Sergei Rachmaninoff is a famous Russian composer, born in 1873 in the Novgorod province.

From early childhood, Sergei was fond of music, so it was decided to send him to study at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in the piano department. In addition, he studied at the Zverev boarding house, as well as at the Moscow Conservatory.

After graduation, Rachmaninoff began teaching activities at the Mariinsky School, and then becomes a conductor in the Russian opera.

At the beginning of his musical activity he failed, and real recognition came in 1901. At this time, he creates his famous Second and Third Piano Concertos, the Second Symphony.

Often Rachmaninoff visited England, where he also performed as a pianist and conductor.

In 1917 he went to Scandinavia on tour. He never returned to Russia. He managed to achieve great success in the USA, where he composed little, mostly touring. His great work "Symphonic Dances" was created only in 1941.

During the Second World War, Sergei Rachmaninov tried to help his compatriots by sending home all the funds raised at charity concerts.

After a protracted illness in 1943, the musician passed away.

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And I had a native land;
He is wonderful!
A. Pleshcheev (from G. Heine)

Rachmaninov was created from steel and gold;
Steel in his hands, gold 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, the great composer, 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 flourishing of Rachmaninov's work falls on the 1890-1900s, a time when the most complex processes took place in Russian culture, the spiritual pulse beat feverishly and nervously. The acutely lyrical feeling of the era inherent in Rachmaninoff was invariably associated with the image of his beloved Motherland, with the infinity of its wide expanses, the power and violent prowess of its elemental forces, the gentle fragility of blossoming spring nature.

Rachmaninov's talent manifested itself early and brightly, although until the age of twelve he did not show much zeal for systematic music lessons. 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 pretty much messed around, and in 1885 he was transferred to the Moscow Conservatory. Here Rachmaninoff studied piano with N. Zverev, then A. Siloti; in theoretical subjects and composition - with 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 and naughty person into an exceptionally collected and strong-willed person. "The best that is in me, I owe him," - so Rachmaninov later said about Zverev. At the conservatory, Rachmaninoff was strongly influenced by the personality of P. Tchaikovsky, who, in turn, followed the development of his favorite Serezha and, after graduating from the conservatory, helped stage the opera Aleko at the Bolshoi Theater, knowing from his own sad experience how difficult it is for a novice musician to lay your own 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 compositions, among which are 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 graduation work in just 17 days! The Fantasy Pieces that followed, op. 3 (1892), Elegiac Trio "In Memory of a Great Artist" (1893), Suite for two pianos (1893), Moments of Music op. 16 (1896), romances, symphonic works - "Cliff" (1893), Capriccio on gypsy themes (1894) - confirmed the opinion of Rachmaninov as a strong, deep, original talent. The images and moods characteristic of Rachmaninoff appear in these works in a wide range - from the tragic grief of the “Musical Moment” in B minor to the hymn apotheosis of the romance “Spring Waters”, from the harsh spontaneous-volitional pressure of the “Musical Moment” in E minor to the finest watercolor of the romance “Island ".

Life during these years was difficult. Decisive and powerful in performance and creativity, Rachmaninoff was by nature a vulnerable person, often experiencing self-doubt. Interfered with material difficulties, worldly disorder, wandering in strange corners. And although he was supported by people close to him, primarily the Satin family, he felt lonely. The strong shock caused by the failure of his First Symphony, performed in St. Petersburg in March 1897, led to a creative crisis. For several years Rachmaninoff did not compose anything, but his performing activity as a pianist intensified, and he made his debut as a conductor at the Moscow Private Opera (1897). During these years, he met L. Tolstoy, A. Chekhov, artists of the Art Theater, a friendship began with Fyodor Chaliapin, which Rachmaninov considered one of "the most powerful, deep and subtle artistic experiences." In 1899, Rachmaninoff performed abroad for the first time (in London), in 1900 he visited Italy, where sketches of the future opera Francesca da Rimini appeared. A joyful event was the staging of the opera Aleko in St. Petersburg on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of A. Pushkin with Chaliapin as Aleko. Thus, an internal turning point 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. Contemporaries heard in him the voice of Time with its tension, explosiveness, and a sense of impending changes. Now the genre of the concert is becoming the leading one, it is in it that the main ideas are embodied with the greatest completeness and inclusiveness. A new stage begins in the life of Rachmaninoff.

General recognition in Russia and abroad receives his pianistic and conductor's activity. 2 years (1904-06) Rachmaninov worked as a conductor at the Bolshoi Theater, leaving in its history the memory of the wonderful productions of Russian operas. In 1907 he took part in the Russian Historical Concerts organized by S. Diaghilev in Paris, in 1909 he performed for the first time in America, where he played his Third Piano Concerto conducted by G. Mahler. Intensive 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 op. 23, in the finals of the Second Symphony and the Third Concerto) there is a lot of ardent enthusiasm and enthusiasm. And in such compositions as the romances "Lilac", "", in the preludes in D major and G major, "the music of the singing forces of nature" sounded with amazing penetration.

But in the same years, other moods are also felt. Sad thoughts about the homeland and its future fate, philosophical reflections on life and death give rise to the tragic images of the First Piano Sonata, inspired by J. W. Goethe's Faust, the symphonic poem "The Island of the Dead" based on the painting by 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 concerto ends with a jubilant apotheosis, then in the works that followed it it continuously deepens, bringing to life aggressive, hostile images, gloomy, depressed moods. The musical language becomes more complex, the wide melodic breath so characteristic of Rachmaninov disappears. These are the vocal-symphonic poem "The Bells" (on the st. E. Poe, translated by K. Balmont - 1913); romances op. 34 (1912) and op. 38 (1916); Etudes-paintings op. 39 (1917). However, it was at this time that Rachmaninoff created works full of high ethical meaning, which became the personification of enduring spiritual beauty, the culmination of Rachmaninoff's melody - "Vocalise" and "All-Night Vigil" for choir a cappella (1915). “Since childhood, I have been fascinated by the magnificent melodies of Oktoikh. I have always felt that a special, special style is needed for their choral processing, and, it seems to me, I found it in the Vespers. I can't help but confess. 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. For more than a quarter of a century he lived in a foreign land, in the USA, and this period was mostly full of exhausting concert activity, subject to the cruel laws of the music business. Rachmaninov used a significant part of his fees to provide material support to his compatriots abroad and in Russia. So, the entire collection for the speech in April 1922 was transferred to the benefit of the starving in Russia, and in the fall of 1941 Rakhmaninov sent more than four thousand dollars to the Red Army aid fund.

Abroad, Rachmaninoff lived in isolation, limiting his circle of friends to immigrants from Russia. An exception was made only for the family of F. Steinway, the head of the piano firm, with whom Rachmaninov had friendly relations.

The first years of his stay abroad, Rachmaninov did not leave the thought of the loss of 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 returns to creativity, creates 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 the last, highest rise of Rachmaninoff. A mournful feeling of irreparable loss, a burning longing for Russia gives rise to an art of enormous tragic power, reaching its climax in the Symphonic Dances. And in the brilliant Third Symphony, Rachmaninov embodies for the last time central theme of his work - the image of the Motherland. The sternly concentrated intense thought of the artist evokes him from the depths of centuries, he arises as an infinitely dear memory. In a complex interweaving of diverse themes, episodes, a broad perspective emerges, a dramatic epic of the fate of the Fatherland is recreated, ending with a victorious life-affirmation. So through all the works of Rachmaninoff he carries the inviolability of his ethical principles, high spirituality, fidelity and inescapable love for the Motherland, the personification of which was his art.

O. Averyanova

Characteristics of creativity

Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff, 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 of contemporaries, they heatedly argued about it, sharp printed discussions began around their individual works. Despite all the dissimilarity of 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 pupils of the Moscow Conservatory, who graduated from it almost at the same time and studied with the same teachers, both immediately stood out among their peers by the strength and brightness of their talent, receiving recognition not only as highly talented composers, but also as outstanding pianists.

