Download Ebook Rachmaninoff: Composer, Pianist, Conductor

Do you ever before know guide Rachmaninoff: Composer, Pianist, Conductor Yeah, this is a very interesting e-book to read. As we informed previously, reading is not kind of obligation task to do when we need to obligate. Reading must be a routine, a great habit. By checking out Rachmaninoff: Composer, Pianist, Conductor, you could open the brand-new world as well as obtain the power from the world. Every little thing can be gotten with the e-book Rachmaninoff: Composer, Pianist, Conductor Well in brief, book is really powerful. As exactly what we supply you here, this Rachmaninoff: Composer, Pianist, Conductor is as one of reviewing e-book for you.

Rachmaninoff: Composer, Pianist, Conductor

Download Ebook Rachmaninoff: Composer, Pianist, Conductor

Rachmaninoff: Composer, Pianist, Conductor. Join with us to be member right here. This is the site that will certainly offer you reduce of browsing book Rachmaninoff: Composer, Pianist, Conductor to read. This is not as the other website; guides will certainly remain in the kinds of soft data. What benefits of you to be participant of this website? Get hundred collections of book link to download and install and get consistently upgraded book on a daily basis. As one of guides we will certainly offer to you currently is the Rachmaninoff: Composer, Pianist, Conductor that has a very satisfied idea.

As recognized, lots of people claim that books are the home windows for the globe. It does not indicate that acquiring book Rachmaninoff: Composer, Pianist, Conductor will certainly imply that you could get this globe. Just for joke! Reading an e-book Rachmaninoff: Composer, Pianist, Conductor will opened someone to assume far better, to keep smile, to entertain themselves, as well as to urge the knowledge. Every publication likewise has their particular to affect the viewers. Have you understood why you read this Rachmaninoff: Composer, Pianist, Conductor for?

Maturing from primary to the grown-up, reading publications will let different reasons to think. At some time, we need the book due to the work due date. Yet in various other time, you could read again this Rachmaninoff: Composer, Pianist, Conductor, for not only the work due date need however likewise for excited. So, reads this book your wonderful eager to read. When you have enough to seek for another publication that cannot make you really feel delighted, you will always look for various other sources, will not you? This is why we concern you to assist in locating the best book.

Even we talk about the books Rachmaninoff: Composer, Pianist, Conductor; you might not discover the printed books below. So many collections are offered in soft documents. It will precisely offer you a lot more advantages. Why? The first is that you may not have to bring the book almost everywhere by satisfying the bag with this Rachmaninoff: Composer, Pianist, Conductor It is for guide is in soft documents, so you can save it in gizmo. After that, you can open up the gadget all over and also check out guide appropriately. Those are some few perks that can be obtained. So, take all advantages of getting this soft documents publication Rachmaninoff: Composer, Pianist, Conductor in this site by downloading in link provided.

Product details

Hardcover: 632 pages

Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (January 28, 1990)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0859678091

ISBN-13: 978-0859678094

Product Dimensions:

6.5 x 1.8 x 9.5 inches

Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review:

2.7 out of 5 stars

3 customer reviews

Amazon Best Sellers Rank:

