Sergey Rakhmaninov: biography, videos, interesting facts, creativity.

Sergey Rakhmaninov

The name of this great musician is known all over the world, and it can be safely called the “Russian genius”. Sergey Vasilyevich Rakhmaninov was a magnificent pianist who had no equal to himself, a brilliant conductor and composer, who left behind a huge cultural heritage. He created such outstanding works that, with their inspiration, can not leave anyone indifferent. The fateful fate decreed that the maestro had to leave his homeland, but the love for his fatherland, like the love for music, he carried to his heart through his life and reflected this in his ingenious work.

A brief biography of Sergei Rachmaninov and many interesting facts about the composer can be found on our page.

Short biography of Rachmaninov

Sergey Rakhmaninov was born on April 1, 1873 in the estate of Oneg Novgorod province. From a young age, the boy began to show a special interest in music, so his mother Lyubov Petrovna began teaching him to play the instrument from the age of four. When Sergei Vasilyevich was nine years old, the whole family was forced to move to live in the Northern capital, because their estate was sold for debt. The father of the future composer left the family, therefore one mother took care of the children now. She made the decision to give Sergey exactly a musical education, as she originally wanted.

Soon, Rakhmaninov was admitted to the junior department at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. But the boy didn’t work with his studies, because he preferred to spend time on the street, and not at the piano. Then, on the advice of Alexander Ziloti, who was a cousin of Rachmaninoff, it was decided to transfer the young musician to the Moscow Conservatory to N.S. Zverev. This teacher has long been famous for its special system of education of gifted students. He chose from the class two or three talented children and took him to full board to his home. There Nikolai Sergeevich taught students to discipline, the highest organization and systematic classes, doing each of them individually. In 1887, Rachmaninov began to compose and record the first works. At that time, his counterpoint teacher becomes S.I. Taneyev.

Sergey Vasilyevich graduated from the Conservatory in two classes - piano (1891) and composition (1892). His thesis work was the opera Aleko, which he created in just seventeen days. For his essay he received the highest mark "5+". In 1892, Sergei Vasilyevich first appeared before the public as a pianist, with his famous Prelude in C sharp minor, which has become a real pearl of his work.

In 1897, the long-awaited premiere of the First Symphony, on which Rachmaninov worked for a long time, took place. After this concert, which was extremely unfortunate for the composer, he did not compose anything for three years, since the work failed. The public and ruthless critics negatively met the symphony, and Rakhmaninov himself was extremely disappointed. As a result, he destroyed the score, banning ever perform it. Leaving the composition for a while, Sergey Vasilyevich closely engaged in performing activities. In 1900, he returned to his hobby and began writing the Second Piano Concerto. Following him, there are other popular works of the composer. In 1906, Rachmaninov decided to leave his permanent job at the Mariinsky Women's College, where he taught music theory in order to study his creative work.

In 1917, the composer, together with his family, went to Sweden with a concert program, and it was assumed that they would return in two months. However, as it turned out, they had already forgiven their native lands forever. Soon the Rakhmaninov family moved to America. They greatly appreciated the talent of Sergei Vasilyevich and considered him a world-class pianist. He had to work hard and a lot, preparing concert programs, sometimes because of what his hands were very sore.

During this period, Rachmaninov again takes a long break and composes nothing for almost eight years. It was only in 1926 that the Fourth Piano Concerto appeared from under his pen.

In 1931, the Rakhmaninov family bought a plot on the lake in Switzerland, and soon Villa Senar appeared there. It is here that he creates his landmark works - Rhapsody on Paganini and the Third Symphony. The composer wrote symphonic dances in 1940 and it became his last work.

On March 28, 1943, the seriously ill Rachmaninov died in the circle of his relatives in Beverly Hills.

Interesting facts from the life of Rachmaninoff

• Rakhmaninov and his teacher N. Zverev had a conflict over the composition. Both very hard experienced it, and the musicians could reconcile only after the final exam. Then Zverev gave Rakhmaninov his gold watch, which the composer had carefully kept all his life.
• In the graduating class of the piano department, Sergei Rakhmaninov was left without a teacher, since A. Siloti left the conservatory, and his student did not want to change his tutor. As a result, he had to independently prepare a graduation program, with which he brilliantly performed on the exam.
• Since Rachmaninov graduated from two departments at once with distinction, he was awarded the Grand Gold Medal.
• When were the rehearsals of the first opera "Aleko", to the beginning composer approached P.I. Chaikovsky and offered to perform an essay by Rachmaninov along with his new play "Iolanthe"if he does not mind. From happiness and delight Rachmaninoff could not even utter a word.
• From the biography of Rachmaninoff, we know that in 1903 Rachmaninov married Natalia Satina, who was his cousin. Because of this, the musician even had to forgive the "Highest permission" for marriage.

