Rachmaninov
Page 12
In 1917, the Russian Army was very different from that which opened fire on the demonstrators in January 1905: they were now in their third winter of war, and the shortages meant long queues for little food. Although Russia had more than enough food for everybody, distribution was chaotically corrupt. Price inflation was rampant, but wages had hardly risen for three years. Not all soldiers were inclined to follow their orders to suppress the workers. Many sympathised with the strikers and, on the day following the dissolution of the Duma, the Guards regiments mutinied. The same day, February 28th/March 12th, Isvestia first appeared. By then, with large crowds roaming the street, and the army (supposedly fighting a war) in open revolt, and with parliament dissolved, it was clear that drastic and firm leadership was needed. Quite apart from these difficulties, the Tsar was deeply distressed by personal troubles: all of his five children were suffering from measles, and one daughter developed pneumonia. He decided to return to his family, but revolutionaries blocked the railway line. Although Prince Yussupoff (the Tsar’s nephew by marriage) had masterminded the murder of Rasputin the previous December, popular feeling was running high against the Empress: she was German by birth, and rumour had it that she was secretly working for the Germans. That night, in the beleaguered train, the Tsar, acting on the advice of his generals, decided to abdicate in favour of his son. But as the Tsarevitch had congenital haemophilia, the Tsar’s doctor said the boy’s condition forbade such a course. The Tsar then abdicated in favour of his brother, Grand Duke Michael. However, Michael was in Petrograd, unlike the Tsar, and could witness events at first hand. The following day, Michael himself abdicated, and the 300-year reign of the Romanoff dynasty ceased to be.
Barricades in the streets of Petrograd during the 1917 revolution.
That day the revolution was announced to the world King George V, on hearing the news, invited Nicholas to bring his family to exile in England. They were to go by train to Port Romanoff (appropriately enough) on the extreme Northern tip of Russia, where a British warship would meet them. But the plans were leaked and the Provisional Government ordered the Royal Family to be arrested.
Tsarist police taken prisoner by the revolutionaries.
Few could really grasp the implication of what was happening and Rachmaninoff tried, like many people, to go about his business as best he could. On the very day of the Tsar’s abdication Rachmaninoff gave a recital in Moscow for the war-wounded, and a further army concert of Tchaikovsky’s First Concerto under Koussevitsky led to Rachmaninoff offering his fee to the revolutionary effort.
The Provisional Government lacked firm leadership: later, Kerensky gained ground, but his ill-conceived offensive against the Germans was completely smashed. Coupled with the disintegration of the army, the street fighting and collapse of law and order, a feeling of anger and frustration quickly spread. Lenin, with other fellow-Bolsheviks, had returned from Switzerland, followed by Trotsky from the United States: their single-mindedness, following the lessons learned in the abortive ‘July Days’ insurgence, led to the October Revolution. The Winter Palace, the seat of the Provisional Government, was taken, and the same day the Soviet of People’s Commissars was established. By November 2nd/15th, the Bolsheviks controlled Moscow, and on December 4th/17th, Lenin asked for an armistice with Germany during negotiations at Brest-Litovsk. The Russian war with Germany was drawing to an end.
Following the war charity concerts, Rachmaninoff took his family for the last time to Ivanovka but whereas in 1905 metropolitan events had little or no impact outside the cities, at this time all Russia was alert to the news. The situation was so uncertain that Rachmaninoff asked Siloti to use his influence in obtaining visas for himself and his family to leave Russia but, with the country still ostensibly on a war footing, this proved impossible. Rachmaninoff decided to leave Ivanovka and travel to the Caucasus where they spent a fitful summer. The Caucasian regional government disenthralled themselves from central government control and civil war broke out in the region. Rachmaninoff, very worried by the worsening situation and unable to leave Russia, decided to return to Moscow. His final charity recital was in July attended by Marietta Shaginian, who had just married, and who spoke with him for the last time. This also marked his final appearance with Nina Koshetz. He gave his last concerto date in Yalta in September, playing Liszt’s E Flat Concerto. In October, at the time of the Bolshevik offensive, the Rachmaninoff’s returned to their Moscow apartment. What is surprising is that, given his history of demanding peace and quiet in which to work, and living in the thick of revolutionary excitement, he began work on a long-shelved ambition: the revision of the First Piano Concerto.