#1,908,809 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Barrie MartynRachmaninoff:Composer, Pianist, ConductorScolar Press, Hardback, 1990.8vo. xvi, 584 pp. Introduction by the author [xiii-xvi]. Indexes [pp. 565-584]First published, 1990.ContentsList of platesAcknowledgementsIntroductionPart I: Rachmaninoff the Composer1. Rachmaninoff and Russian Musical HistoryChronological Summary of Rachmaninoff's Principal Compositions2. Rachmaninoff's Composing Career and Musical Style3. Student Years, 1886-18924. Free Artist, 1892-18975. Moscow, 1897-19066. Dresden, 1906-19097. Ivanovka, 1909-19178. New World, 1917-1943Part II: Rachmaninoff the Pianist9. Rachmaninoff's Career as a Pianist10. Concert Statistics11. Rachmaninoff's Art as a Pianist12. Piano Repertoire13. Rachmaninoff and the Gramophone14. Discography15. Rachmaninoff and the Reproducing PianoPart III: Rachmaninoff the Conductor16. Rachmaninoff's Career as a Conductor17. Conducting Repertoire18. Chronological List of PerformancesNotesIndex of Rachmaninoff's WorksIndex of Persons and Works Referred to in the Text================================================='There is an old Russian saying that if you are chasing two rabbits you may well end without catching either. No doubt this is true and the moral is quite clear: if you are trying to do two things well, you might just as well mess them both up. The fascinating thing about Rachmaninoff is that he ''chased three rabbits'' during his life, namely careers as composer, pianist and, at least sporadically, conductor. The author Barrie Martyn, modestly referred to on the dust jacket simply as a retired school teacher, has done an outstanding job to show that Rachmaninoff not only caught his three rabbits but even more: they were quite amazing rabbits indeed. In other words, Rachmaninoff achieved greatness in each of the three fields his career can be divided into. So far as I know such profundity of musical genius in one person has no analogue is history except for Franz Liszt.Mr Martyn has chosen a fine thematic approach to his mammoth task. He has separated his book into three parts dedicated to each of the ''rabbits''. Their volume and order correspond to their importance: composer, pianist, conductor. Although this study is no biography of Rachmaninoff, Mr Martyn has included more than enough biographical details to put Rachmaninoff's achievements in the right historical context. Considering that Mr Martyn has, in fact, to tell Rachmaninoff's life in a nutshell no fewer than three times, it is notable how adroitly he manages to avoid repetitions. In general, he writes lucidly and very much to the point, without wasting any words and with surprising liveliness for a non-fiction writing. Occasionally, his style is slightly marred by excessive dealing with programs behind the music or by some highly questionable judgments, but, then again, in his introduction Mr Martyn makes no claims for objectivity, and I would rather take a controversial and opinionated writer who boldly defends his views than some mild and meek fellow who constantly shies away from taking any responsibility. Of course lay readers should be prepared for a good deal of music examples and incomprehensible analysis in the first part of the book, but it must be said that Mr Martyn always has many interesting things to say besides the purely musical dissection. Having mentioned that, musicians might find the tables comparing both versions of the First Piano Concerto or the various cuts made by Rachmaninoff and Horowitz in their recordings of the Third Piano Concerto quite useful.The amount of research that must have gone into the preparation of the book is incredible. In addition to meticulous notes chapter by chapter, listing numerous sources ranging from biographies to periodicals to interviews, the book contains simply stupendous statistics about Rachmaninoff's discography, repertoire and careers as composer, pianist and conductor. Also, there are few extremely useful schemes and tables which make many historical, personal or pedagogical relationships quite clear at a glance. These include a chronological table of all Russian composers from Glinka to Stravinsky, with their life spans aligned for better appreciation of the mutual influence they might have had on each other; a family tree of Rachmaninoff's ancestors extending to his great-grandfather, thanks to which one can easily see why the pianist, conductor and Liszt's pupil Alexander Siloti, as well his own wife indeed, were Rachmaninoff's cousins; and a complicated table showing the teacher-pupil relationships about many of the great Russian piano virtuosos, including more modern names such as Horowitz, Gilels and Richter, but going back to the Bavarian-born Adolf Henselt and the wild Irishman John Field who made great careers as music teaches in Imperial Russia of the nineteenth century. The book is also illustrated with no fewer than 28 fine black-and-white photographs, most of them rather rare.Since it has taken Mr Martyn some 600 pages and God (should he exist) knows how many years to write this book, I think we can do him justice only by discussing each of its three parts into some detail.The first part of the book takes well over half of its volume, quite as expected of course since Rachmaninoff was first and foremost a great composer. Mr Martyn starts with two introductory chapters in which he puts Rachmaninoff into the right historical context of his times and summarises his whole career as a composer succinctly and insightfully. Then he goes on to discuss pretty much each composition Rachmaninoff ever penned, from his most famous piano concertos to the