Sergei vasilievich rachmaninoff biography film
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Rachmaninoff: In search of the heart of Russia
Sergei Rachmaninoff: how did he do it? Those tunes that cut you straight to the quick, that seem to resonate with some place of feeling you never knew you had until you heard the music – where do they come from?
And why is it that those same melodies became such a problem for his reputation? Why was Rachmaninoff thought to be behind the times, a kind of late-romantic relic, for the last 20 years of his life, before his death in 1943 in Los Angeles – a long way from his native Russia, where he was born in 1873?
Tom Service, presenter, writer and music critic
His music’s dark but dazzling brilliance only captivates me more and more
In Russia, and in the company of some great musicians, I was lucky enough to find some answers.
What I came away with, from making our film The Joy of Rachmaninoff, was an even deeper love for this man and this music of astonishing emotional generosity.
His music’s dark but dazz
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Sergei Rachmaninoff
Composer Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff was born on the 1st April 1872 in Semyonovo in Russia. He composed in the late Romantic period. Alongside composing, he was a conductor and exceptional pianist. His compositions often reflected his love of this instrument.
He was born into a family of Russian nobility, who owned several estates. He and his 5 siblings, were surrounded by music and musicianship from birth and he himself, started learning piano at the tender age of 4 years old. He had a great ability to play large sections of music form memory.
His father was a former army officer, so Rachmaninoff was always destined for a career in the army too. However, 1882 was a harsh year for the Rachmaninoff family. They were forced to auction off their estate in Onega due to their severe financial situation, so they went from having 5 estates, to just 1. A year later, they moved to St Petersburg and lived in a small flat. Rachmaninoff was now 10 and it was arrange
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I was writing a book about Rachmaninov in exile when my own world changed for ever
All life goes into a book. Unless it’s a kiss’n’tell, this truth may bypass the reader. A study of steam trains or tax systems or, in my case, the Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninov (I’ll come back to the spelling) will seep into the crevices of a writer’s daglig existence even if the resulting skrivelse appears harnessed in cool objectivity. Decisions are made, anecdotes abandoned because of a plumbing disaster, a knock at the door or a burnt cake. Words scuttle round your head at night and you wonder what possessed you.
Where does it all start? inom had to retrieve my old diary to remember how (on earth), in January 2021, I agreed to deliver, 15 months later, 90,000 words on Rachmaninov for publication this year. It was the start of the second year of lockdown. The diary was virtually empty. Appointments were on Zoom, concerts inom hoped to review mostly cancelled. inom had checklists about my father, in his 90