4.4.2011 - Rachmaninov

[french frank]

"In this week's edition of Composer of the Week, Donald Macleod explores the life and music of Sergei Rachmaninov. People outside of the composer's immediate circle were apt to find him somewhat morose, but he had plenty to be morose about. He was born into a land-owning aristocratic family at precisely the wrong moment in Russian history. He lived and worked through the turbulent years of the early twentieth century, culminating, in 1917, in the abdication of the Tsar, the October Revolution and the rise of the Bolsheviks - Rachmaninov's cue to leave Russia, with his wife and two daughters, a couple of suitcases and what little cash he had been able to lay his hands on."

Repeated from Feb 2009

[ardcarp]

Interesting that Rach was offered (according to today's programme) a permanent conducting post when he first went to the USA. Instead he chose to keep the wolves from the door by turning himself into an itinerant concert pianist. Had he chosen the 'maestro' route, one wonders (a) whether he would have earned more (b)whether he would have enjoyed a better life-style, and (c) whether his late output as a composer might have been very different. (Though I hope we wouldn't have lost the Paganini Variations!)