most obscure album leafs of his teen years. Yet again Mr Martyn's approach is very original, combining chronological and geographical separation in a most ingenious way. The major chapters are further separated into sections dedicated to each work of any importance. In addition to history of composition and performance as well as detailed musical analysis, these sections also contain a good deal of biographical information about Rachmaninoff's life, usually in the beginning and at the end of each section. On the whole, this arrangement makes it very easy to find the work that you happen to be listening just now and it tells almost as much about Rachmaninoff's life as the inexplicably celebrated biography by Bertensson and Leyda. Besides, Mr Martyn's style is far more succinct and perceptive than that of his colleagues; also very much unlike their promiscuous quoting of letters, he always quotes short excerpts which are very much to the point.Another great difference with the Bertensson/Leyda biography is that Mr Martyn's insight into Rachmaninoff's composition output is infinitely greater. Examples are numerous and here I will give but one that impressed me enormously. Mr Martyn discusses the notoriously disastrous premiere (and its long-lasting effects) of Rachmaninoff's First Symphony in 1897 in great detail and from many points of view, but his most searing observation is the comparison with Igor Stravinsky's own symphony, composed in 1906-07 when he was 24 years old and rather less adventurous than what Rachmaninoff had achieved at 22 (he composed his First Symphony in 1895). Imagine how fabulously ironic that is! Igor Stravinsky, one of the greatest gurus of modern music, actually did compose in his youth a symphony (already an obsolete form in the 1900s!) less modern than one composed more than a decade earlier, and by Rachmaninoff himself at that, Rachmaninoff who was to remain one of the most conservative composers until the end of his life nearly five decades later. One cannot but chuckle. Such subtle touches in Mr Martyn's text are numerous and they really make one re-evaluate one's notions about Rachmaninoff as a composer, to say nothing of his discussing many works of Rachmaninoff that still await their proper appreciation from performers and listeners alike.Another wonderful thing about Mr Martyn is that his attitude is wonderfully balanced indeed. He never raves about Rachmaninoff or lapses into silly hero worship, nor does he follow the shameful practice of many a presumptuous music critic to degrade Rachmaninoff's music because of its emotional appeal, conservative nature or great popularity with the public. It is significant that Mr Martyn often goes way beyond the mere musical analyses and ventures into a fascinating, if not always convincing, exploration of Rachmaninoff's very personality. One of the finest examples of this is, incidentally, one of the few cases where Mr Martyn allows himself a gentle criticism, namely Rachmaninoff's practice to sanction cuts in his own works which date from his early years but developed into quite an obsession later. Finally, when it comes to opinions of others about Rachmaninoff, Mr Martyn is deliciously malicious, the most extreme case being Medtner whose reaction in private to Rachmaninoff's success as a concert pianist is mercilessly exposed in all its brutal bluntness: he ''prostituted himself for the dollar''. Regrettably, Mr Martyn does not demolish Medtner's claim - which is perhaps too preposterous for that. Nevertheless, if I am allowed a dose of healthy cynicism, I would like to offer an explanation for Medtner's inexplicable vitriol considering his deep and mutual friendship with Rachmaninoff. I believe it is mere envy: poor Medtner could probably never get over the enormous success with the public, if not with the critics, that Rachmaninoff's music always had. Despite a lot of effort from great pianists such as Horowitz and Gilels, not to mention Rachmaninoff himself, Medtner's music remains firmly outside the standard repertoire and there is little chance that it will ever get into it.*Last but not least among the advantages of Mr Martyn's treatment of Rachmaninoff's compositions is his fairly detailed analysis of one part of his output that has always been - and still is - badly neglected: Rachmaninoff's transcriptions. These are mostly, but not exclusively, unabashedly virtuoso showpieces designed for encores, but they often show extraordinary ingenuity at transforming other composers' music. And they tell us a good deal of Rachmaninoff himself. Few of his letters show more eloquently his sense of humour than his utterly charming transcriptions of Kreisler's ''Liebesleid'' and ''Liebesfreud''. Mr Martyn has it too, as clearly shown by his referring to the few parts of Bach's violin partitas that Rachmaninoff transcribed for solo piano as works of a new composer: Bachmaninoff. The pun is well-known of course, but few dare print it in a book.It need also be mentioned that considering the very limited space at his disposal, Mr Martyn has brought to life the most important musicians of Rachmaninoff's time with spectacular vividness. Most of these are characters indeed. Perhaps the most memorable of these is Rachmaninoff's first serious piano teacher, Nikolai Zverev, whose family name literally means ''like a beast'' and that's why his pupil were known as the ''cubs''. The man had a highly unorthodox system of teaching too. He took three boys to live with him in his house where, among other things, they could meet and play for the cream of Moscow's musical life at the time, including even Tchaikovsky himself. In return to