But there were many things that separated them and sometimes put them on different flanks. musical life. The bold innovator Scriabin, who opened up new musical worlds, was opposed to Rachmaninov as a more traditionally thinking artist who relied in his work on the solid foundations of the national classical heritage. "G. Rachmaninoff, - 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, for all the difference in the positions of Rachmaninov and Scriabin in their contemporary musical reality, they were brought together not only by the general conditions for the upbringing and growth of a creative personality in their youth, but also by some deeper features of commonality. "Rebellious, restless talent" - this is how Rakhmaninov was once characterized in the press. 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 - two "rulers of musical thoughts" of the modern Russian musical world<...>Now they share hegemony among themselves in music world”, - recognized L. L. Sabaneev, one of the most zealous apologists for the first and an equally stubborn 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 music school Taneyev, Rachmaninov and Scriabin: “If Taneyev’s music seems to eschew modernity, wants to be just music, then in the work of Rachmaninov and Scriabin one can feel the quivering tone of modern, feverishly intense life. Both are the best hopes of modern Russia.”

For a long time, the view of Rachmaninoff as one of the closest heirs and successors of Tchaikovsky dominated. 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 perceived some of the features of the “Petersburg” school of composers: Rachmaninov combined the excited lyricism of Tchaikovsky with the harsh epic grandeur of Borodin, Mussorgsky’s deep penetration into the system of ancient Russian musical thinking and the poetic perception of Rimsky-Korsakov’s native nature. However, everything learned from teachers and predecessors was deeply rethought by the composer, obeying his strong creative will, and acquiring a new, completely independent individual character. The deeply original style of Rachmaninov has great internal integrity and organicity.

If we look for parallels to him in the Russian artistic culture of the turn of the century, then this is, first of all, the Chekhov-Bunin line in literature, the lyrical landscape of Levitan, Nesterov, Ostroukhov in painting. These parallels have been repeatedly noted by various authors and have become almost stereotyped. It is known with what ardent love and respect Rakhmaninov treated the work and personality of Chekhov. Already in the later years of his life, reading the letters of the writer, he regretted that he had not met him more closely in his time. The composer was associated with Bunin for many years by mutual sympathy and common artistic views. They were brought together and made related by a passionate love for their native Russian nature, for the signs of a simple life that is already leaving in the immediate vicinity of a person to the world around him, the poetic attitude, colored by deep penetrating lyricism, the thirst for spiritual liberation and deliverance from the fetters that constrain the freedom of the human person.

The source of inspiration for Rachmaninov was a variety of 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 strove not so much for the direct reflection of certain phenomena of reality by means of music, for “painting in sounds”, but for the expression of 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 the poetic realism of the 900s, the main trend of which was successfully formulated by V. G. Korolenko: “We do not just reflect phenomena as they are and do not create an illusion out of whim non-existent world. We create or manifest a new relation of the human spirit to the surrounding world that is born in us.

One of the most characteristic features of Rachmaninov's music, which attracts attention first of all when getting acquainted with it, is the most expressive melody. Among his contemporaries, he stands out for his ability to create widely and long unfolding melodies of great breathing, combining the beauty and plasticity of the drawing with bright and intense expression. Melodism, melodiousness is the main quality of Rachmaninov's style, which largely determines the nature of the composer's harmonic thinking and the texture of his works, saturated, as a rule, with independent voices, either moving to the fore, or disappearing into a dense dense sound fabric.

Rachmaninoff created his own very special type of melody, based on a combination of Tchaikovsky's characteristic techniques - intensive dynamic melodic development with the method of variant transformations, carried out more smoothly and calmly. After a rapid take-off 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, with soaring ledges, returns to its original height. The opposite relationship is also possible, when a more or less long stay in one limited high-altitude zone is suddenly broken by the course of the melody for a wide interval, introducing a shade of sharp lyrical expression.

In such an interpenetration of dynamics and statics, L. A. Mazel sees one of the most characteristic features of Rachmaninov's melody. Another researcher attaches a more general meaning to the ratio of these principles in Rachmaninov's work, pointing to the alternation of moments of "braking" and "breakthrough" underlying many of his works. (V. P. Bobrovsky expresses a similar idea, noting that “the miracle of Rachmaninoff’s individuality lies in the unique organic unity of two oppositely directed tendencies and their synthesis inherent only in him” - an active aspiration and a tendency to “long stay on what has been achieved.”). A penchant for contemplative lyricism, prolonged immersion in some one state of mind, as if the composer wanted to stop the fleeting time, he combined with a huge, rushing outward energy, a thirst for active self-affirmation. Hence the strength and sharpness of contrasts in his music. He sought to bring every feeling, every state of mind to the extreme degree of expression.

In the freely unfolding lyrical melodies of Rachmaninov, with their long, uninterrupted breath, one often hears something akin to the "inescapable" breadth of the Russian lingering folk song. At the same time, however, the connection between Rachmaninov's creativity and folk songwriting was of a very indirect nature. Only in rare, isolated cases did the composer resort to the use of genuine folk tunes; 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 melodics rightly notes, “rarely directly appears a connection with certain genres of folk art. Specifically, the genre often seems to dissolve in the general “feeling” of the folk and is not, as it was with its predecessors, the cementing beginning of the entire process of shaping and becoming a musical image. characteristics Rachmaninoff melody, bringing it closer to the Russian folk song, such as smooth movement with a predominance of stepwise moves, diatonicism, an abundance of Phrygian turns, etc. Deeply and organically assimilated by the composer, these features become an integral part of his individual author's style, acquiring a special, only peculiar to him expressive coloration.

The other side of this style, as irresistibly impressive as the melodic richness of Rachmaninov's music, is an unusually energetic, imperiously conquering 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 to itself. Often it is the rhythm that determines the main tone of the music. A. V. Ossovsky noted in 1904 regarding the last movement of the Second Suite for two pianos that Rachmaninoff in it “was not afraid to deepen the rhythmic interest of the Tarantella form to a restless and darkened soul, not alien to attacks of some kind of demonism at times.”

Rhythm appears in Rachmaninoff as a carrier of an effective volitional principle that dynamizes the musical fabric and introduces a 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 ”symphony manifested itself with particular force in the dramatic collision of the themes themselves. In Rachmaninoff’s music, a very passionate unification in its creative integrity lyrical-contemplative warehouse of feeling with a strong-willed organizational warehouse of the composer-performing "I" turns out to be that "individual sphere" of personal contemplation, which was controlled by rhythm in the sense of a volitional factor ... ". Rakhmaninov's rhythmic pattern is always very clearly outlined, regardless of whether it is whether the rhythm is simple, even, like the heavy, measured beats of a large bell, or complex, intricately flowery.Beloved by the composer, especially in the works of the 1910s, rhythmic ostinato gives the rhythm not only a formative, but in some cases, a thematic significance.

In the field of harmony, Rachmaninoff did not go beyond the classical major-minor system in the form that it acquired in the work 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. Among such special individual features of Rachmaninov's harmonic language are, for example, the well-known slowness of functional movement, the tendency to stay in one key for a long time, and sometimes the weakening of gravity. Attention is drawn to the abundance of complex multi-terts formations, rows of non- and undecimal chords, often having more colorful, phonic than functional significance. The connection of this kind of complex harmonies is carried out mostly with the help of melodic connection. The dominance of the melodic-song element in Rachmaninov's music determines the high degree of polyphonic saturation 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 favorite harmonic turn by Rachmaninoff, which he uses so often, especially in his compositions. early period, which even received the name "Rachmaninov's harmony". At the heart of this turnover is a reduced introductory seventh chord harmonic minor, usually used in the form of a third quarter chord with the replacement of the II degree III and resolution into a tonic triad in the melodic position of the third.

