Rachmaninov

by Robert Matthew-Walker

  The composer’s hands: a study from the early 1920s.

  Charles Fuller Stoddard’s Ampico Company also approached Rachmaninoff to make piano-rolls, and his first (apart from the abortive German pre-war recordings) issues were cut this at time. He made the Polka de V.R. and his transcription of The Star-Spangled Banner (which he never recorded on disc) in 1919, adding the G minor Prelude and one or two other trifles the following year. Rachmaninoff recorded for Ampico for ten years until 1929, but with only six exceptions, from the thirty-five rolls he cut for Ampico, he duplicated his gramophone performances.

  The three main systems were Ampico, Duo-Art and Welte-Mignon. Of these, by common consent the finest was Ampico, the most sensitive and sophisticated. Many artists, including Lhévinne, recorded for Ampico, but Alexander Siloti and Prokofiev, among others, recorded for Duo-art. Edison’s description of Rachmaninoff’s nervousness in recording—which never entirely left him—seems borne out by the Ampico rolls. The best of them—his later transcriptions of pieces by Kreisler, for example—are superb by any standards, but some are not completely convincing, in spite of Rachmaninoff’s whole-hearted endorsement. This may be due to Rachmaninoff having been caught on an off-day, or imperfections in the restoration of the playing instruments, or Rachmaninoff not being entirely at ease with the system, but the later roll of the most important work he never recorded for disc, the Chopin Second Scherzo, is a strange performance, as reproduced, and it is difficult to believe that is what Rachmaninoff really meant. From time to time, attempts have been made to issue one or more of the Rachmaninoff piano-rolls, but it was not until March 1978 in London that the Decca Record Company re-recorded in the best possible circumstances every one of Rachmaninoff’s Ampico recordings, for issue on three long-playing records, on their L’Oiseau-Lyre label. A remarkable demonstration of the Ampico system occurred on February 3rd 1920, when Leopold Godowsky, Mischa Levitski, Benno Moiseiwitsch, Leo Ornstein and Arthur Rubinstein appeared in a joint recital in New York during which, while curtains were drawn in front of the pianist, the Ampico recording of the same piece took over. No one could differentiate between the recording and the live performance, and the system was endorsed by the most distinguished musicians in the world. Rachmaninoff could not be present, for he was in Philadelphia to hear Leopold Stokowski give the first American performance of The Bells.

  The 1919-20 season had begun on October 20th. Rachmaninoff’s music rarely featured in the programmes apart from one or two works: his encores, however, almost exclusively comprised his short popular pieces, invariably ending with the C-sharp minor Prelude. Although he had sold the copyright to Gutheil (now taken over by Koussevitsky) almost thirty years before, he earned a substantial amount from the royalties of his own recordings of the piece. His concerto appearances were limited to his three concertos, but this was a more important season than the first had been. He had time to increase his repertoire as a recital pianist. He benefitted from his holiday in Paloalto although the whole family were very homesick for Russia.

  The Victor Company had many distinguished artists on their books including Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra, Fritz Kreisler and Pablo Casals. They were now anxious to obtain Rachmaninoff’s services. Edison’s tardiness in replying lost him Rachmaninoff: on April 21st the composer signed a contract with Victor. A few weeks earlier, Kreisler and John McCormack, with Edwin Schneider at the piano, recorded Rachmaninoff’s song “When Night Descends” with violin obbligato. Rachmaninoff was much taken by McCormack’s beautiful personality, for after the season was over he arranged a Russian folk-song ‘The Splinter’ (Luchinushka) for McCormack on July 3rd. He harmonised another Russian song, ‘Apple Tree, O Apple Tree’ for a collection (edited by the American musicologist, Alfred J. Swan) published by Enoch and Company in 1921, entitled ‘Songs from Many Lands’. This was his first meeting with Swan and a further friendship developed.

  John McCormack with Fritz Kreisler, 1924.