board and lodging, not to mention a constant stream of tickets for concerts and operas, Zverev demanded total submission from the boys, complete separation from their families and rigorous practicing at the piano coupled with a great deal of cultural education. Considering the advantages he offered, the price was indeed a small one; every boy who played the piano wanted to be among the ''cubs'', but only the most talented were allowed. It is difficult to overestimate the impact of Zverev over Rachmaninoff. The discipline and culture he instilled in his pupil remained with the composer for life. Before becoming one of the ''cubs'', the young Serge had been a rather indolent fellow who was very fond of doing nothing. Zverev changed that out of recognition, and it lasted for life.Despite the overwhelming abundance of insight, this first part of the book also contains few points of contention which are no big deal, it is true, but their accumulation calls for a comment. One of the somewhat unfortunate tendencies in Mr Martyn's writing is a certain obsession with ''Dies Irae'' and extra-musical programs. Now, it is indisputable that Rachmaninoff did have a life-long fascination with the famous plainchant which he quoted more or less literally in at least several of his works, but Mr Martyn discovers links with it on nearly every page; some of these are rather tenuous, at least aurally, and on the whole the practice, even if rooted in truth, draws attention to a most inessential part of Rachmaninoff's music. As for the programs behind the music, the situation is rather similar here. Rachmaninoff himself said that he was often inspired by different sources such as poems or pictures. Sometimes these are well known and obvious, such as Poe's poem and Böcklin's picture as regards to the eponymous orchestral masterpieces ''The Bells'' and ''The Isle of the Dead'', respectively, but for the most part Rachmaninoff was rather secretive about the sources of his inspirations and speculations about them are rather futile. The most extreme example in Mr Martyn's book is the famous ''program'', apparently confirmed by Rachmaninoff himself, that his etude Op. 39 No. 6 represents the well-known children's story about the Little Red Riding Hood. Mr Martyn's even goes as far as suggesting that the ominous motif bass that recurs through the piece is the wolf's growls, the last repetition symbolising his eating the poor girl. Now, to the author's credit he is well aware of the puerile nature of such hypothesis, but why he bothers with them at all is not quite clear. Even if Rachmaninoff did depict the story in such detail, we are under absolutely no obligation to do the same. Indeed, since the piece is one of the most chilling and sinister ever conceived for the piano, Rachmaninoff must have been a really bad father if he tried to amuse his two daughters (aged 4 and 8 at the time of composition) with such disturbing musical settings of silly tales.Some of Mr Martyn's musical evaluations are another source of vexation. Surely the most ridiculous of these are his words about Rachmaninoff's early ''Elegie'' (Op. 3 No. 1) which is first described as ''gushingly sentimental'' and later even claimed to have a ''rather sickly sentimentality''. Perhaps before writing such nonsense next time, Mr Martyn would remember Somerset Maugham's dictum that sentimentality in only a sentiment that rubs one the wrong way. Also, he may keep in mind the notion of the eminent modern philosopher Alexander Arsov that sentimentality, like vanity, is the essence of human nature. Last but not least, Mr Martyn surely knows that Rachmaninoff made a piano roll of the piece whose brisk tempo is decidedly un-sentimental. Only slightly less idiotic is Mr Martyn's description of the ''Corelli'' Variations as ''emotionally anaemic'', his point being that all compositions from Rachmaninoff's post-1917 period are far less emotionally expansive than earlier opuses. This is stupendous nonsense too, and so is Mr Martyn's other ''argument'' namely that only one variation (the famous eighteenth) from the ''Paganini'' Rhapsody is conspicuously sentimental. Now, first, this is one of the longest and most important variations in the work and, secondly, there are many passages in the aforementioned ''Corelli''Variations which are among Rachmaninoff's most tender and lyrical moments. And what of the middle parts of all three movements that comprise the Symphonic Dances, Rachmaninoff's last work, composed as late as 1940: all of them are among his most sentimental (in the best sense of the word!) and affecting passages. Mr Martyn finely analyses the complex reasons - a combination of nostalgia and monstrous concert schedule - why Rachmaninoff composed but six major works in the last 26 years of his life, but he misses the point with these bogus claims about ''emotional anaemia''. And the point is that five of these six works (excluding, perhaps justly, the Fourth Piano Concerto) are definitely among Rachmaninoff's finest creations.Never mind. Occasionally Mr Martyn is quite annoying but on the whole his foolishness is greatly outweighed by his perceptiveness.Mr Martyn's discussion of Rachmaninoff as a pianist is no less exhaustive and meticulously researched. It baffles the imagination that Rachmaninoff became a world famous piano virtuoso only in his late years, after in 1917 he had left Russia for good, but it happens to be true. Until then he had, of course, appeared many times in recital or as a soloist of orchestra, but almost exclusively in his own works and certainly never thought of making it his primary occupation. But after leaving his homeland he had to. How