{"id":47213,"date":"2024-09-16T15:03:28","date_gmt":"2024-09-16T13:03:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/8b6537b3-1e25-4881-ab2e-5d3ad5eb15b3"},"modified":"2024-09-16T15:07:23","modified_gmt":"2024-09-16T13:07:23","slug":"rachmaninov-the-six-foot-scowl-who-gave-us-some-of-classical-musics-most-breathtaking-moments","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/rachmaninov-the-six-foot-scowl-who-gave-us-some-of-classical-musics-most-breathtaking-moments\/","title":{"rendered":"Rachmaninov: the ‘six-foot scowl’ who gave us some of classical music’s most breathtaking moments"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By <\/p>

Published: Monday, 16 September 2024 at 13:03 PM<\/p>

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Sergey Rachmaninov: his stock has risen far since 1954, when the fifth edition of Grove\u2019s Dictionary<\/em> confidently predicted that \u2018the enormous popular success some few of Rachmaninov\u2019s works had in his lifetime is not likely to last\u2019. In the intervening years, not only have those few works maintained their place in the repertory, but also many others previously disregarded or unknown have gained a wide and keen following. <\/p>

Read on for an introduction to the life and music of Sergey Rachmaninov, who has gone from one of classical music’s also-rans to one of our best-loved composers.<\/p>

The 50 Greatest Composers of All Time<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul>
<\/div><\/figure><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-who-was-rachmaninov\">Who was Rachmaninov?<\/h2><p>Sergey Rachmaninov (1873-1943) was a Russian-American composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. Excelling in two spheres, Rachmaninov was certainly one of the finest pianists of his (or perhaps any) era, and was also perhaps the last great flowering of Romanticism in Russian classical music. <\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-when-was-rachmaninov-born\">When was Rachmaninov born?<\/h2><p>Sergey Rachmaninov was born in 1 April, 1873, into an aristocratic Russian family. The Rachmaninov family had both musical and military connections. The composer’s paternal grandfather, Arkady Alexandrovich, was a musician who had learned with the Irish composer John Field, while his father Vasily Arkadievich Rachmaninoff was an army officer and amateur pianist.<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A young Sergey Rachmaninov<\/figcaption><\/figure><p>The latter married Lyubov Petrovna Butakova, the daughter of a rich army general. Her dowry included no fewer than five country estates! The couple had three sons and three daughters: Sergey was their third child.<\/p><p>The future composer was born in one of these five family estates, in the village of Semyonovo, near Staraya Russa, some 400 miles north-west of Moscow. When the young Sergey was four, the family moved to another house in Oneg estate, about 110 miles further north. Sergey spent the next five years of his childhood there, and wrongly believed it was his birthplace. <\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-when-did-rachmaninov-start-playing-the-piano\">When did Rachmaninov start playing the piano?<\/h2><p>The composer was born into a musical family, and started learning the piano at the age of four. He later studied with composers Anton Arensky and Sergei Taneyev at the Moscow Conservatory (the young <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/composers\/alexander-scriabin\/\"><strong>Alexander Scriabin<\/strong><\/a> was one of his classmates). By the time he graduated from there in 1892, the young Rachmaninov had already composed several piano and orchestral pieces including the short orchestral Scherzo in D Minor, the lost ‘Youth’ Symphony, the aforementioned Prelude and the First Piano Concerto. <\/p><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-who-influenced-rachmaninov\">From Russian influences, and on to individuality<\/h3><p>You can hear echoes of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/composers\/pyotr-ilyich-tchaikovsky\/\">Tchaikovsky<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/alexander-borodin\">Borodin<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/nikolay-rimsky-korsakov\">Rimsky-Korsakov<\/a><\/strong> and other Russian composers in Rachmaninov’s earlier output, such as Symphony No. 1 or the early <em>Morceaux de Fantaisie<\/em> piano pieces, which include the famous Prelude in C sharp minor.<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Rachmaninov - Prelude in C Sharp Minor\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wXQCPAR0EHo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/><\/div><\/figure><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/best-russian-composers\/\"><strong>Top 10 Russian composers<\/strong><\/a> <\/p><p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/russian-folk-songs\/\">Russian folk songs: 10 of the best<\/a><\/strong><\/p><p>Later, Rachmaninov acquired his own very personal musical fingerprint. Long, lyrical, song-like melodic lines, rich orchestration and an ability to convey extremes of emotion in music: all these are hallmarks of the later (and better known) Rachmaninov.