Rachmaninov: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 And 4

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Cat No: 8554477

Release Date: 12 January 1999

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 636943447727

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: Rachmaninov

Description
Sergey Rachmaninov(1873-1943)Piano Concerto No. 1in F sharp minor, Op. 1Piano Concerto No. 4in G minor, Op. 40Rhapsody on a Theme ofPaganini, Op. 43Sergey VasilyevichRachmaninov was among those Russian composers who chose exile rather thanremain in Russia after the Revolution of 1917, the consequent civil turmoiland, as it turned out, the years of despotic oppression that followed. He wasborn at Semyonovo in 1873 into a family of strong military traditions on hismother's side and more remotely on his father's. A tendency to extravagance haddepleted his father's fortunes and made it necessary to sell off much of theirland and dissipating his wife's dowry. As a result of this, the childhood ofRachmaninov was largely spent at the one remaining family estate at Oneg, nearNovgorod. The reduction in family circumstances had at least one happierresult: when it became necessary to sell this estate and move to St Petersburg,the expense of educating the boy for the Imperial service proved too great.Rachmaninov could make use, instead, of his musical gifts, entering StPetersburg Conservatory at the age of nine with a scholarship.Showing no particularindustry as a student and lacking the attention he needed at home, in 1885Rachmaninov failed all his general subject examinations at the Conservatory andthere were threats that his scholarship would be withdrawn. His mother, nowseparated from her husband and responsible for her son's welfare, arranged, onthe advice of the well known pianist Alexander Siloti, that he should move toMoscow to study with Zverev, a teacher known to impose the strictestdiscipline. In Zverev's house, however uncongenial the rigorous routine,he acquired much of his phenomenal ability as a pianist, while broadening hismusical understanding by attending concerts in the city. At the age of fifteenhe became a pupil of Zverev's former student Siloti, a musician who had alsostudied with Tchaikovsky, Nikolay Rubinstein and, thereafter, with Liszt.Rachmaninov had lessons in harmony and counterpoint with Sergey Taneyev andArensky, and his growing interest in composition led to a quarrel with Zverevand removal to the house of his relations, the Satins.In 1891 Rachmaninovcompleted his piano studies at the Conservatory and the composition of hisPiano Concerto 1. The following year he graduated from the composition classand composed the notorious Prelude in C sharp minor, a piece that was tohaunt him by its excessive popularity. His early career brought initial successas a composer, halted by the failure of his first symphony at its firstperformance in 1897, when it was conducted badly by Glazunov, apparently drunkat the time, and then reviewed in the cruelest terms by Cesar Cui who describedit as a student attempt to depict in music the seven plagues of Egypt.Rachmaninov busied himself as a conductor, accepting an engagement in thiscapacity with Mamontov's Moscow Private Russian Opera Company. He was only ableto return to composition after a course
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