at 45 Rachmaninoff could build a huge concert repertoire almost from scratch and turn himself into the greatest pianist of a time that teemed with fabulous virtuosi is one of the major miracles of musical history.In addition to his detailed analysis of Rachmaninoff very unusual career as a concert pianist and the unique characteristics of his art at the keyboard, Mr Martyn has provided some stunning statistics. The chapter ''Concert Statistics'' is the shortest in the book, yet it is the most shattering as well. From 1888 to 1917, and then season by season until Rachmaninoff's death in March 1943, it lists the number of all concert appearances, including piano recitals as well as appearances as a soloist or conductor. The figures are extremely telling. During a career that spanned some 55 years (1888-1943) Rachmaninoff walked on the concert stage no fewer than 1643 times, 1019 of which were in 221 cities in North America alone (USA, Canada, and twice even in Cuba), and of these all but 26 date before 1918. And of these 1643 concert appearances, no fewer than 1432 were as a pianist, either in solo recital or as a soloist of an orchestra (there are but few chamber concerts he participated into as well). In stark contrast to this, Rachmaninoff's conducting career was far more modest (191 appearances) and was done almost exclusively in pre-1917 Russia (173 appearances). Not the least astounding thing about Rachmaninoff is that between 1918 and 1943 he used to play, on the average, some 50 times in front of an audience each season. Many of these seasons included both recitals and concerto performances as well as both the New World and Western Europe. Even more amazingly, as accurately noted by Mr Martyn, Rachmaninoff continued to enrich his repertoire with new pieces every season until his death.Indeed, Rachmaninoff's repertoire, though fairly conservative, was nonetheless huge by every standard. Mr Martyn has listed it piece by piece together with the first year any of them was played by Rachmaninoff in public. The table also includes cross references with his two discographies, gramophone records and piano rolls, and it is really painful to realise how inadequate a representation of Rachmaninoff's repertoire his complete recordings are, at least in terms of comprehensiveness. There are, for instance, but one ballade and two scherzos (one of them on piano roll only) by Chopin in Rachmaninoff's complete discography, yet in concert he played all four pieces of each genre. As a matter of fact, Rachmaninoff played in public the nearly complete solo piano works of Chopin, including the Third Sonata and the F minor Fantasy, just two other works he never recorded, alas. The case of Liszt is still more painful. There are but three pieces (the Second Hungarian Rhapsody, Gnomenreigen, Polonaise No. 2) in Rachmaninoff's discography, yet his repertoire of Liszt was enormous, including the Second Ballade, the B minor Sonata, two of the Transcendental Studies (Eroica and Harmonies du Soir), the Dante Sonata, several of the Paganini Etudes, etc., etc. Perhaps the biggest loss for posterity is that Rachmaninoff never recorded a single movement from a Beethoven's piano sonata: he played in concert no fewer than 12 of them complete. The rumour has it that the great Arthur Schnabel, the man who was the first to record all 32 of Beethoven's sonatas, once heard Rachmaninoff playing of these works and flatly stated that it was the finest Beethoven he had ever heard. This might have been mere politeness, but judging from Rachmaninoff's recording of Beethoven's 32 Variations in C minor WoO 32 - well, it might have been the very truth.Rachmaninoff's discography here is the first one to appear in book form, and it is still by far the most comprehensive one available anywhere. Of course it is dated in terms of modern CD releases, and you will not find here anything about RCA's 10 CDs box set with Rachmaninoff's complete recordings or the two CDs in the series ''A Window in Time'' on which Rachmaninoff's piano rolls can be heard digitally (and miraculously) reproduced, but that is to be expected of course: none of these editions existed back in 1990. Otherwise the amount of detail is staggering: every session and every recording Rachmaninoff ever made is meticulously listed, including numerous alternative takes of the same work; some of these Rachmaninoff approved for released, others he didn't, third part he marked to ''hold'' as he wanted to re-record them later. What becomes immediately obvious is that quite often Rachmaninoff recorded the same piece over and over again, apparently never satisfied with the final results. Considering all that, it is a miracle that he recorded as much as he did and that, for all we know, his playing has captured something of his magical spell in the concert hall.Regrettably, but understandably, Mr Martyn does not have the space to discuss in detail all of Rachmaninoff's recordings, but his historical overview is very perceptive none the less for that. He gives explanations about many important matters that other authors, Bertensson and Leyda in particular, pass without notice. Mr Martyn makes no bones about the lack of perspicacity, not to say the abundance of arrogance, that was typical for the recording companies of the time and which was largely responsible for Rachmaninoff's meagre recording fare during the 1930s; in stark contrast, the 1920s had been extremely productive. Most important of all, Mr Martyn throws a welcome light upon one very complicated issue. There have long been speculations about Rachmaninoff's recordings of pieces such as Liszt's ''Au bord d'une source'', Rapsodie