• The composer admitted that the failure of the first symphony upset him not because of negative reviews, but because he himself didn’t like the composition at the first rehearsal, but he didn’t fix anything.
• Despite the fact that Rakhmaninov spent the last decades of his life in the United States, he refused the citizenship of this state, because he did not want to renounce his homeland.
• Villa "Senar" was named after the first syllables of the names of Sergei Vasilyevich and his wife Natalia Rakhmaninov. This place was special for the composer, he even specially brought Russian birch trees there, and the estate itself was created in the national style.

• When the Great Patriotic War began, Rakhmaninov experienced this very hard, and even one of the fees for his speech (the amount was about 4 thousand dollars) he gave to support the Soviet army. Other famous musicians immediately followed his example.
• Rachmaninov’s extraordinary talent was transferred to him from his grandfather Arkady Alexandrovich, who was not only an excellent pianist, but also composed small piano works.
• Since childhood, Sergei Vasilyevich had a fantastic memory. He could easily perform from memory a piece, even if he heard it only once.
• He also performed as Rakhmaninov as a conductor, with all of his productions ("Prince Igor"Borodin,"Mermaid"Dargomyzhsky and others) became the benchmark.
• In addition to good memory, the composer had another unique feature, which was noted by many researchers of his life and work. He could easily cover 12 white keys on the piano at once, which was beyond the power of many famous pianists.
• With the money transferred by Rakhmaninov to his homeland during World War II, an airplane was built for the army.
• The composer really wanted to visit his home country once again, there is information that he tried to do this shortly before his death, however, he was not allowed to go.
• On his favorite instrument, Rachmaninov worked daily, right up to the end of his life.
• Sergey Vasilyevich didn’t like the attention of reporters and photographers and he always preferred to avoid meeting with a crowd of journalists.
• Few people know from music lovers, but the melody of the famous single "All by myself", performed by the popular singer Celine Dionwas borrowed from Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto. The song's author, Eric Carmen, believed that the heritage of the great composer was a national treasure, but soon he had to settle all the issues with the heirs of the maestro for a long time. Moreover, he even had to specify the name of Rachmaninoff, as the real author of the song.

• Rachmaninov’s biography states that the young composer was very amorous, and he often had strong feelings for girls. So, one of his hobbies was Vera Skalon, whom he met at the age of 17. It was to this girl that he dedicated several of his works: "Into the Silent Night of the Secret", part 2 of the First Piano Concerto. And he called his beloved Rachmaninoff Verochka or "My Psycho". Interestingly, almost simultaneously he falls in love with the wife of his friend Anna Lodyzhenskaya and also composes romances for her.
• Few people know, but during his lifetime Rachmaninov patented a special device for pianists - a hot-water muff in which performers could warm their hands before an important performance.

Creativity Rachmaninoff

The creative look of Sergei Vasilyevich is extraordinarily multifaceted, because throughout his life he turned to the most diverse musical genres and in each of them he left real masterpieces. There is one common feature that invisible thread unites all his works - this is love for the Motherland and a connection with Russian culture. It is no secret that it was the image of his native land that was central to his work. Most surprisingly, Rachmaninov did not compose historical works or software that were associated with historical themes. But this did not prevent him from expressing the full depth of patriotic feelings in his music. Another distinctive feature of Rachmaninov is lyricism, a big role in his work is given to a song, a drawn-out melody.

