Serge rachmaninoff biography
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Biography
Sergei Rachmaninov’s music is characterised by sweeping melodies, virtuosic pianism and heady orchestration. His Moscow training equipped him first and foremost to be a concert pianist but as a young composer he showed prodigious gifts, stunning his mentor Tchaikovsky with the C sharp minor Prelude and the one-act opera Aleko he composed while still in his teens. Tchaikovsky’s influence is reflected in the opera, based on Pushkin’s tale of an urban man seduced by a Carmen of the Steppes. The grand man of Russian music died prematurely in , leaving Rachmaninov bereft. The next few years of late adolescence were painful. An unhappy premiere for his First Symphony, conducted by an unstable Alexander Glazunov, is supposed to have triggered a deep depression cured only by the hypnosis of Dr Nikolai Dahl, though more recent research suggests that Dahl’s pretty daughter was more likely to have been the reason for Rachmaninov’s convalescence. Yet during that time, he worked hard
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Sergei Rachmaninoff
BIOGRAPHY
Sergei Vassilyevich Rachmaninoff was the 5th child of a Russian aristocratic family. His mother, father, and grandfather played the piano, so it fryst vatten no wonder that he showed considerable musical talent at a young age! When Rachmaninoff was 9, his parents separated. The family estate was sold and he moved with his mother, brothers, and sisters to St. Petersburg, Russia. Rachmaninoff was 10 when he as enrolled in the St. Petersburg Conservatoire. There he studied piano and harmony. Upon turning 12, he entered the Moscow Conservatoire where he actually lived in his teacher’s home – sharing a bedroom with three other students and taking turns practicing his required three hours of piano daily. At the Moscow Conservatoire, he also met Peter Tchaikovsky. Tchaikovsky recognized Rachmaninoff’s talent and served as a mentor to him.
Rachmaninoff graduated as a pianist in He won a gold medal for his opera, Aleko a
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Biography
Sergei Rachmaninov (also spelled Rachmaninoff, –) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninov, it seemed, could do nothing right by most of his contemporary critics' and composers' standards. As a person, he appeared somewhat cold and aloof - Stravinsky once called him "a six-and-a-half foot tall scowl".
Life and Music
Sergei Rachmaninov was born on April 1st in Semyonovo, north-west Russia.
Rachmaninov's student years were nothing short of phenomenal. He consistently amazed his teachers with his jaw-dropping ability as a pianist and composer.
In at the age of just 18, he created a storm with his First Piano Concerto, an incredibly accomplished student work.
Music continued to flow from the young genius, including an apprentice opera, Aleko, in
Rachmaninov seemed unstoppable, composing a great run of pieces including the Cello Sonata and the Second Suite for Two Pianos, both in
However, his First Symphony from was roundly