Espagnole, one of the Paganini etudes or the third piece from the set ''Liebesträume''. As it seems, these were indeed recorded, together with a movement from a Beethoven's sonata, but since they were not approved for release by Rachmaninoff, a notorious perfectionist he was, they were destroyed and the chances that some copy might just turn up are negligible. Even more amazingly, there seems to have existed Rachmaninoff's recording of Liszt's Second Ballade, recorded in 1931 by the engineers of the Bell Telephone and by way of an experiment, but these too do not appear to have survived either, even though there is no firm confirmation that they were destroyed. Yet the chances to locate a record in decent condition today are infinitesimal.Despite the lack of space, Mr Martyn does discuss several of Rachmaninoff's recordings in detail. At least one of these cases is quite memorable.Have you ever heard a live performance of Chopin's Second Sonata in which the funeral march in the third movement returns fortissimo after the Lento section? Neither have I. It is safe to accept that no person still alive has ever heard anything like that in a concert hall. Well, that's precisely what Rachmaninoff does on his recording. By modern standards it does sound eccentric, to say the least, many would indeed denounce such treatment as sacrilegious disregard of Chopin's text. Yet the Second Sonata was one of Rachmaninoff's war horses and we have every reason to believe that his recording faithfully represents his interpretation as it must have been in the concert hall - where it was unanimously regarded as one his finest performances. Mr Martyn's analysis is compelling. He is well aware of the vast difference between modern performance practice and the much wilder ideas about interpretation that were prevalent during the first decades of the last century. In fact, Mr Martyn makes a strong case that Rachmaninoff may well have been inspired by the legendary Anton Rubinstein, the greatest pianist (after Liszt, of course) of the nineteenth century, whom he heard in concert quite a few times during his teens. I also find fascinating Mr Martyn's speculations that Rachmaninoff, while playing the funeral march, might have thought of a funeral procession that passes beside him and the fades away. This may be fanciful, but it does fit the dynamic peculiarities of Rachmaninoff's playing.As for Rachmaninoff's career as a conductor, it is rightly dealt with in a rather less space than his activities as a composer and pianist. Still, Mr Martyn makes a fine case that Rachmaninoff probably was, not just a first rate conductor, but a great one. Despite the relatively short, and highly sporadic, career on the rostrum, Rachmaninoff had that magical ability to change an orchestra's sound as well as to illuminate well-known works in a new light with his conducting. The author is probably right that Rachmaninoff could not have been capable of developing the wide repertoire necessary for a long-term conducting career; though he conducted symphonic works from Mozart to Tchaikovsky and had quite a list of operas conducted in the Bolshoi Theater, Rachmaninoff did not, on the whole, have the catholicity of taste to make a living as a conductor. He certainly was wise to decline all three offers for conducting positions that came from the New World in 1918 while he was living in Scandinavia, trying to make up his mind how to continue his life after the revolution. It is somehow intimidating to think of Rachmaninoff as a conductor on the scale of Koussevitzky or Mravinsky. Yet there is enough evidence (including few recordings) that he was indeed on par with such luminaries in the field.All in all, the book of Barrie Martyn is a magnificent resource about Rachmaninoff as a great composer, pianist, and conductor, a figure of Lisztian nature, if not dimensions; nor is Rachmaninoff's ever-fascinating personality neglected at all, for it emerges from the pages every bit as strongly as it does in the Bertensson-Leyda biography. The latter book can thus be recommended only to the most curious Rachmaninoff buffs for an occasional reference in terms of fully quoted letters. But it is not stretching a point too much to say that Mr Martyn's book more or less completely supersedes the semi-amateurish earlier attempt. The tremendous amount of insight into Rachmaninoff's three-fold musical genius more than compensates for the few mundane facts and figures from his life that may be missing here. So far as I know the only other fairly comprehensive study of this amazing man is Rachmaninoff: Life, Works, Recordings (2005) by Max Harrison, which is much newer and contains a most extensive and useful discussion of Rachmaninoff's recordings, but it covers his life and works, to say nothing of his careers as pianist and conductor, in hardly more detail or more perceptive a way than Mr Martyn does. Mr Harrison's book is highly recommended mostly because it is still in print and fairly cheap. Mr Martyn's books, alas, is neither, but I assure every serious admirer of Rachmaninoff's music that it is well worth the monstrous price you are likely to be asked for it.* The Medtner Case has an interesting postscript among the illustrations. One particularly rare picture shows Rachmaninoff and Medtner sitting together, photographed as late as 1938 in the London's house of the latter. The truly remarkable thing is that Rachmaninoff is doing something thoroughly untypical of him: smiling. Medtner's mood, however, is on the other pole: his face is stern and his eyes are cold, as if he could hardly contain his disdain. Maybe he was just annoyed by the photograph.