Unusual habits and statements of a true musician

• Very often the composer noted that he was only 85 percent a musician. If they were interested in what happened to the remaining 15, then Rachmaninov answered that he was also a man.
• Sergey Vasilyevich very hard experienced the failure of his works, but a successful performance could also cause him creative doubts. One day, after a successful performance, he was forced to lock himself in the dressing room so that he would not see anyone. When the maestro opened the door, he immediately asked that he not be told anything about the concert, since he was not a musician, but a shoemaker.
• Despite the large fees for their performances, Rakhmaninov preferred to dress modestly enough that many journalists of that time noticed. But this did not prevent him from keeping the latest models of expensive cars in his garage.
• Rachmaninoff always treated his hands with care, many contemporaries noted that he had very beautiful ones. Even the buttons on his shoes before concerts always fastened his spouse so that he would not hurt his fingers.
• Rachmaninov was demanding not only to himself, but also to the public. He especially didn’t like when in the hall they began to cough and talk during his performance. He expressed his dissatisfaction with the fact that he could miss several variations in the work.

Films about Rachmaninov

The personality of the famous musician has always attracted the attention of filmmakers, who, according to Rachmaninov’s biography, have shot a sufficient number of paintings that tell about the composer’s life.

In the film "Poem about Wings" (1980), directed by Daniil Khrabrovitsky, tells about Soviet aviation, nevertheless, quite often the figure of Sergei Rakhmaninov, played by Oleg Efremov, appears in the picture.

In 1992 Tsentrnauchfilm studio released the tape "Portrait of Rachmaninoff" in two parts. The film is directed by A. Kosachev.

The film "Sergei Rachmaninov. Two Lives" can be called the first film about the composer, which covered the entire life path of the musician. It is noteworthy that the grandson of a talented artist Alexander Rakhmaninov was directly involved in creating the picture. The film shows Sergei Vasilyevich’s two lives - in his homeland and in the USA. This picture is especially interesting because it contains rare materials and information that we managed to obtain from personal conversations with Rachmaninov’s family and friends. Very accurately tells about his life abroad and creative ways.

In 2003, Andrei Konchalovsky shot the documentary "Sergei Rachmaninoff", which was included in the series "Geniuses". The picture introduces the audience with rare footage from the life of a famous musician. Konchalovsky himself confessed that this was his favorite composer, endowed with a strong, real Russian character.

In 2007, Pavel Lungin released his film “The Branch of Lilacs”, which was timed to the 135th anniversary of the musician. First of all, this is a feature film, where real facts and scriptwriter's fiction very closely interact. Even at the very end of the tape there is a note that events are fiction, however, like the main character himself. Nevertheless, this film deserves the attention of all lovers and admirers of Rachmaninoff’s talent. From the very first minute onlookers plunge into the world of music, finding themselves at the maestro’s concert at Carnegie Hall. The magnificent play of actors (Evgeny Tsyganov, Victoria Tolstoganov), as well as the famous compositions of Sergei Vasilyevich will instantly take all the spectators at that time, forcing him to deeply experience all the moments of his personal life with the main character of the picture.

In 2012, the Kultura TV channel presented a film about Sergei Vasilyevich from the cycle “The scores don't burn.” Artyom Vargaftik in his author's program touched the old Spanish theme "Foley", on which Rachmaninov composed his famous Variations.

Films featuring Rachmaninov’s music

There is a huge number of films in which you can hear beautiful examples of Sergey Rakhmaninov’s work, and every year their number is constantly replenished. We will give just a list of the most popular films in which the music of the composer is found.

1. Dreamland (2016)
2. Zeropolis (2016)
3. Diary of Bridget Jones 3 (2016)
4. The Good Wife (2015)
5. The party is over (2015)
6. Birdman (2014)
7. Paganini: The Devil Fiddler (2013)
8. Ben-Stevenson: Choreographer and his Muse (2012)
9. Miracle (2012)
10. One evening (2010)
11. Choir (2009)
12. Tear (2007)
13. Six Demons by Emily Rose (2005)
14. Shrek 2 (2004)
15. The Bridget Jones Diaries (2001)
16. Petty crooks (2000)
17. Proscene (2000), Sabrina (1995)
18. Short meeting (1993),
19. My Best Friend's Wedding (1997)
20. Gloss (1996)
21. New York Nights (1984)
22. Doctor Zhivago (1965)

Despite emigration, Rachmaninoff always thought about his native land and deeply experienced the beginning of hostilities. The great musician had a dream with which he did not part for a moment. Rachmaninov really wanted to once again be on his native land, however, this was not destined to be realized. During the First International Piano Competition. Tchaikovsky, held in 1958, one of the laureates named Van Cliburn took a small handful of Russian land to America in order to pour S. Rachmaninoff, the great "Russian genius", onto the grave.