As one of the remarkable features of Rachmaninoff'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 the etudes-pictures and many other compositions were written in minor. Even major often acquires a minor coloration due to decreasing alterations, tonal deviations and the widespread use of minor side steps. But few composers have achieved such a variety of nuances and degrees of expressive concentration in the use of the minor key. L. E. Gakkel's remark that in the etudes-paintings op. 39 "the widest range of minor colors of being, minor shades of life feeling is given" can be extended to a significant part of all Rachmaninoff's work. Critics like Sabaneev, who harbored a prejudiced hostility towards Rachmaninov, called him "an intelligent whiner," whose music reflects "the tragic helplessness of a man deprived of willpower." Meanwhile, Rachmaninov's dense "dark" minor often sounds courageous, protesting and full of tremendous volitional tension. And if mournful notes are caught by the ear, then this is the “noble sorrow” of the patriot artist, that “muffled groan about the native land”, which was heard by M. Gorky in some of Bunin's works. Like this writer close to him in spirit, Rachmaninov, in the words of Gorky, “thought of Russia as a whole”, regretting her losses and feeling anxiety for the fate of the future.

The creative image of Rachmaninov in its main features remained integral and stable throughout the composer's half-century journey, without experiencing sharp fractures and changes. Aesthetic and stylistic principles, learned in his youth, he was faithful to the last years of his life. Nevertheless, we can observe a certain evolution in his work, which manifests itself not only in the growth of skill, enrichment of the sound palette, but also partially affects the figurative and expressive structure of music. On this path, three large, although unequal both in duration and in terms of their degree of productivity, periods are clearly outlined. They are delimited from each other by more or less lengthy temporary caesuras, bands of doubt, reflection and hesitation, when not a single completed work came out from the composer's pen. The first period, which falls on the 90s of the XIX century, can be called the time of the creative formation and maturation of talent, which went to assert its path through overcoming natural early age influences. The works of this period are often not yet independent enough, imperfect in form and texture. (Some of them (First Piano Concerto, Elegiac Trio, piano pieces: Melody, Serenade, Humoresque) were later revised by the composer and their texture was enriched and developed.), although in a number of their pages (the best moments of the youthful 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 has already been revealed with sufficient certainty.

An unexpected pause comes in 1897, after the unsuccessful performance of Rachmaninov's First Symphony - a work in which the composer invested a lot of work and spiritual energy, misunderstood by most musicians and almost unanimously condemned on the pages of the press, even ridiculed by some of the critics. The failure of the symphony caused a deep mental trauma in Rachmaninoff; according to his own, later confession, he "was like a man who had a stroke and who for a long time lost both his head and hands." The next three years were years of almost complete creative silence, but at the same time concentrated reflections, a critical reassessment of everything previously done. The result of this intense internal work of the composer on himself was an unusually intense and bright creative upsurge at the beginning of the new century.

During the first three or four years of the 20th century, Rakhmaninov created a number of works of various genres, remarkable for their deep poetry, freshness and immediacy of inspiration, in which the richness of creative imagination and the originality of the author's "handwriting" are combined with high finished craftsmanship. Among them are the Second Piano Concerto, Second Suite for Two Pianos, Sonata for Cello and Piano, Cantata "Spring", Ten Preludes op. 23, the opera "Francesca da Rimini", some of the best examples of Rachmaninov's vocal lyrics ("Lilac", "Excerpt from A. Musset"), This series of works established Rachmaninoff's position as one of the most important and interesting Russian composers of our time, bringing him a wide 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 fifteen years, most of the mature, independent in style of Rachmaninov's works were written, which became an integral part of the national musical classics. Almost every year brought new opuses, the appearance of which became a notable event in musical life. With the incessant creative activity of Rachmaninov, his work did not remain unchanged during this period: at the turn of the first two decades, symptoms of an impending shift are noticeable in it. Without losing its general “generic” qualities, it becomes more severe in tone, disturbing moods intensify, while the direct outpouring of lyrical feeling seems to slow down, light transparent colors appear less often on the composer’s sound palette, the overall color of the music darkens and thickens. These changes are noticeable in the second series of piano preludes, op. 32, two cycles of etudes-paintings, and especially such monumental large compositions as “The Bells” and “All-Night Vigil”, which put forward deep, fundamental questions of human existence and the life purpose of a person.

The evolution experienced by Rachmaninov did not escape the attention of his contemporaries. One of the critics wrote about The Bells: “Rakhmaninov seemed to be looking for new moods, a new manner of expressing his thoughts ... You feel here the reborn new style of Rachmaninov, which has nothing in common with the style of Tchaikovsky.”

After 1917, a new break in the work of Rachmaninov begins, this time much longer than the previous one. Only after a whole decade did the composer return to composing music, having arranged three Russian folk songs for choir and orchestra and completing the Fourth Piano Concerto, begun on the eve of the First World War. During the 1930s he wrote (except for a few concert transcriptions for piano) only four, however, significant in terms of the idea of ​​major works.

In an environment of complex, often contradictory searches, a sharp, intense struggle of directions, a breakdown of the usual forms of artistic consciousness that characterized the development of musical art in the first half of the 20th century, Rachmaninoff 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 of Taneyev, Glazunov. But he did not limit himself to the role of the custodian of these traditions, but actively, creatively perceived them, asserting their living, inexhaustible power, ability to further development and enrichment. A sensitive, impressionable artist, Rachmaninov, despite his adherence to the precepts 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 not only of confrontation, but also of a certain interaction.

Over a period of half a century, Rachmaninov's work has undergone a significant evolution, and the works of not only the 1930s, but also 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, neoclassicism, although in a deeply peculiar way, he individually perceives the elements of these trends. With all the changes and turns, Rachmaninov's creative image remained very integral internally, retaining those basic, defining features to which his music owes its popularity among the widest circle listeners: passionate, captivating lyricism, truthfulness and sincerity of expression, poetic vision of the world.

Y. Keldysh

Rachmaninoff conductor

Rachmaninoff 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 made his debut as a conductor in the autumn of 1897 at the Mamontov Private Opera in Moscow. Before that, he did not have to lead an orchestra and study conducting, but the brilliant talent of the musician helped Rachmaninoff quickly learn the secrets of mastery. Suffice it to recall 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 had already done his job perfectly, conducting Saint-Saens' opera Samson and Delilah.

“The year of my stay at the Mamontov opera was of great importance to me,” he wrote. - There I acquired a genuine conductor's technique, which later served me tremendously. During the season of work as the second conductor of the theater, Rachmaninov conducted twenty-five performances of nine operas: "Samson and Delilah", "Mermaid", "Carmen", "Orpheus" by Gluck, "Rogneda" by Serov, "Mignon" by Tom, "Askold's Grave", "The Enemy strength”, “May night”. The press immediately noted the clarity of his conductor's style, naturalness, lack of posturing, an iron sense of rhythm transmitted to the performers, delicate taste and a wonderful sense of orchestral colors. With the acquisition of experience, these features of Rachmaninoff as a musician began to manifest themselves in full, complemented by confidence and authority in working with soloists, choir and orchestra.

In the next few years, Rachmaninoff, busy with composition and pianistic activity, conducted only occasionally. The heyday of his conducting talent falls on the period 1904-1915. For two seasons he has been working at the Bolshoi Theatre, where his interpretation of Russian operas enjoys particular success. historical events in the life of the theater critics call the anniversary performance of "Ivan Susanin", which he conducted in honor of the centenary of the birth of Glinka, and "Tchaikovsky's Week", during which, under the baton of Rachmaninov, the Queen of Spades, Eugene Onegin, Oprichnik and ballets.

April 1 (March 20), 1873, Oneg estate, now Novgorod region - March 28, 1943, Beverly Hills, California, USA. Buried at Volhall, near New York.
Russian composer, pianist, conductor.

In 1904-1906 - conductor Bolshoi Theater. Since December 1917 he lived abroad (since 1918 in the USA). The theme of the motherland is embodied in the work of Rachmaninov with particular force. Romantic pathos is combined in his music with lyric-contemplative moods, inexhaustible melodic richness, breadth and freedom of breath - with rhythmic energy. 4 concertos, "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini" (1934) for piano and orchestra, preludes, etudes-pictures for piano, 3 symphonies (1895-1936), fantasy "Cliff" (1893), poem "Isle of the Dead" (1909), Symphonic Dances (1940) for orchestra, cantata Spring (1902), poem Bells (1913) for choir and orchestra, operas Aleko (1892), The Miserly Knight, Francesca da Rimini (both 1904), romances.

