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The American Scholar: The Homesick Composer - Joseph Horowitz

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Sergei Rachmaninoff may have taken American citizenship in 1943, but his heart and soul remained in his Russian past Goodbye Russia: Rachmaninoff in Exile by Fiona Maddocks; Pegasus Books, 384 pp., $29.95 The biggest recent find in classical music was the discovery that in 1940, Sergei Rachmaninoff was privately recorded by the conductor Eugene Ormandy. Seated at Ormandy’s piano, he played through his new Symphonic Dances, which Ormandy would soon premiere with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Singularly, Rachmaninoff never permitted his public performances to be broadcast—so this surreptitious home recording is the best evidence we have of what Rachmaninoff’s legendary pianism sounded like outside the confines of recording studios sucked clean of the oxygen a body of listeners can activate. Rachmaninoff’s RCA recordings are justly famous. They document his imperious, interpretive mastery, embellished with miracles of color and texture. But they are also emotionally controlled. When we eave

The Homesick Composer - The American Scholar Skip to content Book Reviews The Homesick Composer Sergei Rachmaninoff may have taken American citizenship in 1943, but his heart and soul remained in his Russian past By Joseph Horowitz | January 26, 2024 The composer seated at his Steinway, ca. 1915-1920 (Library of Congress) Goodbye Russia: Rachmaninoff in Exile by Fiona Maddocks; Pegasus Books, 384 pp., $29.95 The biggest recent find in classical music was the discovery that in 1940, Sergei Rachmaninoff was privately recorded by the conductor Eugene Ormandy. Seated at Ormandy’s piano, he played

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