Overview

A biography of composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, published in collaboration with the Bard Music Festival.   One of the most popular classical composers of all time, Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943) has often been dismissed by critics as a conservative, nostalgic holdover of the nineteenth century and a composer fundamentally hostile to musical modernism. The original essays collected here show how he was more responsive to aspects of contemporary musical life than is often thought, and how his deeply felt sense of Russianness coexisted with an appreciation of American and European culture. In particular, the essays document his involvement with intellectual and artistic circles in prerevolutionary Moscow and how the form of modernity they promoted shaped his early output. This volume represents one of the first serious explorations of Rachmaninoff’s successful career as a composer, pianist, and conductor, first in late Imperial Russia, and then after emigration in both the United States and interwar Europe. Shedding light on some unfamiliar works, especially his three operas and his many songs, the book also includes a substantial number of new documents illustrating Rachmaninoff’s celebrity status in America.

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9780226823751

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Reviews

""The editor and contributor, Philip Ross Bullock, should be congratulated on producing a collection of articles that adds much detailed substance. .  . . It deserves a place in libraries everywhere and in the collections of those music lovers for whom ‘romantic’ is not a dirty word."" * Slavonic and East European Review * ""Accessible to interested amateurs and music professionals as well as research institutions. . . . The three completed operas yield illuminating individual treatments."" * Opera *

"""The editor and contributor, Philip Ross Bullock, should be congratulated on producing a collection of articles that adds much detailed substance. .  . . It deserves a place in libraries everywhere and in the collections of those music lovers for whom ‘romantic’ is not a dirty word."" * Slavonic and East European Review *"

Author Information

Philip Ross Bullock is professor of Russian literature and music at the University of Oxford and a fellow and tutor in Russian at Wadham College, Oxford. He is the author of Pyotr Tchaikovsky and coeditor of Music’s Nordic Breakthrough: Modernity, Aesthetics, and Cultural Exchange, 1890–1930, with Daniel M. Grimley.

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