The new version, a far-reaching re-composition, was completed in Moscow on November 10th/23rd, with the sounds of insurrection surrounding him. By then, Rachmaninoff and his family had been brought into the new regime: his Moscow district had been formed into a collective and he was obliged to play his part by attending meetings and joining the civil guard. He was resigned to his fate when, out of the blue, came an invitation to give concerts in Stockholm. This was the opportunity he wanted, so after accepting he left quickly for Petrograd to obtain visas for the family. As the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was awaiting ratification, and Russia was no longer at war with Germany, the situation had eased. The visas were granted and he delightedly called Natalia with the news. Accompanied by the two girls she joined Rachmaninoff in Petrograd, where the family boarded the train for Finland.
The railway line did not cross the Russian-Finnish border, so they travelled through Finland to Sweden by sledge at night: at the Swedish border they took the train to Stockholm where, after having had their journey further interrupted by being moved into different compartments in another carriage, they arrived utterly exhausted. It was Christmas Eve.
8 Brave New World
Apart from their hand-luggage and two thousand roubles (five hundred being allowed for each member of the family), they possessed nothing. Ivanovka, which he owned and adored was seized: he had no idea when he would see the lilacs at the gate again. His mother and most other members of the family were still in Russia together with his music, his pianos, the orchestras, the Bolshoi, his friends and the workers on his estate, his horses, his pictures, his motor-car and his personal belongings. The things which reassure people who they are, and remind them where they belong, were all abandoned.
But they were safe: tens of thousands of refugees had left Russia during the previous months, many illegally, and a large number suffered in their flight. Compared to them the Rachmaninoffs were lucky. They left legally and it would not be long before he could give concerts: his previous trips abroad had made him friends and business associates. Rachmaninoff’s foreign tours before the revolution now stood him in good stead. They had no money, but Rachmaninoff had ten concerts scheduled in Scandinavia: on the strength of these he was advanced money for living expenses, but Christmas in Stockholm was so miserable they moved to Copenhagen in January 1918 to join Nikolai von Struve. They rented a small flat which was very cold, but Rachmaninoff was able to devote himself to something like eight hours daily practice to be ready for the first Copenhagen concert on February 15th 1918, when he played his Second Concerto. A week later he gave a recital of his own compositions, and then returned to Stockholm for the concerts which had enabled them to leave Russia in the first place. In a series of concerto appearances he played his Second Concerto (adding the Third later) together with the Liszt and Tchaikovsky concertos, and with solo recitals largely of his own music he was able to see the rest of the season through.
The Rachmaninoff flight from Russia was public knowledge: during the summer of 1918 he received three offers from the United States. One was from the Cincinatti Symphony Orchestra and another from the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The third was to give a series of recitals. Both orchestras offered him the musical directorship, great compliments and great honours. In addition the offers were financially very attractive, but Rachmaninoff declined them all.
His repertoire as conductor forbade the acceptance of such posts: his standards were that he could not take on these commitments with little or no preparation. More significantly Josef Hofmann warned him of the intrigue surrounding American orchestral management; in addition, months had passed since he had conducted regularly. The United States was still a strange land although he had many friends there. The previous year three main orchestras in America began illustrious recording careers. In January 1917 the New York Philharmonic under Josef Stransky made their first records for CBS; on October 1st the Boston Symphony under their German-born musical director Karl Muck recorded the finale of Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony for the Victor Company, and on October 24th Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra recorded Brahms’s Hungarian Dance No 6, also for Victor.
Tsar Nicholas was held captive in his own palace at Tsarskoye Soloe before being taken with members of his family to Ekaterinburg where they were eventually murdered by Bolsheviks.
The United States, of course, along with the other allies, was still at war with Germany. Early in 1918, anti-German feeling in America reached fever-pitch. Karl Muck was imprisoned as an alien in March. The Victor Company made no further records with the Boston Symphony Orchestra for over ten years, resuming on November 13th 1928, but for Muck it was the end of the line in America.
The news from Russia indicated that the revolution was not a temporary phenomenon: in July 1918 a series of assassinations of the Royal Family occurred. First, the Tsar, his wife and their five children were murdered at Ekaterinburg, followed six days later by Grand Duke Michael (the music-lover and friend of Rachmaninoff) and the other remaining Grand Dukes. Civil War had also broken out in a confused and chaotic manner. Cesar Cui, the last of Balakirev’s ‘Mighty Handful’, died on March 24th aged 83 and Safonoff also died.
