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Rachmaninoff

Rachmaninoff’s work was scorned by the musical establishment as hopelessly old-fashioned and emotionally over-indulgent but never failed to find popular acclaim—including being used as the soundtrack to the film Brief Encounter. Who was this taciturn genius? This book investigates Rachmaninoff’s intense and melodramatic life.

Hardcover: 288 pages

Publisher: The History Press; First Edition UK edition (November 1, 2008)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0750943769

ISBN-13: 978-0750943765

Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.9 x 9 inches

Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds

Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #3,159,970 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #95 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Sheet Music & Scores > Composers > Rachmaninoff #1323 in Books > Arts & Photography > Music > Biographies > Classical #9628 in Books > Arts & Photography > Music > Musical Genres > Classical

Most of the book is virtually a catalog of what Rachmaninoff composed/played/conducted and when, with critics' comments frequently attached. Only toward the end of the book do we really begin to learn about Rachmaninoff's dealings with other people or his home and family - in other words, what he was like as a man. In the whole book, his sister gets one early mention and his mother three. I'd have liked to have got a better picture of the person.

Rachmaninoff by Michael Scott, The History Press, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, 2008, 226 ff.This recent monograph of the life and works of this great musician was written by Michael Scott, a music critic who is known primarily for his authorship of works on opera singers. It is rather surprising therefore that there is so little in this book on Rachmaninoff as opera composer, even though admittedly this is a relatively minor part of his output. Personally, I relate to Rachmaninoff's operas more readily than I do to those of the Italian masters which, for all the lovely music, seem to me to be a very artificial art-form. The book is arranged chronologically throughout with biographical details and notes on compositions mixed in together as appropriate. There are no illustrations in musical notation anywhere. However, the book is written in such detail that I felt I was living through Rachmaninoff's life with him.Rachmaninoff was born in 1873 on an estate in the village of Semyonov in Russia which is located close to the cathedral city of Novgorod. This fact is highly significant in its influence on Rachmaninoff's music: the bells of the great cathedral appear in musical form in many of his compositions. Rachmaninoff made his reputation originally as a composer of works for the piano, three symphonies, a number of songs and choral works, and three completed operas. However, he was also a brilliant pianist with a large hand span. After he left Russia in 1917 to live in America, his reputation as a performer was such that he had time to compose only another half-dozen works in the remaining quarter century of his life. The book is well written and, provided you are interested in the minutiae of Rachmaninoff's life, it is a useful source of information about both his life and work. But as another reviewer has commented, there is no perspective into Rachmaninoff's personality.

i bought this book hoping it would be a musical anaylsis of rachmaninoff's works-and it was strictly an informative biography. from that standpoint, i can see it being useful. but as a critque and evaluation of rachmaninoff's works-it's fairly useless.

Suite for Two Pianos (After Rachmaninoff): (Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky) The Piano Works of Rachmaninoff, Vol 6: Variations on a Theme of Chopin, Op. 22, and Variations on a Theme of Corelli, Op. 42 (Belwin Edition) Interpreting Rachmaninoff's Variations on a Theme of Corelli, Opus 42: by Employing Interpretivism as Used by Denzin and Lincoln Great Piano Etudes: Masterpieces by Chopin, Scriabin, Debussy, Rachmaninoff and Others (Dover Music for Piano) Russian Piano Music: 44 Pieces by Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Mussorgsky and Others (Dover Music for Piano) Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 & Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 (With Orchestral Reduction for Second Piano) Sergei Rachmaninoff School of Musicianship and Technique: A Guide for Keyboard Performers Rachmaninoff -- Preludes, Op. 23 (Alfred Masterwork Edition) Rachmaninoff Masterpieces for Solo Piano: 17 Works (Dover Music for Piano) Rachmaninoff -- Selected Works (Alfred Masterwork Edition) Rachmaninoff: Six Moments Musicaux, Op. 16 for Piano (Kalmus Edition) Rachmaninoff's Complete Songs: A Companion with Texts and Translations (Russian Music Studies) The Piano Works of Rachmaninoff, Vol 7: Transcriptions (Piano Solos) The Piano Works of Rachmaninoff, Vol 3: Morceaux de Salon, Op. 10, and Six Moments Musicaux, Op. 16 (Belwin Edition) Rachmaninoff - Second Piano Concerto Opus 18: Piano Solo Arrangement (Symphonies/Concertos for Solo Piano) Rachmaninoff Gold: The Easy Piano Collection (Gold Series) The Great Piano Works of Sergei Rachmaninoff (Belwin Classic Edition: The Great Piano Works Series) Rachmaninoff / Preludes Opus 3 No. 2, Opus 23, Opus 32 Complete(Vol.1)) The Piano Works of Rachmaninoff, Vol 14: Piano Concerto No. 4, Book & CD (Alfred's Classic Editions) The Piano Works of Rachmaninoff, Vol 1: Preludes, Op. 3 No. 2, Op. 23, Op. 32 (Complete), Book & CD (Alfred's Classic Editions)