Years of study
Rachmaninoff was born into a noble family with a long musical tradition (his grandfather Arkady Aleksandrovich Rachmaninov, 1808-1881, was known as the author of salon romances). He began to systematically study music at the age of five. In 1882 he entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory. In 1885 he moved to Moscow and became a student at the Moscow Conservatory, where he first studied with the famous pianist-teacher N. S. Zverev (whose student was also Scriabin), and from 1888 - with A. I. Siloti (piano), A. S. Arensky (composition, instrumentation, harmony), S. I. Taneyev (counterpoint of strict writing). Among the works written during the years of study are the Piano Concerto No. 1 (1891, 2nd edition, 1917), the Youth Symphony (1891), the symphonic poem "Prince Rostislav" (after A. K. Tolstoy, 1991). In 1891 Rachmaninoff graduated from the conservatory with a large gold medal as a pianist, and in 1892 as a composer. Graduation work Rachmaninoff became the one-act opera Aleko based on Pushkin's poem The Gypsies (1892, staged at the Bolshoi Theater in 1893).

Tchaikovsky had a high opinion of Rachmaninov's talent, under whose strongest influence the young composer's creative development took place. Rachmaninoff responded to Tchaikovsky's death with the Elegiac Trio "In Memory of a Great Artist" for piano, violin and cello (1893). Among other works of the 1890s. the symphonic fantasy "Cliff" (1893), Musical Moments for Piano (6 pieces, 1896) and a number of romances, including such pearls of Russian vocal lyrics as "In the Silence of the Secret Night" to the words of Fet, "Do not sing, beauty, with me” to the words of Pushkin, “Spring Waters” to the words of Tyutchev. From the day of its first performance up to our time, the Prelude in C-sharp minor for pianoforte (1893) has enjoyed exceptional popularity - chronologically the earliest of Rachmaninov's 24 pieces in this genre.

In 1895, Rachmaninov composed the First Symphony, the premiere of which, held two years later under the direction of A. K. Glazunov, turned out to be a major failure. According to contemporaries, due to extremely careless performance, the symphony was not properly appreciated; nevertheless, Rachmaninov took the incident as proof of his own creative failure and for several years moved away from composing music, concentrating on performing activities. In the 1897/98 season, Rachmaninov conducted performances of the Moscow Private Russian Opera S. I. Mamontova; at the same time, his international performing career began (Rakhmaninov's first foreign performance took place in London in 1899). In 1898-1900, Rachmaninov repeatedly performed in an ensemble with F.I. Chaliapin.

1900s
By the beginning of the 1900s. Rachmaninov managed to overcome the creative crisis. The decade and a half that followed was the most fruitful in his biography. Rachmaninov's style is deeply rooted in the tradition of Russian music of the 19th century, especially the Moscow direction, of which Tchaikovsky was the acknowledged leader. This style of the composer finds a vivid expression in the very first major works of this period - the most popular Second Piano Concerto and the Sonata for Cello and Piano (both - 1901).

The cantata "Spring" to the verses of Nekrasov (1902) is imbued with a joyful, truly spring attitude. Other major instrumental opuses of the 1900s - Symphony No. 2 (1907) and Piano Concerto No. 3 (1909), - for all their dramatic richness, also end with an unconditionally "positive" emotional outcome. Against this background, the symphonic poem "Isle of the Dead" (1909), inspired by the painting of the same name by the Swiss painter A. Böcklin, popular at the turn of the century, stands out with its gloomy color.

In 1904-06 Rachmaninoff worked as a conductor at the Bolshoi Theatre, where his "specialty" was operas by Russian composers of the 19th century. At the same time, he wrote two one-act operas, which, unlike Aleko, did not receive wide recognition: Francesca da Rimini to a libretto by M.I. Tchaikovsky after Dante and The Miserly Knight after Pushkin. Both operas were staged 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 M. Maeterlinck) remained unfinished.

In the 1910s Rachmaninoff pays considerable attention to large choral forms. Great value for spiritual Russian music have his magnificent liturgical compositions - the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom (1910) and the All-Night Vigil (1915). In 1913, the monumental poem The Bells was written to poems by E. Poe for soloists, choir, and orchestra; in its style, this work is associated not so much with Russian examples of the cantata-oratorio genre (Tchaikovsky, Taneyev), but with vocal-symphonic frescoes of the late Liszt.

Richly and diversely represented in the works of the 1900-10s. and small forms: romances (including the famous "Lilac" to the words of E. A. Beketova and "It's good here" to the words of G. Galina, 1902, "Daisies" to the words of I. Severyanin, 1916, and many others), plays for piano (including 2 notebooks of preludes, 1903, 1910, and 2 notebooks of Etudes-Paintings, 1911, 1916-17). Unlike most other pianist composers, Rachmaninoff did not attach much importance to the piano sonata genre: none of his two works in this genre (1907, 1913) is among the major artistic successes.

Emigration

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. For the past 25 years, Rachmaninoff has led the life of an itinerant virtuoso pianist. The glory of Rachmaninoff as a pianist, which was quite great even before 1917, soon became truly legendary. His interpretations of his own music and the works of romantic composers - Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, enjoyed particular success. Gramophone recordings of Rachmaninov's playing give an idea of ​​his phenomenal technique, sense of form, and exceptionally responsible attitude to details. Rachmaninov's pianism influenced such outstanding masters of piano performance as V. V. Sofronitsky, V. S. Horowitz, S. T. Richter, E. G. Gilels.

Numerous concert performances did not leave Rakhmaninov the strength and time to compose music; The composer's many years of separation from his homeland also played a role in the decline in creative activity. During the first nine years of emigration, Rachmaninoff did not write a single new work; then came the Piano Concerto No. 4 (begun in Russia in the mid-1910s, it was completed in 1926), 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 (1935-36) and "Symphonic Dances" for orchestra (1940). In the last two works, the theme of longing for lost Russia sounds with particular force.

Name: Sergei Rachmaninov

Age: 69 years old

Place of Birth: Semyonovo, Starorussky district, Novgorod province,

A place of death: Beverly Hills, California, USA

Activity: composer, pianist, conductor

Family status: was married

Sergei Rachmaninov - biography

"What takes life, music returns" These words of Heinrich Heine were often repeated by Sergei Rachmaninoff. Like most geniuses, his happiness always went hand in hand with tragedy. Healed music. And listeners more than once testified to the healing magic of Rachmaninov's music.

Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninov was born on April 1, 1873 - one of six children in a talented, musical family. For a long time, the Novgorod estate of his mother, Oneg, was considered his birthplace, and later, for some reason, they began to call the Semenovo estate of the Starorussky district of the Novgorod province. But the first one is true early childhood composer passed in Onega.

He owes his exotic surname to the Moldavian rulers, his distant ancestors. In different parts of Russia, “rahmanny” meant different things: from “meek”, “sluggish” and “rustic” to the opposite “cheerful”, “hospitable” and even “riotous”. It is not known for what qualities the grandson of Stephen the Great himself was nicknamed "Rakhmanin" - but, of course, it was not by chance, it was not by chance that a genius appeared in their family centuries later, gifted with such an aristocratic article and obviously innate nobility.

Sergei Rachmaninov - Childhood and studies

The grandfather of the great composer Arkady Alexandrovich, although he was considered an amateur pianist, studied with John Field himself, an Irish composer who lived in Russia, Glinka's teacher and, in fact, the founder of the Russian pianistic school. Arkady Alexandrovich himself composed music, several of his compositions were even published in the 18th century.

A musically gifted man was his father, a retired hussar officer of the Grodno regiment Vasily Rakhmaninov. And my mother, Lyubov Petrovna, nee Butakova, graduated from the conservatory in piano with Anton Rubinstein, sang well and herself became Sergei's first teacher. And although, according to his recollections, these lessons gave him “great displeasure”, by the age of four the kid was already playing smartly with his grandfather in four hands.