A few months before the 1917 revolution the Tsar took delivery of this unique motor car, specially adapted for winter driving. After his abdication the vehicle was used by Kerensky, leader of the provisional government, and later by Lenin.
Some Russian musicians including Koussevitsky and his wife, Stravinsky and Prokofiev among others, went to Europe, and Paris in particular. But Rachmaninoff thought the United States would afford him a better opportunity so he decided to go to America to find out for himself. He was still short of money but a fellowémigré loaned him enough for the fares for all the family. On November 1st 1918 they left Oslo in a small Norwegian boat, the ‘Bergensfjord’. After a ten day crossing they arrived in New York harbour. It was a Sunday and the city was in pandemonium. The Armistice had been signed that very day and the following day, as they awoke in their hotel, the cease-fire was being celebrated in suitable style. At the Metropolitan Opera House Enrico Caruso and Louise Homer were preparing for that evening’s inauguration of the 1918-19 season, a new production of Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila conducted by Pierre Monteux. The 83-year-old composer sent his best wishes for the performance, which also included the Metropolitan debût of the French baritone, Robert Couzinou.
Metropolitan theatre bill of ‘Samson et Dalila’, 11 November 1918 on the opening night in New York.
It was a day of rejoicing all over the world, but the United States to which the Rachmaninoffs had journeyed was a different country to that which Sergei had visited nine years before. Musically, the country was rich — New York boasted two magnificent symphony orchestras, the New York Philharmonic and the New York Symphony. Its opera house, as we have seen, attracted the greatest singers of the day. At the time of Mahler’s directorship of the Philharmonic, Toscanini was conducting at the Met and recordings had also been made by the Victor company of parts of Metropolitan Opera productions. Outside New York City there were professional orchestras in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cincinatti, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, St Louis, San Francisco and Seattle, with extended seasons, and all of them were conducted by eminent European musicians. In the 1918-19 seasons orchestras were being founded in Cleveland and Los Angeles.
There was therefore no shortage of work for a popular artist, as Rachmaninoff soon discovered. As he arrived virtually penniless, he decided there would be little chance of devoting much time to composition. His music was known and, rare among contemporary composers, had reached the hearts as well as the minds of the music-loving public. Since 1912, when laws concerning international copyright were formulated, he was assured of a regular income and recordings of his works had already begun to appear. Mark Hambourg, born in Russia at Bogoutchar in Voronez in 1879, had made one of the first recordings of the C-sharp minor Prelude for ‘His Master’s Voice’ early in 1916, and Dmitri Smirnoff, the Russian-born tenor, recorded a song and Aleko’s aria as early as November, 1911. It was Hambourg who had given possibly the first performance of any of the pieces from Opus 39 outside of Russia, when he played Nos 3 and 9 at an Aeolian Hall recital in London on December 1st, 1917.
Once the Armistice jubilations had died down news quickly spread that Rachmaninoff was in New York, and a stream of friends and well-wishers called to pay their respects. He had the good fortune to engage a young lady, Miss Dagmar Rybner, as his secretary to help with the enquiries which soon followed his arrival. As his English was not at that time particularly good, Miss Rybner proved invaluable. Josef Hofmann, who had recorded for Columbia the Prelude in C-sharp minor less than a month before on October 11th, arrived to offer help and advice, which was much appreciated. Hofmann had already alerted several agents. Fritz Kreisler also called, and their friendship developed leading to notable collaborations. Within a short while life for Rachmaninoff became hectic: offers of concerts poured in and his services were in demand from piano manufacturers and recording companies. He had corresponded during the summer with Charles Ellis in the matter of the Boston Symphony Orchestra proposals, and although Rachmaninoff had declined them he decided to let Ellis handle his business affairs and appointed him his manager and agent.
Caruso as Samson.