<\/p><p>A hugely skilled, uniquely communicative pianist, Rachmaninov composed extensively for his instrument, including four piano concertos and many works for solo piano. <\/p><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A disastrous premiere<\/h3><p>A few years later, in 1897, the composer’s First Symphony was ready for its first public performance. However, the work had a disastrous start that very nearly killed off Rachmaninov’s composing ambitions.<\/p><p>The work’s premiere was conducted by fellow Russian composer Alexander Glazunov. However, the piece was under-rehearsed and Glazunov was very possibly drunk on the evening itself. Whatever the causes, the premiere was a disaster and sent poor Rachmaninov into a deep depression.<\/p><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-how-did-rachmaninov-compose-his-piano-concerto-no-2\">How did Rachmaninov compose his Piano Concerto No. 2?<\/h3><p>Following this catastrophe, Rachmaninov composed very little for four years, when a successful programme of therapy gave him the necessary creative breakthrough to complete Piano Concerto No. 2. It’s now one of the composer’s very best known and best loved works: here are some of our recommendations for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/recordings\/best-recordings-rachmaninovs-piano-concerto-no-2\/\"><strong>Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 2 best recordings<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No 2, Evgeny Kissin HD\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/l4zkc7KEvYM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/><\/div><\/figure><p>In the course of the next sixteen years, Rachmaninov conducted at the Bolshoi Theatre, relocated to Dresden, Germany, and toured the United States for the first time.Following the Russian Revolution, Rachmaninov and his family left Russia, and in 1918 they settled in New York City.<\/p><p>With his primary source of income coming from performances as a pianist and a conductor, Rachmaninov had little time to compose. Because of this, he completed just six works between 1918 and his death in 1943, including the famous <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/recordings\/best-recordings-rachmaninovs-rhapsody-theme-paganini\/\"><strong><em>Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, Symphony No. 3, and the wonderful <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/recordings\/the-best-and-worst-recordings-of-rachmaninovs-symphonic-dances\/\"><strong><em>Symphonic Dances <\/em><\/strong><\/a>with their vibrant colours and driving rhythms.<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances op.45 - Live concert HD\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/otJmf3pyb1E?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/><\/div><\/figure><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-why-is-rachmaninov-s-piano-concerto-no-2-so-famous\">Why is Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 so famous?<\/h3><p>Apart from the piece’s innate beauty and heart-on-sleeve emotionalism, Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 is well known for its appearance in the classic 1945 romantic film <em>Brief Encounter<\/em>.<\/p><div class=\"wp-block-group highlight-box is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container\"><ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/best-20th-century-british-film-scores\/\">Best 20th-century British film scores<\/a><\/strong><\/li><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/tv-and-film-music\/best-star-wars-music-theme-tunes\/\">Best Star Wars music: all nine Star Wars music scores ranked worst to best<\/a><\/strong><\/li><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/top-film-composers-ever\/\">Top 10 film composers \u2013 of all time<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-did-rachmaninov-marry\">Did Rachmaninov marry?<\/h2><p>Yes. In 1902, soon after the huge success of his Piano Concerto No. 2, Rachmaninov married Natalia Satina after a three-year engagement.<\/p><p>The two were first cousins, which meant that the marriage was forbidden under Russian state and church law. However, the couple made use of their military background to hold a small wedding ceremony in a chapel belonging to a Moscow army barracks. They received a house on the family estate at Ivanovka, and set off on a three-month honeymoon around Europe.<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1100\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2024\/09\/Untitled-design-2024-09-16T134849.537.jpg\" alt=\"Composer Sergey Rachmaninov at home in Ivanovka, Russia\" class=\"wp-image-212555\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Sergey Rachmaninov (second left) at his country estate of Ivanovka in the mid 1890s. His future wife Natalya Satina is seated centre<\/figcaption><\/figure><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-what-is-rachmaninov-s-reputation-now\">What is his reputation now?