But he owes one of the strongest musical impressions of his childhood to his religious grandmother, Sofya Alexandrovna Butakova: “For hours we stood idle in the amazing St. Petersburg cathedrals - St. - The best St. Petersburg choirs often sang there. I tried to find a place under the gallery and caught every sound. Thanks to his good memory, he easily remembered almost everything he heard.

This is where the origins of his famous Bells and Vigil, which the composer himself considered his best compositions! And the unforgettable ringing of Novgorod bells will be resurrected in the sounds of the great Second Piano Concerto. “One of my most treasured childhood memories is associated with four notes called by the great bells of St. Sophia Cathedral... Four notes formed into a repeating theme over and over again, four weeping silver notes, surrounded by an ever-changing accompaniment.”

And with his phenomenal memory, Rachmaninov surprised from his youth. Once (this was in the early 90s of the XIX century) to his teacher S.I. The composer A. Glazunov came to Taneyev to show part of his new symphony. After listening, Taneyev went out and returned not alone: ​​“Let me introduce you to my talented student Rachmaninov, who also composed a symphony...” What was Glazunov's surprise when the “student” sat down at the piano and performed the composition he had just played! “But I didn’t show it to anyone!” - Glazunov was amazed. It turned out that Rachmaninov was in the next room and repeated by ear the music he heard for the first time.

Lyubov Petrovna received as a dowry five estates with large land plots. One of them was generic, the others were awarded to her father, General Pyotr Butakov, for honest service in the cadet corps. But the husband spent ten years and lost everything. In the early 1880s, the family, which already had six children, was hit by severe material hardships. Forced to sell Oneg, the Rachmaninovs moved to St. Petersburg.

In the autumn of 1882, Sergei entered the junior department of the St. Petersburg Conservatory in the class of teacher V.V. Demyansky and settled in the house of friends. But discord in the family and the early independence of the boy contributed little to learning. Saved by her beloved grandmother Sofya Alexandrovna: at the end of each conservatory year, she took her grandson to her place in Novgorod or in her estate Borisovo.

Life of Sergei Rachmaninov in Ivanovka

And then the best place Ivanovka became forever on earth for him. “For 16 years I lived on the estates that belonged to my mother,” Sergey Vasilyevich will write down years later, “but by the age of 16 my parents lost their fortune, and I left for the summer to the estate of my relative Satin. From this age until the moment when I left Russia (forever?), I lived there for 28 years ... There were no natural beauties, which usually include mountains, abysses, the sea.

This was a steppe estate, and the steppe is the same sea, without end and edge, where instead of water there are continuous fields of wheat, oats, etc., from horizon to horizon. Sea air is often praised, but if you knew how much better the steppe air is with its aroma of the earth and everything growing, it doesn’t pump. There was a large park on this estate, planted by hand, in my time already fifty years old. There were large orchards and big lake. Since 1910, this estate has passed into my hands ... There, in Ivanovka, I always aspired. Hand on heart, I must say that I still aspire to go there.

It was here, in Ivanovka, that a lot began and happened that will determine the entire later life Sergei Vasilievich. There he found "rest and complete peace, or, conversely, diligent work, which is favored by the surrounding peace." Here he honed his performing skills for concerts, which he began to perform in his student years. There, his first compositions were born, written under the auspices of the composer and teacher Sergei Taneyev. There he experienced the first beautiful, insanely romantic love. There he also found another - great, sensitive, devoted, what will be with him to the end.

In those years, many young people gathered in Ivanovka: the entire Satin family, their numerous relatives and neighbors, and among them Sergey's second cousins ​​- the beauties Natalya, Lyudmila and Vera Skalon. Well, where there are a lot of young people, an atmosphere of love always arises, and everyone enthusiastically sought their happiness there, “where the lilac is crowded”. She did not bypass and 17-year-old Sergei. At first it seems to him that he is in love with the eldest of the Skalon sisters, Natalya, whom everyone called Tatusha - it was not by chance that he dedicated the romance “Dream” to Pleshcheev’s poems to her.

And then they correspond for a long time, and he shares with her all, well, almost all his experiences. She became his confidant, she, in love with him, he also told about another, for the most unexpected passionate love - for her younger fifteen-year-old sister Vera, whom he called “psychopath” for her vivid emotionality. Happy young man - this feeling was mutual. Many friends and biographers considered the love for Vera to be a past hobby, a youthful romance that naturally ended with the entry into adult life.

Yes, and Verochka seemed to have easily forgotten her funny, lanky cousin with long legs that did not fit under the piano. She got married, gave birth to two daughters, and before the wedding, she burned all of Rachmaninoff's letters. Of course it isn't. Not a simple and random company gathered in Ivanovka. They were educated, talented young people who did not get tired of learning. Many studied at the conservatory, everyone played, sang, drew ... And they understood or at least guessed, intuitively felt what a powerful talent, what an amazing personality they were lucky to be around.

Yes, and for all the youthful awkwardness, the cousin was good-looking, smart, and what a brilliant pianist - everyone was happy to take lessons from him, which, by the way, he did not refuse anyone ... They fell in love with him in earnest. Vera's diary has been preserved, full of hopes, girlish longing and unfulfilled desires. Here are just a few lines from it: “... Is this really love?! I had no idea what kind of torment it was. The books are written differently.

I keep hoping that this mood will somehow pass ... "" ... Who is dearer to me than all? I can't even believe it! How long have I found him terrible, unsympathetic, disgusting. And now? And we've only known each other for three weeks. God, God, how strange it all is!” “Of course, there are no more doubts, I’m in love! It happened suddenly and against my will...” “I am both sad and annoyed, most importantly, I begin to fear that Sergei Vasilyevich is completely indifferent to me. Oh, that would be terrible! How did I not think of this before...

“...That's what I saw in a dream. I am walking along the Red Alley, and suddenly a male figure appears in the distance and quickly approaches, I stop, I try to make out, but I cannot. Only when he came three steps closer did I recognize Sergei Vasilyevich. He grabbed my hand and began to press it firmly and for a long time, then everything disappeared into the fog, and I woke up, still feeling the touch of his hand ... "

And no longer a dream, but a real explanation at a village skating: “God, what did I feel when he suddenly looked at me and said softly and affectionately:“ Oh, with what joy I would take my Psychopath to the ends of the world like that. It seemed to me that my heart stopped beating, all the blood rushed to my head, then my heart beat so hard that I almost suffocated. We were both silent. Alas, in a few minutes we had already circled the threshing floor and the garden and again found ourselves in the yard. Oh, why can’t we really go to the ends of the world!”

“Today I was convinced that joy is as difficult to hide as grief. How unexpectedly ended all my tormenting doubts! How ridiculous is my jealousy now! From today I have heaven in my heart. I have already got used to the idea that he loves me, but meanwhile only yesterday I was convinced of this. There is no reason to doubt the sincerity of these confessions. This is confirmed by Verochka's sisters, and the further fate of the girl in love, which was determined by her parents.

The general's family could not accept a musician so poor that the Skalon sisters, regretting, bought him a coat in a pool. For this, Verochka even broke her porcelain piggy bank. And in 1899, Vera, as Rakhmaninov also called her, nevertheless married an equal - another Sergey, their mutual friend Tolbuzin. But ten years later, in 1909, she will be gone - only 34 years old. She had a sick heart, but who knows how much fatal hopelessness was added to this pain by someone else's cruel will, torn dreams. It is no coincidence that her middle sister Lyudmila, in her memoirs, claims that Vera loved Rachmaninoff all her life.

But what is he? Did he really soon forget about the one with whom he wanted to "go to the ends of the world"? But why, then, Verochka, having kept so much talking diary, before the wedding destroyed his, apparently, even more eloquent letters. And most importantly, there was music. Listen to Rachmaninov's First Piano Concerto. The second part is dedicated to Verochka Skalon. And how much the romances dedicated to her tell: “Oh, I will be a secret for a long time, in the silence of the night” to the words of Fet and a few more, including the beautiful unforgettable Lilac.