  The news from Europe was sad: his friend Nikolai von Struve had been killed in Paris, falling down a lift shaft. Rachmaninoff heard the news at a summer residence he rented in the small country town of Goshen in New York State, about sixty-five miles north-west of New York City. This was another beautiful spot, calm and peaceful. It was soon possible for Rachmaninoff to make contact with relatives in Russia, and he was particularly pleased at being able through his bank to send money to them, including his mother. It seemed possible that he could visit Russia and he began making enquiries.

  A notable musical event in the 1919-20 season was the founding of the Cleveland Orchestra with the Russian-born, American-trained, Nikolai Sokoloff as conductor. In this first season Sokoloff, who had a high regard for and a special sympathy with Rachmaninoff’s music, performed the Second Symphony.1 A particular favourite of this conductor, Sokoloff performed the work in nine of the next fourteen seasons, making the first-ever recording of the work for the Brunswick Company later in the 1920s.

  Rachmaninoff’s contract with Victor began to yield results. He undertook to record a minimum of twenty-five titles over five years with a guaranteed advance (recoverable against royalties) of $15,000 per annum, providing he remained an exclusive Victor artist, although he was free to make piano roll recordings. Victor were keen for Rachmaninoff to record some ‘encores’: the Edison recording of the C sharp minor Prelude had only just been released, so there was no point in a rival recording as sales would have been split and Victor were anxious to pursue their exclusive policy. Rachmaninoff’s initial recordings for Victor in May 1920 comprised his two most popular Preludes (after the C-sharp minor), those in G minor and G major, together with Tchaikovsky’s Troika from The Months. This was a favourite of Rachmaninoff’s who recorded it again in 1928 but the recordings of the Preludes were the only ones he made. Victor’s recording plans were growing: in December, 1920, Toscanini made his first recordings for the company, with the La Scala Orchestra of Milan (at that time on an American visit) at the Victor Studios in Camden, New Jersey. In four days they recorded music by Mozart and Beethoven amongst other composers.

  An Ampico advertisement from the 1920s, showing Rachmaninoff’s endorsement of this system

  The success of Rachmaninoff’s initial seasons convinced him that he would remain financially secure but his nature demanded a place in which to compose without distraction. He was also homesick: although he obtained the necessary documents, his plans to return to Russia fell through as he was now in hospital. For several years he was troubled by what he thought was eye-strain, which he believed was aggravated by composition. However, he had written nothing significant since leaving Russia and the condition had worsened: he agreed to an operation which unfortunately coincided with his proposed Russian visit. The operation was unsuccessful and only analgesics brought relief. It was several years before Rachmaninoff was finally cured.

  His first Victor recordings were extraordinarily successful: the company, quick to capitalise on their find, recorded three more sides in October and November 1920: another Chopin Waltz (Op 34 No 3), Daquin’s Le Coucou, and his first recording of Mendelssohn’s ‘Spinning Song’ (which he remade in 1928). In January 1921 he recorded another Chopin Waltz, the E flat major Opus 18 and his own G-sharp minor Prelude, together with ‘Dr Gradus ad Parnassum’ from Debussy’s Children’s Corner Suite — an astute recording decision, for Rachmaninoff was preparing the suite for his next concert season, by which time Victor proposed to release the record to capitalise on the demand which would naturally follow. In April Rachmaninoff recorded another movement from the suite — the ‘Golliwog’s Cake-Walk’, and two more Chopin Waltzes (one of which, the G flat major Opus 70 No 1, was not released until 1973). It seemed as though Victor intended Rachmaninoff to record all the Chopin waltzes, but in the event he only recorded nine of the fourteen.

  In England, where Rachmaninoff’s music was always well received, Sir Henry Wood mounted the first British performance of The Bells, which was postponed from
the 1914 Sheffield Festival owing to the outbreak of war. This took place in Liverpool on March 15th, when Wood conducted the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, with the Philharmonic Choir, and Doris Vane, Arthur Jordan and Norman Williams as soloists.

  On the Jetty at Locust Point, New Jersey, the composer’s summer home, 1922-3.