<\/h3><p>Rachmaninov and the appreciation of his music have come a long way since 1954, when the fifth edition of <em>Grove\u2019s Dictionary<\/em> confidently predicted that \u2018the enormous popular success some few of Rachmaninov\u2019s works had in his lifetime is not likely to last\u2019. In the intervening years, not only have those few works maintained their place in the repertory, but also many others previously disregarded or unknown have gained a wide and keen following. <\/p><ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/seven-best-works-rachmaninov\/\">Seven of the best works by Rachmaninov<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><p>During the last 25 years of his life, following the family\u2019s emigration from Russia after the 1917 October Revolution, Rachmaninov\u2019s reputation as a composer fell victim to his success as a pianist. 1917 was as much a watershed in his own career as it was for Russia as a whole.<\/p><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A composer who performed… or a performer who composed?<\/h3><p>Between 1890 and 1917 Rachmaninov composed the bulk of his music \u2013 the first two symphonies and his tone poem <em>The Isle of the Dead<\/em>; the three operas <em>Aleko<\/em>, <em>The Miserly Knight <\/em>and <em>Francesca da Rimini<\/em>, and the beginnings of another one, <em>Monna Vanna<\/em>; the major choral works, including <em>Spring, The Bells<\/em> and the <em>All-night Vigil<\/em>; the first three piano concertos (and parts of the fourth); all his solo piano preludes and <em>\u00c8tudes-tableaux<\/em>; all his 80 or so songs.<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Rachmaninoff \u2013 All-night Vigil (Vespers), op. 37. Divine choral music. [Valery Polyansky]\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/U2NSfTXjEPI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/><\/div><\/figure><p>Rachmaninov had graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in piano in 1891, then in composition the following year. But he always considered himself as a composer first and a pianist second, and in the decades before he left Russia, that is how the public principally viewed him too. Afterwards, the emphasis shifted sharply towards life as a travelling pianist, with only a handful of new works to show for the years 1918 to 1943. <\/p><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-is-it-true-that-rachmaninov-had-very-big-hands\">Is it true that Rachmaninov had very big hands?<\/h3><p>Rachmaninov’s great fame as a pianist rested in part on his incredible technical perfection. It’s widely believed, for example, that the pianist\/composer’s large hands were able to stretch a twelfth (in other words, one and a half octaves – the stretch from middle C to high G, for example). <\/p><ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/musical-terms\/musical-keys-explained\/\"><strong>Musical keys: what they are, the different keys and how they are used in classical music<\/strong><\/a><\/li><\/ul><p>Rachmaninov’s large hands may have been a sign of a condition called <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Marfan_syndrome\"><b>Marfan syndrome<\/b><\/a>, a genetic disorder that affects connective tissue. <\/p><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-how-good-a-pianist-was-rachmaninov\">How good a pianist was Rachmaninov?<\/h3><p>Rachmaninov is often considered the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/artists\/20-greatest-pianists-all-time\">greatest pianist of all time<\/a><\/strong>. His expressive style at the piano comes down partly to the fact that he considered himself a Romantic, and continued to inject that movement’s expressive, emotional qualities into his pianism. <\/p><ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/best-romantic-composers\">15 best Romantic composers<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-did-rachmaninov-visit-britain\">Did Rachmaninov visit Britain?<\/h3><p>His experiences in Britain reflect the split of his career into two parts. When Rachmaninov first came to London in 1899, it was to conduct his orchestral fantasy <em>The Rock<\/em>, with the additional lure of hearing him play the already wildly popular Prelude in C sharp minor, together with the <em>El\u00e9gie<\/em> from the same Op. 3 set of pieces.<\/p><p>He had to overcome the English critical establishment\u2019s suspicion of anything and anybody Russian \u2013 Russian music was then deemed a \u2018fad\u2019 or \u2018vogue\u2019. But, to judge from contemporary reviews, his music was taken seriously.