Romances are generally special pages of Rachmaninov's compositions. “Poetry inspires music, for there is much music in poetry itself. They are like twin sisters, - the composer admitted. - And a beautiful woman, of course, a source of eternal inspiration. But you must run away from it and seek solitude, otherwise you will compose nothing, you will not bring anything to the end.

Carry inspiration in your heart and mind, think of an inspiration, but for creative work stay alone with yourself. Real inspiration must come from within. If there is nothing inside, nothing outside will help.” He created more than 80 wonderful romances, and behind each is a vivid experience, a declaration of heart about love with a specific name.

It is difficult to say whether he suspected during those months in Ivanovka with what pain and jealousy Verochka's close friend and confidante, the smart, sensitive and talented Natasha Satina, who had long been endlessly and hopelessly in love with her brilliant cousin, followed the unfolding love passions. But - she loved, in spite of everything, quietly, truly, faithfully.

By that time - even during the years of study at the Moscow Conservatory - Rachmaninov began to perform concerts, which were held with great success. He actively studied composition under the direction of Sergei Taneyev and Anton Arensky. Then he first met with Tchaikovsky, who immediately noted a capable student. Very soon Pyotr Ilyich said: "I predict a great future for him."

At the age of 18, Rachmaninoff brilliantly completed piano lessons, and after graduating from the conservatory in composing in 1892, he was awarded the Big Gold Medal for outstanding performance and composer success. Another outstanding graduate - A. Skryabin - received a Small gold medal (the Big one was awarded only to those who graduated from the conservatory in two specialties). At the final exam, Rachmaninov presented the one-act opera Aleko based on Pushkin's poem The Gypsies, which he wrote in just 17 days. For her, Tchaikovsky, who was present at the exam, gave his "musical grandson" (his teacher Taneyev was Pyotr Ilyich's favorite student) a five with three pluses.

She was well received by critics and the public ... Alas. Such a brilliant success was short-lived. Tchaikovsky intended to include Aleko in the repertoire of the Bolshoi Theater along with his one-act opera Iolanta. Both he and the Theater Directorate told me that these two operas would be shown in December of the same year. But on October 25, 1893, Tchaikovsky died. "Iolanta" was staged, but... without my "Aleko".

For almost three years, the young composer took lessons at the Mariinsky Women's School and the Elizabethan Institute. But he continued to write. The largest creation at that time was the First Symphony. Unfortunately, Alexander Glazunov, not understanding its unusualness, failed the first performance. How moral support and care of people close to him helped the author! And suddenly, in 1897, Rachmaninov unexpectedly received an offer in a completely different field.

The wealthy industrialist Savva Mamontov organized a private opera, gathered talented young people there and offered him a place as a second conductor. Here Sergei Vasilyevich mastered the opera classics in practice, met many wonderful musicians and amazing master artists who were patronized by Mamontov: Serov, Vrubel, Korovin. And he met the then amazing singer Fyodor Chaliapin, who was just creating his Godunov, Grozny and other parts that would soon shock the whole world. Here he began a friendship with this "God-marked man" that lasted all his life.

In the summer of 1898, the composer and the artists of the Russian Private Opera came to the Crimea, where he met with Anton Chekhov. In the spring of 1899 Rachmaninoff made his first concert trip abroad - to England. And the first years of the new century showed a new, truly great musician. Sergei Vasilyevich experienced a powerful surge of creative forces, created new works, gave concerts in Vienna, Moscow, St. Petersburg and the provinces, and in 1904 took the post of bandmaster at the Bolshoi Theater.

Sergei Rachmaninov - biography of personal life, family and children

By that time, Rachmaninov had already become a husband and father. A dear friend of his adolescence, who had long been in love with him and shed many tears because of other loving eyes, Natasha Satina waited in the wings. A subtle and capable musician herself, who studied piano and vocals at the conservatory, she managed to win the heart of a loved one.

Even Verochka Skalon's sister Lyudmila Rostovtseva wrote half a century later: “Seryozha married Natasha. best wife he couldn't choose. She loved him from childhood, one might say, suffered through him. She was smart, musical and very informative. We rejoiced for Seryozha, knowing in what reliable hands he falls ... ”And all their further family life proved that they were made for each other, that there can be no best friend.

But, although the fact that this happy union took place, of course, first of all, is the merit of Natasha's enormous love and devotion, she showed both claws, and character, and pride. Seeing, already a bride, how her Seryozha glances at the new beauty and even composes something for her, she immediately told the groom that he was still free to change his mind ... But it was to her, among many dedications, that he gave a true masterpiece: “Do not sing, beauty , with me ”to the equally brilliant poems of Pushkin.

But it was not so easy to legitimize this union sent from above. Sergei and Natalya were cousins, and marriages between close relatives were prohibited, the personal permission of the emperor was required, which was given in exceptional cases. The bride and groom filed a petition addressed to the highest name, but, despite possible big troubles for breaking the law, they did not wait for an answer. In order to raise money for a honeymoon trip, Sergei settled in Ivanovka to compose 12 romances - one every day.

And on their return on April 29, 1902, they got married in a small church of the 6th Tauride Grenadier Regiment on the outskirts of Moscow. “I rode in a carriage in a wedding dress, the rain poured like a bucket,” recalled Natalya Alexandrovna. -It was possible to enter the church by passing the longest barracks. Soldiers lay on the bunks and looked at us with surprise. The best men were A. Zealot and A. Brandukov.

Siloti, when we were led around the lectern for the third time, jokingly whispered to me: “You can still change your mind. Not too late". Sergei Vasilyevich was in a tailcoat, very serious, and I, of course, was terribly worried. From the church we went straight to the Zealot, where a champagne feast was arranged. After that, we quickly changed and went straight to the station, taking tickets to Vienna.

After a month in Vienna - the beauty of Italy, Switzerland, the wonderful Alps and Venetian gondolas, unforgettable concerts and opera performed by the best musicians in Europe, the marvelous singing of Italians ... And - the Wagner Festival in Bayreuth, tickets for which were presented as a wedding gift by Siloti: "Flying Dutchman", "Parsifal" and "Ring of the Nibelung".

And right from there - home, to Ivanovka. When it turned out in the autumn that everything worked out with the marriage license, they moved to Moscow. There, on Vozdvizhenka, on March 14, 1903, their daughter Irina was born. And on June 21, 1907 - the second girl, Tatyana.

“Sergey Vasilyevich touchingly loved children in general,” his wife later recalled. - Walking, I could not pass by a child in a stroller without looking at him, and, if it was possible, without stroking his handle. When Irina was born, his delight knew no end. But he was so afraid for her, it always seemed to him that she needed some help; he was restless, he walked helplessly around her cradle and did not know what to do. The same was true after the birth of Tanya four years later.

This touching concern for children, tenderness for them continued until his death. He was a wonderful father. Our children adored him, but still they were a little afraid, or rather, they were afraid to somehow offend and upset him. For them, he was the first in the house. Everything went on in the house - as dad would say and how he would react to this or that. When the girls grew up, Sergei Vasilyevich, traveling with them, admired them, was proud of how good they looked. He later had the same attitude towards his granddaughter and grandson.

And at the same time, he managed incredibly much, surprising even Natalya Alexandrovna: “If he set to work, she went very quickly, especially if he composed some text. It wasn't just romances. He composed the opera The Miserly Knight in almost four weeks, walking through the fields in Ivanovka. The work with Kolokols proceeded just as quickly. When he composed, he was absent from those around him. And day and night, I only thought about writing. So it was in his youth, and the same in August 1940, when he was composing his last work- "Symphonic dances".

How much great music was born then - the operas The Miserly Knight and Francesca da Rimini, symphonic poems and choral cantatas - "Cliff", "Isle of the Dead", piano concertos, fantasies, sonatas, variations and rhapsodies, capriccios - on gypsy motifs, on themes of Paganini, Chopin, Corelli. And - the magnificent "Vocalise", presented to Antonina Vasilievna Nezhdanova, and to this day the dream of the best singers and instrumentalists.