The book is titled Rachmaninoff - Composer, Pianist, Conductor and is divided into sections which study each of these areas in the great composer's career. Rachmaninoff had many talents and at various times in his life pursued all of them. Composing was his first love, but the disasterous premier of his first symphony almost wrecked that career. After recovering from depression and regaining his skills, Rachmaninoff made a name for himself as a conductor. Then chased out of Russia by the revolution, he became a concert pianist to make a living and earned world-wide fame as an interpretor.Barrrie Martyn's book is definitive in delving into these three lives particularly the section on the composer. All of Rachmaninoff's works are discussed in great detail with musical examples. The appendix contains his entire discography as well as all the works conducted and concerts given. No Rachmaninoff fan or music historian should be without this book.

This is an example of how the author talks about Rachmaninoff's music, seriously! I do not know what to do about such colossal stupidity and lack of heart, but one thing is clear: DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK! Do not read it even if it is offered for free - not if you love Rachmaninoff's music and beauty in general."Works of the first period have a tendency to lapse into unsubtle dramatization and empty rhetoric expressing emotions that seem contrived. The Elegiac Trio Op. 9 written as a memorial tribute to Tchaikovsky on his death in 1893 typifies this weakness: although the minor key is there and the appropriately sorrowful gestures, the overall effect is oppressive rather than moving. Other works of this period are facile and superficial (Piano Pieces Op.10), gushingly sentimental (Elegie Op. 3, Romance Op. 10), or self-evidently not the product of any urgent internal creative need (Piano Duets Op. 11)... Of the six piano Moments, the most effective is No. 2 in E flat minor... the (other) five, unmemorable and repetitive, have been all but ignored by other pianists... "

Rachmaninoff: Composer, Pianist, Conductor PDF
Rachmaninoff: Composer, Pianist, Conductor EPub
Rachmaninoff: Composer, Pianist, Conductor Doc
Rachmaninoff: Composer, Pianist, Conductor iBooks
Rachmaninoff: Composer, Pianist, Conductor rtf
Rachmaninoff: Composer, Pianist, Conductor Mobipocket
Rachmaninoff: Composer, Pianist, Conductor Kindle

Rachmaninoff: Composer, Pianist, Conductor PDF

Rachmaninoff: Composer, Pianist, Conductor PDF

Rachmaninoff: Composer, Pianist, Conductor PDF

Rachmaninoff: Composer, Pianist, Conductor PDF