<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2 \/ Vasily Petrenko \/ Oslo Philharmonic\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QBy_ACHvEJs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/><\/div><\/figure><p>Gradually, the Second and Third Concertos were introduced, either with Rachmaninov or other pianists playing them, and in 1910, when he performed the Second Concerto and conducted the Second Symphony at the Leeds Festival, the notices were as extensive as those for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/topic\/ralph-vaughan-williams\"><strong>Vaughan Williams<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s <em>A Sea Symphony<\/em>, also being premiered. <\/p><ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/recordings\/a-guide-to-rachmaninovs-second-symphony-and-its-best-recordings\/\">A guide to Rachmaninov\u2019s Second Symphony and its best recordings<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-where-did-rachmaninov-live-in-russia\">A Russian haven<\/h3><p>For composition Rachmaninov needed peace and quiet. In Russia, he found it at Ivanovka, the estate set deep in the countryside, about 500 kilometres to the south-east of Moscow. Ivanovka is scarcely any easier to get to today than it must have been in Rachmaninov\u2019s time, but its very remoteness had provided a haven from the noise and irritations of Moscow. Practically all the music he wrote in Russia had some association with Ivanovka, be it the preliminary thinking, the actual composition, the orchestration or proof-reading. From 1890 to 1917, Rachmaninov spent almost every summer there.<\/p><p>Even before the Revolution, his talents as a pianist were being recognised, so when he made his decision to leave Russia in 1917, the transition from composition to keyboard was not a severe problem. It was, in fact, a dire necessity.<\/p><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">‘One of the world’s most sought-after pianists’<\/h3><p>He and his family had had to abandon their property and money in Russia; his treasured country estate at Ivanovka had been razed to the ground. And from the time he sailed across the Atlantic on 1 November 1918 until his final recital at Knoxville, Tennessee, on 17 February 1943, the need to earn a living forced him to push composition to one side.<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Rachmaninov: The Isle of the Dead, Symphonic poem Op. 29 - Andrew Davis\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dbbtmskCRUY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/><\/div><\/figure><p>As some recompense, he was lionised throughout Europe and the United States as one of the finest and most sought-after pianists the world had ever known. This was all the more remarkable considering Rachmaninov had an unshakeable aversion to performing on the wireless and, more than once, refused to allow his concerts to be broadcast. <\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-when-did-rachmaninov-die\">When did Rachmaninov die?<\/h2><p>By 1942, his declining health led to his relocation to Beverly Hills, California, and later became a US citizen a few weeks before he died of advanced melanoma in 1943.<\/p><ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/articles\/los-angeles-musical-tour\">Los Angeles musical tour: the L.A. homes of 14 musical titans<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><p>The rebuilding and opening up of the Ivanovka estate from the 1970s onwards have been among the most important developments for any student of Rachmaninov\u2019s music. Ivanovka helps one understand the nature of the intense stillness in which he worked \u2013 soundless save for the rustling of trees, limitless in the flat expanses of the surrounding steppe.<\/p><p>Rachmaninov’s peripatetic life after 1917 meant he could rarely find such tranquillity in which to write music, nor indeed the time to do so amid incessant concert tours and practice. On occasion, the family rented a holiday villa in France, where he wrote the <em>Corelli Variations<\/em>; then in the 1930s Rachmaninov built a villa overlooking Lake Lucerne, where again he could surround himself with silence: the <em>Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini <\/em>was a result.<\/p><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">‘A pianist who happened to have written some music’<\/h3><p>The Romantic strengths of his music have always struck a particular chord in Russian hearts. In the United States, the great leap forward in Rachmaninov studies came with the 1956 publication of Sergei Bertensson and Jay Leyda\u2019s classic <em>Sergei Rachmaninov: a Lifetime in Music<\/em>.<\/p><p>In Britain, however, the grudging views expressed in 1954 by <em>Grove<\/em> suggested a widespread indifference, a general misapprehension of Rachmaninov as a pianist who happened to have written some music. Performances concentrated on the same few works that had become popular and it wasn\u2019t until the run-up to his 1973 centenary year that the climate changed \u2013 Vladimir Ashkenazy gave a complete cycle of the works for piano and orchestra in 1968, and Andr\u00e9 Previn championed the symphonies with the LSO in the 1970s.