And at the same time, there was enough time and energy to be carried away by ... technical innovations and work on the land: “When the Ivanovka estate passed into my hands, I was very fond of housekeeping. This did not meet with sympathy in the family, which was afraid that economic interests would push me away from musical activity. But I worked diligently in the winter, “made money” with concerts, and in the summer I put most of it into the ground, improved both management, and live equipment, and machines. We had binders, and mowers, and planters in most cases of American origin.

Faithful Natasha was a friend and helper in everything, she shared the hardships of long tours, numerous transfers and tiring sleepless nights. Protected from drafts, watched his rest, food, packed things, warmed his hands before concerts - with massages and heating pads, until they came up with a special electric clutch together. And, most importantly, morally supported him, no matter what happened. And in music, they understood each other without words: “When we were in some kind of concert or opera, I was the first to express my opinion about the work or performer.

It usually completely coincided with his opinion. Shortly before the Second World War in England, the conductor who played The Bells asked the author to come to this concert. Sergei Vasilyevich also played that day and could not do it. He replied to the conductor that his wife would come to his concert instead of him and that "what she says will be my opinion."

He called his Natalya Alexandrovna "the good genius of my whole life." Alas, even such a blessed union is not cloudless. Seemingly gloomy in appearance, even gloomy, Rachmaninov was tall, handsome and elegant, and there were always many admirers around. In September 1916, in just two and a half weeks, he wrote six romances with a dedication to the singer Nina Kosice. He accompanied her on tour and did not hide his enthusiastic love, which gave rise not only to gossip.

It is not known how much more suffering Natalya Alexandrovna would have suffered - the revolution and emigration put an end to this story. Far from his homeland, Rachmaninoff will no longer write a single romance. But although the composer perceived the World War of 1914-1918 as the most difficult test for Russia, at first they were not going to leave. From the very first “war season”, Sergei Vasilievich constantly participated in charity concerts and took the February Revolution of 1917 with joy. But doubts soon arose, growing along with the unfolding events.

The composer met the revolution with alarm. Not only because with the breakdown of the whole system, artistic activity in Russia could stop for many years. I had to face the cruel reality in my Ivanovka. It seems that the local peasants were satisfied with the answers and plans of the smart and kind master, but soon they themselves came with the advice to leave: some strangers who muddy the waters and incite to revolt were too frequent. The last straw was the broken piano, senselessly thrown out of the window of the "master's house".

Sergei Rachmaninov - emigration

In December 1917, Rachmaninov and his family went on tour to Sweden. And he never returned to Russia. It was a tragedy: “Having left Russia, I lost the desire to compose. Having lost my homeland, I lost myself.” First, the Rachmaninovs settled in Denmark, where the composer gave many concerts to earn a living, and in 1918 they moved to America, where Sergei Vasilyevich's concert activity continued without interruption for almost 25 years with overwhelming success.

The listeners were attracted not only by Rachmaninov's high performing skills, but by the very manner of his playing, external asceticism, behind which the bright nature of a genius was hidden. “A person capable of expressing his feelings in such a manner and with such force must, first of all, learn to master them perfectly, to be their master ...” - the reviewers admired.

And he suffered: “I'm tired of America. Just think: to give concerts almost every day for three months in a row. I played only my works. The success was great, they forced to encore up to seven times, which is a lot for the local public. The audience is surprisingly cold, spoiled by tours of first-class artists, always looking for something unusual, unlike others. The local newspapers are sure to note how many times they were called, and for a large public this is a measure of your talent.

In exile, Rachmaninov almost stopped conducting performances, although he was invited to lead the Boston symphony orchestra, and later by the Cincinnati City Orchestra. Only occasionally stood at the console, performing his own compositions. However, he admitted: “What pleasantly struck and deeply touched me in America was the popularity of Tchaikovsky. A cult has been created around the name of our composer. Not a single concert passes without the name of Tchaikovsky in the program.

And what is most surprising of all, the Yankees, perhaps, feel and understand Tchaikovsky better than us Russians. Positively, every note of Tchaikovsky says something to them. Musical education well done in America. I visited conservatories in Boston and New York. Of course, they showed me the best students, but a good school is visible in the very manner of performance.

This, however, is understandable - the Americans are not stingy with writing out the best European virtuosos and paying colossal fees for teaching. And in general, in the staff of professors of their conservatories 40% of foreigners. The orchestras are also good. Especially in Boston. This is without a doubt one of the best orchestras in the world.

However, it is 90% foreigners. The wind instruments are all French, but the strings are in the hands of the Germans.” And about pianists, he said that the world is not in danger of being left without great virtuosos with impeccable technique. It is strange that no one was so required to perform modern music as they were from Sergei Vasilyevich. But he did not go further than the works of Debussy, Ravel and Poulenc. He strongly objected to the prevailing opinion that this was a further stage in the development of musical art.

He believed that, on the contrary, it was a regression, he did not believe that something significant could grow out of this direction, because the modernists lacked the main thing - the heart. He said that he did not understand and did not accept such compositions, that the fans of “modern” only pretended to understand something in them: “Heine once said: “What takes life, music returns.” He wouldn't say that if he heard today's music. Most of the time it does nothing. Music is supposed to bring relief, it should have a cleansing effect on the minds and hearts, but modern music does not do this.

If we want real music, we need to go back to the basics that made the music of the past great. Music cannot be limited to color and rhythm; it should reveal deep feelings... The only thing I try to do when I compose music is to make it directly and simply express what is in my heart.” And he added: “In countries that are especially rich folk songs naturally develops great music. Giving concerts in America and Europe, Rachmaninoff achieved great artistic and material well-being.

But even in his crazy busyness, he did not find the lost peace of mind, he did not forget about his Motherland for a minute. He was unshakably negative about the Bolshevik government, but closely followed the development of Soviet culture, gave charity concerts, helped not only his comrades in the profession, but, for example, the helicopter designer Sikorsky, meeting him in America, listened with enthusiasm to stories about new aircraft.

In 1930, the Rachmaninovs bought an estate near Lucerne and named it Senar, combining the first two letters of the names Sergei and Natalya and the first letter of the last name. “Our house was built on the site of a large rock that had to be blown up,” the composer’s wife wrote. - For two years, while this house was being built, we lived in a small outbuilding. The workers came at 6 o'clock in the morning and began to work with some kind of drills. The hellish noise did not let me sleep. But Sergei Vasilyevich was so passionate about construction that he treated it condescendingly.

He liked to examine all the plans with the architect, walked with him around the building with pleasure, and was even more interested in talking with the gardener. The entire empty area in front of the future house had to be filled with huge blocks of granite left over from the explosion of the rock. It was covered with earth and sown with grass. After two or three years, the site turned into a magnificent green meadow. While the house was being built, Russian friends often came to our wing: Horowitz and his wife, the violinist Milstein, the cellist Pyatigorsky and others.

There was a lot of good music these days." And the owner also liked to solemnly demonstrate technical innovations: an elevator, a vacuum cleaner and a toy railway. Cars were his special passion. “Rakhmaninov was very fond of driving a car,” recalled the famous violinist Nathan Milstein. “I bought a new Cadillac or Continental every year because I didn’t like to mess around with repairs.”

In the very first year in the new house - in 1935 - Rachmaninov composed one of his best works - Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra. In the next two summers he completed his Third Symphony. Unfortunately, he did not get to see Senar after the 1939-1945 war. He would be amazed to see how unusually beautiful all his plantings grew. Didn't see. With the beginning of a new war, the composer and his wife returned to America.

Rachmaninoff was one of the representatives of the Russian intelligentsia who signed an appeal to the citizens of America in 1930 against the intention of the US government to officially recognize the Soviet Union with the existing power there. But with the outbreak of World War II, he was one of the first to decide "to show by example to all Russians that it is necessary at such a time to forget disagreements and unite to help the exhausting and suffering Russia."

