horizons when he added composition to his piano playing. At Moscow, Rachmaninoff lived at the home of his teacher, the great Nicolai Zverev, who supervised every detail of his students' lives. There, Rachmaninoff met and played for many giant figures of Russia, including Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky, who became his musical idol.

At the Moscow conservatory, the fifteen-year-old became ambitious in his studies, allowing him to graduate early and win the Great Golden Medal. In spite of a very critical illness, Rachmanninoff graduated as a pianist in 1891, the year he completed his First Piano Concerto. Later, he went on to graduate as a composer in 1892 (a year ahead of his class), winning the Great Gold Medal for his opera Aleko as he did.

Rachmaninoff went on to compose many more pieces, including his twenty-three preludes, none of which he ever copyrighted, losing the fame and fortune in royalties. Afterwards, his First Symphony was given its premier in St. Petersburg in 1897, causing the critics to jump on it, criticizing (negatively) every little detail of the composition. Depressed, Rachmaninoff lost his self-esteem and stopped writing for several years. Arguably, a psychiatrist named Dahl hypnotized him into writing again, and in the fall of 1901, he premiered his Second Piano Concerto. It was a success, sending Rachmaninoff into a busy career, as the Bolshoi Opera in Moscow hired him as their conductor.

After several years, he began to wander - Italy, Germany, Paris. Rachmaninoff soon became a touring virtuoso, specializing in the works of Chopin and his own. Best known for his piano concertos and the Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini, it was natural, being a master pianist himself. He knew exactly how to discover all the pearls of the piano, how to make scale passages and arpeggios glitter with impact to the listener. He learned much from his idol, Tchaikovsky, as most of his tunes are those of characteristic Russian melancholy.

Because of his constant touring of his piano performances, Rachmaninoff did not compose regularly. But the compositions he did create are those of great necessity to the human ear. He also became a very well-known pianist himself, earning the name of one of the best of the twentieth century. As a composer, he was satisfied only when he matched the incredible styles of Tchaikovsky, yet he added his own uniqueness to his compositions. He made many records of his own work, enabling us to step back in time, to remember those jewels with a sense of grand, bold power, which was exactly what Rachmaninoff thrived successfully to create.

© 1999 H.Tsai

Some Famous Works:
Variations on a theme by Paganini

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