  Before entering hospital Rachmaninoff decided to find a permanent New York home. He took an apartment at 33 Riverside Drive, overlooking the Hudson River. For the summer they tried a new location: a house in Locust Point, New Jersey, not far from the Victor Company’s Camden studios, and Lakehurst, which was being developed as an airport principally for airships. At Locust Point the Rachmaninoff’s and some fellow-émigrés established a Russian colony. It was a small consolation for his postponed Russian visit but it was memorable owing to visits from the Moscow Art Theatre, then touring the United States. Chaliapin also visited them, and the Moscow Art Theatre brought Rachmaninoff’s Aleko to the USA. He took a driving test in New Jersey but failed, finding it difficult to cope with the English oral questions and the left-hand drive car (in Russia, his car had been right-hand drive): so he engaged a chauffeur. He chose a Russian for the post, and he also took on a Russian cook when their French chef gave notice. There were many applicants for the chauffeur’s job. Fifty years later, there are still a surprising number of Russian-speaking cab drivers in New York. Another émigrée was Nina Koshetz who, with her husband and infant daughter, managed to leave Russia in 1920. She made her US debût with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra under Ossip Gabrilowitsch, the orchestra’s conductor-pianist since 1918. Sokoloff engaged her in Cleveland and she soon established a new reputation in the United States. She and Rachmaninoff did not meet again until much later, but he gave recommendations to concert agencies and managers when she first arrived in America. Rachmaninoff was also able to correspond regularly with acquaintances in Russia, Morozov and Vilshau, so he remained in contact with his homeland.

  For the new season, apart from adding the Debussy suite, Rachmaninoff planned a programme around various Ballades (he had earlier planned programmes with ‘Studies’ as the link). Now that Rachmaninoff’s new life was firmly established in the United States, and his children had settled into their schooling, Rachmaninoff felt he had secured a stable enough base for further travels. A feature of this season was Rachmaninoff’s first post-war English appearance followed by a visit to Dresden, where he was joined by his wife and daughters, so that they could all join the Satin family, who had also left Russia. During their stay in Dresden his sister-in-law Sophia recalled his daily habits, which included a short sleep in the early afternoon. In London he premièred four of the Opus 39 Etudes-Tableaux on May 20th. Earlier in the year he transcribed the minuet from Bizet’s L’Arlésienne, which he premièred at Tulsa, Oklahoma on January 19th, prior to recording it for Victor on February 24th.

  Rachmaninoff with his daughters Irina and Tatiana.

  Rachmaninoff was deeply affected by the news of a great famine in Russia in the summer of 1921: the United States government made a huge gift of money and food but although humanitarian considerations were important the civil war, whereby White Russian forces continued attacks against the Bolshevik government, meant the anti-Bolsheviks might find their cause helped by this gesture. Rachmaninoff gave many concerts for Russian charities and famine relief and his generosity was much appreciated in Russia, where Vilshau had collaborated with the Russian composer Reinhold Glière to compose a cantata in honour of Rachmaninoff’s fiftieth birthday, celebrated on April 2nd, 1923. The 1922-23 season was his busiest to date with seventy-one concerts in twenty weeks, extending from Canada to Cuba. Because of the travelling, he hired a private railway carriage fitted out as a travelling studio complete with piano. He soon experienced a universal inconvenience: the difficulty of getting a good night’s sleep on a moving train, and he abandoned the sleeping compartment before the tour was over. In the light of this experience he restricted his engagements next season as he also wanted to give more European concerts.

  A further photographic study from the early 1920s.

  Three days after Rachmaninoff’s fiftieth birthday he was again in the Victor studios for more Chopin — the D flat major Waltz Opus 64 No 3 (the ‘Minute’ Waltz) and a Tchaikovsky Waltz from Opus 40. This was his second Victor recording of the Chopin, very different from the first, full of rubato and more of a ‘creative’ interpretation than the restrained character of the 1921 performance. Shortly afterwards Rachmaninoff should have travelled to Australia for a tour, but this was cancelled as he was physically exhausted by the season’s demands. On May 1st he wrote to Vilshau in Russia:

  “… My dear Vladimir Robertovitch, I have received your letter with the many signatures as well as the Cantata. I was very much touched by the words as well as by the sound. Thank you all … I am not going to say more. I have finished my season and my hands are numb …”

  Fully recovered but unable to resume composition, Rachmaninoff began the new season thankful his appearances were reduced by more than half. By the end of 1923 he had given only fifteen concerts and in his opening recital of the season, on November 13th in Scranton, Pennsylvania, he premièred a transcription of the Hopak from Mussorgsky’s ‘Sorochinsky Fair’, although he had not written it down he recorded it for Ampico prior to this première. He completed the manuscript on New Year’s Day, 1924. During a mid-season month’s break, he recorded five sides of solo piano music on a single day (his most productive recording sessions up to that time), December 27th. The previous March he already recorded Moszkowski’s ‘La Jongleuse’ and his own ‘Polichinelle’, so with these December sessions he had exceeded, in less than four years, the total requirement under the terms of his five-year contract with Victor — proof of his earning-power as an artist. The month’s break also enabled him to prepare fully for his most important recording up to then: the second and third movements of his Second Concerto with Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra. This was his first recording of the work (apart from selections from the Concerto on the lost piano rolls) and by choosing the second and third movements the Concerto was first recorded in the form in which it was actually first performed. It was common then for single movements from works to be recorded, but almost a year later, on the following December 22nd, the same artists added the first movement complete. Only one side of the Concerto’s first movement was issued on 78r pm records: the second side was not released until 1973, in a commemorative album, and the third, which completed the first movement, was lost. The other movements were issued complete at the time.

  Rachmaninoff’s first recording of this Concerto is remarkably illuminating: swift, and entirely without the mawkishness often inflicted on it, several commentators have assumed that the tempi adopted were dictated by the playing time of the twelve-inch record sides. This is nonsense: the work was recorded with exactly the same tempi five years later, and the duration of the sides was significantly below the longest playing time then accommodated on a single side by Victor. Stokowski specifically rejected the assertion: Rachmaninoff’s tempi he insisted (also confirmed by Ormandy) were chosen by Rachmaninoff, and not by the record company.

  Several weeks after the January sessions Rachmaninoff and Stokowski were at Aeolian Hall, New York, where, on February 12th, a concert by Paul Whiteman’s orchestra included the première of a work by George Gershwin (as Jacob Gershvine had become). Apart from Rachmaninoff and Stokowski, Sousa, Walter Damrosch, Leopold Godowsky, Jascha Heifetz, Fritz Kreisler, John McCormack, Mischa Elman and Igor Stravinsky all attended the premierè of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, with George at the piano. Ferde Grofé, himself of Russian extraction, orchestrated the piece for Whiteman’s orchestra, and the concert included another arrangement of Grofé: ‘Russian Rose’, based on the Volga Boat Song. After the Rhapsody the concert ended with Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance March No 1. Damrosch was so impressed by Gershwin’s Rhapsody he arranged for Gershwin’s Piano Concerto to be commiss
ioned by the New York Symphony Orchestra. McCormack later recalled Rachmaninoff playing jazz for his own amusement, admiring several jazz pianists, and Rachmaninoff was taken by Grofé’s arrangement of the C-sharp minor Prelude, which he heard the Whiteman Band play some years later.

  At the end of the 1923-24 season Rachmaninoff gave a White House concert for President Coolidge and his wife, shortly after which he recorded Chopin’s Third Scherzo. This was not issued as Victor already had a recording of the piece by Mischa Levitzki. It was first released in 1973 but Rachmaninoff certainly approved the take for release. More likely, the news from the Western Electric Company that a revolutionary system of recording had been invented — the electrical system, which outdated overnight all previous recordings — caused Victor to change their plans. Immediately after recording the Chopin Scherzo Rachmaninoff and his family left for Europe. They travelled first to Italy where they spent a relaxing time in Naples and Florence (free from illness this time!) and journeyed to Dresden. The elder daughter Irina, then twenty-one, graduated from Vassar College that summer and, during their stay in Dresden, she announced her betrothal to Prince Peter Volkonsky.