In 1941, the entire collection from charity concert in New York, he handed over to the Soviet consul V. A. Fedyushin, writing in a cover letter: “From one of the Russians, all possible assistance to the Russian people in their struggle against the enemy. I want to believe, I believe in complete victory!” There were other concerts to help the motherland fighting the Nazis. And the ocean steamer brought food and medicine to the compatriots.

In 1942, the 50th anniversary of Rachmaninov's artistic activity was celebrated, but the hero of the day forbade relatives and friends to talk about it. Not only because he did not like banquets and toasts, he considered the celebration inappropriate when blood was shed at the fronts. However, in prosperous America, few people remembered the anniversary of Rachmaninoff, only representatives of the Steinway company presented him with a magnificent piano. But in the warring homeland, an exhibition dedicated to the life and work of the composer opened at the Bolshoi Theater.

The last years of the life of Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff

The last concert season, despite feeling unwell, Rachmaninoff began on October 12, 1942. And on February 1, 1943, 25 years after arriving in America, during the next tour, he and his wife were given American citizenship. On February 11, Sergei Vasilievich played Beethoven's First Concerto and his Rhapsody in Chicago under the baton of Stock. The hall was packed, when the orchestra greeted Rachmaninov with a carcass, and the audience stood up. “He played wonderfully,” his wife wrote, “but he felt bad, complained of severe pain in his side.”

And on February 17, 1943, it took place last concert, after which he was forced to interrupt the tour. “The disease progressed so quickly that even Dr. Golitsyn, who visited him daily, was surprised,” recalled Natalya Aleksandrovna. - Sergey Vasilyevich could not eat at all. Heartbeats began. Somehow, in a semi-consciousness, Sergei Vasilievich asked me: “Who is playing?” - "God is with you, Seryozha, no one plays here." - "I hear music."

Another time, Sergei Vasilyevich, raising his hand above his head, said: "Strange, I feel as if my aura is separated from my head." But also in last days, rarely regaining consciousness, asked Natalya Alexandrovna to read him reports from the Russian front. Upon learning of the victory at Stalingrad, he whispered: “Thank God!”

“Three days before his death, the patient began to lose consciousness; sometimes he was delirious, - Dr. Golitsyn recalled, - and in delirium he moved his hands, as if conducting an orchestra or playing the piano. I can’t help but recall that special feeling that I experienced every time I took his hand to check the pulse, I sadly thought that these beautiful thin hands would never again touch the keys and give that pleasure, that joy that they gave people in continuation of fifty years.

“On March 26, Dr. Golitsyn advised calling a priest for communion,” his wife wrote. - Father Gregory communed him at 10:00 in the morning (he also buried him). Sergei Vasilyevich was already unconscious. On the 27th, around midnight, the agony began, and on the 28th, at one in the morning, he quietly died. He had a remarkably calm and good expression on his face. In the morning he was transported to the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God of the Salvation of the Perishing somewhere on the outskirts of Los Angeles. In the evening there was the first memorial service. A lot of people gathered. The church was full of flowers, bouquets, wreaths. Whole bushes of azaleas were sent by Steinway.

For the funeral service we brought two flowers from our garden and put them on the hands of Sergei Vasilyevich. The choir of the Platov Cossacks sang well. They sang some especially beautiful "Lord, have mercy." For a whole month after the funeral, I could not get rid of this hymn ... The coffin was zinc, so that later, someday, it could be transported to Russia. He was temporarily placed in the city mausoleum. At the end of May, Irina and I managed to buy a plot of land for the grave at the cemetery in Kensico. On the grave, at the head, grows a large spreading maple. Around instead of a fence, coniferous evergreen bushes were planted, and on the grave itself there were flowers and a large Orthodox cross imitating gray marble.”

Sergei Rachmaninov - daughters

Sergei Rachmaninov left beautiful daughters, who cherished and cherished the memory of their father. Irina was educated in America, having graduated from college and became fluent in English and French. In 1920-30 she lived in Paris. Here in 1924 she married Prince Pyotr Grigoryevich Volkonsky, an artist, the son of an emigrant. But family happiness was short-lived, a year later Volkonsky died suddenly at the age of 28.

Tatyana graduated from a gymnasium in New York, and since the 1930s she lived in Paris, where she married the son of a famous music teacher, violinist and composer, who studied with Rachmaninoff at the Moscow Conservatory, Boris Konyus. During the war, she remained in Paris, looked after her parents' estate in Switzerland and subsequently inherited it. Then Senar and Rachmaninov's archive were inherited by her son, the only grandson of the great composer Alexander Rachmaninov-Konius. He organized the Rachmaninoff Competitions in Russia and the Rachmaninov Celebrations in Switzerland.

Indirect relatives of the composer, great-nephews, showed up in Costa Rica. They do not speak Russian and have only heard of the great ancestor as a pianist and conductor. Having arrived in Russia during the years of perestroika, due to the troubles of the wife of the Soviet ambassador at the invitation of the Soviet Cultural Fund, they were amazed at how Rakhmaninov was revered in his homeland. At the same time, negotiations began with Alexander Rachmaninoff-Konius on the purchase by Russia of the Senar estate with an invaluable archive. Unfortunately, the issue has not been resolved to this day. Like another, equally, if not more important, to fulfill last will Sergei Vasilyevich to return to his native land.

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 was 4 years old, she began to conduct music lessons with him. And they didn't go unnoticed.

S. V.: studying at the conservatory

When Serezha was 9 years old, his family moved to the northern capital. The boy was immediately sent to study at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He got into the class of Professor Demyansky. Three years later, Sergei had to transfer to the Moscow Conservatory, as his parents moved to this city. In 1892 he graduated educational institution c As 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 Theatre.

Biography of Rachmaninov S.V.: first performances

As a talented pianist, Sergei Vasilievich appeared before the public in the winter of 1892. Everyone quickly became convinced of his outstanding abilities. Even then, Rachmaninov's playing was bright, strong, sounded rich and rich, and was distinguished by sharpness of rhythm. The composer's volitional tension captured, conquered and riveted the attention of listeners and spectators.

Biography of Rachmaninov S.V.: recognition and first failure

The real glory to the talented symphonist was brought by his fantasy "Cliff". It was written almost immediately after completing his studies at the conservatory. The press noted the subtlety and richness, harmony and brightness of the work, the poetic nature of its mood. Of course, the individual charming handwriting of Rachmaninov as a composer was already felt in the first experiments. In 1897, his First Symphony failed. Rachmaninov put so much spiritual energy and labor into it and at the same time remained misunderstood by most musicians and critics.

This became a deep psychological trauma for him. For some time, Rachmaninoff was silent: he critically rethought everything that he had created earlier. But the result of intense inner work was a colossal creative surge.

Biography of Rachmaninov S.V.: the first years of the 20th century

At this time, the composer composed a number of beautiful works in different genres. In 1901, Rachmaninoff appears before the public in a completely new light. The second piano concerto showed him as a creator who possesses all the means of the new technique. Another undoubted creative success of Rachmaninoff was the Second Suite. By the nature of the music, in some moments it even echoed the concert. The operas "Francesca da Rimini", as well as "The Miserly Knight" were shown during one evening on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater. They caused a lot of controversy and controversy, although they were met with interest. A separate place in the composer's work is given to romances. The piano accompaniment of these works is distinguished by a variety of forms and brilliance.

S. V. Rakhmaninov. Brief biography: emigration

For the first time the composer successfully toured America in 1909. But then he had no idea to stay abroad. But when Rakhmaninov happened in his homeland, unlike many, he was sure that the old Russia had come to an end, and he would not live 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, from there - to Paris. And since 1935, his family has been living in the United States. Only 10 years later, after a long break in his work, he completed the Fourth Piano Concerto, which he began before the First World War, and arranged several folk songs for choir and orchestra. Rachmaninov was very homesick. He collected Soviet records, read all the press and books coming from the USSR.

Sergei Rachmaninoff. Biography: last years life

The final concert season of the composer opened in 1942. It began with a solo performance in the fall in Detroit. A month later, not for the first time, Rachmaninoff donated a large collection from a concert held in New York to military needs. 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.