<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1100\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2024\/09\/Untitled-design-2024-09-16T135558.294.jpg\" alt=\"Composer Sergey Rachmaninov in 1934\" class=\"wp-image-212559\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">‘Lionised throughout Europe and the US’: Rachmaninov in 1934. Pic: AFP\/AFP via Getty Images – AFP\/AFP via Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure><p>Nowadays, there is scarcely a single work of Rachmaninov\u2019s that is not on disc, while research on him is carried out worldwide. Whole academic conferences are devoted to him, and performances of his work seek out perspectives that are hidden within a musical personality long misunderstood.<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-what-are-rachmaninov-s-most-famous-works\">What are Rachmaninov’s most famous works?<\/h2><p>Rachmaninov’s most famous works include Piano Concertos Nos. 2 and 3, Symphony No. 2, the <em>Symphonic Dances<\/em>, the tone poem<em> The Isle of the Dead<\/em>, the <em>Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini <\/em>and the early Prelude in C sharp minor<em>.<\/em> <\/p><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-what-is-rachmaninov-s-legacy\">What is Rachmaninov’s legacy?<\/h3><p>Most of Rachmaninov’s opulent, emotional, songlike music was composed in the 20th century, at a time when musical movements like Serialism and Modernism were starting to gain traction. But you wouldn’t know it from Rachmaninov’s music.<\/p><p>He followed in the footsteps of his idol, Tchaikovsky, in writing music with sublime melodies, lush orchestration, and truly Romantic ambitions in terms of moods and emotions conveyed. <\/p><p>As such, Rachmaninov may have been less modern than contemporaries such as Scriabin, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/composers\/sergey-prokofiev\/\"><strong>Prokofiev<\/strong><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/composers\/arnold-schoenberg\/\"><strong>Schoenberg<\/strong><\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/composers\/claude-debussy\/\"><strong>Debussy<\/strong><\/a>, but Rachmaninov’s music doesn’t have to be considrered from a standpoint of 20th century musical development. It should be treasured for the lush, eloquent, frequently very exciting and often very Russian music that it is.<\/p><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Last word… to Stravinsky<\/h3><p>We’re fond of the description of Rachmaninov by <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/igor-stravinsky\">Stravinsky<\/a><\/strong>, the composer’s compatriot and near-contemporary – though by no means musical soulmate. ‘Rachmaninov’s immortalising totality was his scowl. He was a six-and-half-foot-tall scowl… he was an awesome man.’ Amen to that.<\/p><p><em><strong>Geoffrey Norris<\/strong> and <strong>Steve Wright<\/strong><\/em><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Published: Monday, 16 September 2024 at 13:03 PM Sergey Rachmaninov: his stock has risen far since 1954, when the fifth edition of Grove\u2019s Dictionary confidently predicted that \u2018the enormous popular success some few of Rachmaninov\u2019s works had in his lifetime is not likely to last\u2019. In the intervening years, not only have those few […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":47214,"template":"","categories":[1,17],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"11"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/09\/rachmaninov-the-six-foot-scowl-who-gave-us-some-of-classical-musics-most-breathtaking-moments.jpg",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/09\/rachmaninov-the-six-foot-scowl-who-gave-us-some-of-classical-musics-most-breathtaking-moments-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/09\/rachmaninov-the-six-foot-scowl-who-gave-us-some-of-classical-musics-most-breathtaking-moments-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/09\/rachmaninov-the-six-foot-scowl-who-gave-us-some-of-classical-musics-most-breathtaking-moments-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/09\/rachmaninov-the-six-foot-scowl-who-gave-us-some-of-classical-musics-most-breathtaking-moments-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/09\/rachmaninov-the-six-foot-scowl-who-gave-us-some-of-classical-musics-most-breathtaking-moments.jpg",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/09\/rachmaninov-the-six-foot-scowl-who-gave-us-some-of-classical-musics-most-breathtaking-moments.jpg",1200,800,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Published: Monday, 16 September 2024 at 13:03 PM Sergey Rachmaninov: his stock has risen far since 1954, when the fifth edition of Grove\u2019s Dictionary confidently predicted that \u2018the enormous popular success some few of Rachmaninov\u2019s works had in his lifetime is not likely to last\u2019. In the intervening years, not only have those few…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/47213"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}