Apart from the natural bewilderment which always affects new visitors to New York, the Rachmaninoffs hardly had time to settle in before they fell victim to the Spanish ’flu epidemic, which claimed hundreds of thousands of lives the world over. Natalia was the only member of the family not to succumb. Although Rachmaninoff was still inexperienced in his new life in a strange country, he refused to be swayed by glamorous offers from firms to sponsor their products — but later he did allow himself to be used in this way. He preferred to make up his own mind in his own time and he chose a Steinway piano from the many that were offered him. An admirer loaned him the music room of her home free from the interruptions of hotel accommodation so that, whilst recovering from ’flu, he practiced sufficiently to make his debût as an American resident on December 8th 1918 in Providence, Rhode Island. Rachmaninoff’s technique as a pianist attracted the admiration and envy of many musicians, but he did not have a large repertoire. Although it is not true that he had never played other composer’s music in solo recitals before beginning his new career as a touring virtuoso, he had to work hard to build up his programmes. His superb training and astonishing memory again came to his aid, and with a secretary, a manager, a piano and much appreciated help from all quarters, Rachmaninoff quickly adapted to his new life. Indeed, he had little time for reflection, for such was his immediate success that in his first season, he made no fewer than thirty-six appearances including a recital at Boston on December 15th during which he premièred his transcription of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’. Other notable events were the first performances of the revised version of the First Concerto in New York with the Russian Symphony Orchestra under Modest Altschuler, repeated in Philadelphia under Stokowski, and a recital with Casals when they played Rachmaninoff’s Cello Sonata. The Philadelphia performances marked Rachmaninoff and Stokowski’s first post-war collaboration, and Rachmaninoff was particularly impressed with this orchestra and its already fabulous young conductor.
At the end of the season Rachmaninoff, ne
eding rest from the family’s adventures, made his first visit to the West Coast and rented a house at Paloalto, forty miles south of San Francisco, on the shores of the south-western part of San Francisco Bay thirteen miles north of San José. In this idyllic spot vaguely reminiscent of Lake Lucerne, where the Rachmaninoffs spent most of their honeymoon, they were able to unwind and relax. It was a restful and pleasant time: Rachmaninoff’s first season had been so successful that offers for the next flooded in. In addition, Rachmaninoff learned that several old friends had followed him to the United States including his fellow-pupil from the Moscow Conservatory, Josef Lhévinne and his wife Rosa, and more importantly from a personal point of view, his cousin Alexander Siloti with his family. With these great musicians a large part of the legendary Russian school of pianists transferred to the United States. This emigration coincided with the endowment by Augustus D. Juilliard of a Musical Foundation named after him, including a music school in New York, at which both Lhévinnes — Josef and Rosa, who was herself a distinguished pupil of the Moscow Conservatoire — and later Siloti became professors, keeping alive this precious tradition.
It was curious, considering Rachmaninoff’s eminence, that he had not made gramophone records. Thomas Edison, whose system of recording was possibly superior to his rivals on discs, approached Rachmaninoff with a view to making five double-sided records. Between April 18th-23rd 1919, Rachmaninoff made his recording debût and his first sessions yielded the Chopin Waltz in A flat, Opus 42, and the Theme and Variations from Mozart’s Sonata in A major E 331. The sessions were unhappy as the piano (an upright) was too far from the horns, and Edison commented the piano was not ideal for “this powerful player”. The most important recording in this group was a three-sided version of Liszt’s Second Hungarian Rhapsody, which lasts ten and a half minutes, containing a dumbfounding cadenza by Rachmaninoff (composed some time previously, but never committed to paper by Rachmaninoff, the version was first performed in Boston on January 10th 1919 at a charity concert). It is a pity Edison’s inexperience in piano recording marred this highly significant recording for, although Rachmaninoff was not a pupil of Liszt, his cousin Siloti was (and had published a book in German in 1913 on Liszt) and Rachmaninoff’s performance has special significance. He also made the first of his recordings of the Prelude in C-sharp minor and the Polka de V.R. at this time, in addition to his Barcarolle in G minor from Opus 10, a Scarlatti Sonata transcribed by Tausig and the ‘other’ A Flat Waltz by Chopin, Opus 64 No 3. Three separate takes of each side were made, but Edison disagreed with Rachmaninoff as to which was issued. In spite of the vicissitudes the records, which were released quickly, sold remarkably well, demonstrating that Rachmaninoff had strong commercial potential for a record company. His agreement with Edison was verbal, and Rachmaninoff felt their continuing relationship ought to be put on a more businesslike footing. Accordingly he asked for a contract, setting out several reasonable conditions, but the draft he received omitted them. This was not acceptable to Rachmaninoff and he returned it to Edison for amendment.