Rachmaninov
Page 18
Shortly after the première, President Roosevelt was inaugurated for an unprecedented third term. Rachmaninoff prepared for more concerts, repeating the dual-symphonic programme of the Third Symphony and The Bells in Chicago early in 1941. The Philadelphia Rachmaninoff Cycle and the Symphonic Dances première, together with the release of the recordings, had focused attention again on the composer who, at 68, was becoming a legend. The magazine The Etude interviewed him in 1941, and he gave a clear insight into his attitude towards composition:
… In my own compositions, no conscious effort has been made to be original, or Romantic or Nationalistic, or anything else. I write down on paper the music I hear within me, as naturally as possible. I am a Russian composer, and the land of my birth has influenced my temperament and outlook. My music is the product of the temperament, and so it is Russian music; I never consciously attempt to write Russian music, or any other kind of music. What I try to do, when writing down my music, is to make it say simply and directly that which is in my heart when I am composing …
Photo: RCA.
While Rachmaninoff spoke eloquently of Chaliapin when addressing the Philadelphia Orchestra during the rehearsals for the Symphonic Dances, Nina Koshetz, the dedicatee of the Opus 38 Songs and an incomparable interpreter of Rachmaninoff’s music, was still only forty-six and in good voice. The American music-publishing firm of G. Schirmer approached her in 1940 to record an album of Russian songs, in which Rachmaninoff’s songs would feature prominently. Although Rachmaninoff and Koshetz had not seen each other since 1917, she had pursued a somewhat fitful career, which never quite fulfilled her early promise, since she left Russia in 1920. Madame Koshetz agreed, and signed her contract with Schirmer’s on March 3rd 1941. The accompanist for the album was Celius Dougherty, who was no Rachmaninoff but the vocal performances are incomparable, especially the one song from Opus 38, ‘Daisies’.
The composer with Walt Disney and Vladimir Horowitz at the Disney Studios, Hollywood, in 1942.
The war in Europe spread rapidly. Hitler invaded Russia on June 22nd, and Rachmaninoff, deeply concerned that Russia was again at war, decided to devote the proceeds from most of his concerts during the forthcoming season to the Red Army.
In August he made another transcription, this time of Tchaikovsky’s ‘Lullaby’ (Opus 16 No 1), and premièred it at Syracuse, New York on October 14th. In the event this was Rachmaninoff’s last work as a composer: an appropriate transcription, of music by Tchaikovsky, but an incredible coincidence. Fifty-five years earlier, in another country, another continent, another culture, another century, the 13-year-old Sergei Rachmaninoff began his career as a composer with a Tchaikovsky transscription, the ‘Manfred’ Symphony for piano duet.
Photo: RCA.
The summer also saw the final revisions of the unlucky Fourth Concerto and, three days after the Syracuse recital, Rachmaninoff gave the première of the final version of the Concerto in Philadelphia with Ormandy conducting. He added a new concerto to his repertoire, the Schumann, which he played with his Fourth Concerto. RCA decided to record the Fourth Concerto in December, but on the seventh of that month the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The American losses were considerable: over 3,000 men were killed or reported missing, and over 1,000 injured. The following day President Roosevelt announced that the United States had declared war against Japan. Germany and Italy declared war on the United States on December 11th. Arthur Rubinstein was soloist with the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall when news came through of the Japanese attack. It was a Sunday afternoon concert, with Artur Rodzinski conducting, and Rubinstein spontaneously joined with the orchestra in playing ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’. On December 20th Rachmaninoff and Ormandy recorded the Fourth Concerto with the Philadelphia Orchestra but, unfortunately, not the Schumann. These sessions meant that Rachmaninoff had now recorded all his works for piano and orchestra. After Christmas, Rachmaninoff’s engagements continued with more recording sessions: on February 26th/27th he recorded his ‘Suite’ from the Bach Partita together with other transcriptions by Liszt and Tausig, as well as a second recording of the Kreisler Liebesfreud arrangement, and the Tchaikovsky ‘Lullaby’ which was not released until 1973. Toscanini and the New York Philharmonic gave a series of Beethoven concerts as part of the orchestra’s centenary celebrations. Rachmaninoff attended a Toscanini rehearsal for one of the concerts, and the maestro sought his advice over a particularly tricky passage for strings. Three months later, on July 19th, Toscanini conducted the western première of Shostakovitch’s ‘Leningrad’ Symphony (No 7), composed during the German seige of that city the previous winter.
Rachmaninoff spent the summer on the West Coast, renting a house in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles. Not far away lived Vladimir and Wanda Horowitz and the two great pianists met occasionally to play Rachmaninoff’s two-piano music, particularly the suites, and discussed plans to give a public recital together, once the 1943 season was over. Regrettably, RCA turned down the suggestion to record the suites with Rachmaninoff and Horowitz, so another priceless opportunity was lost. Some years before Rachmaninoff and his wife Natalia were recorded on a disc-cutting machine at Alexander Greiner’s home. This recording of the Polka Italienne has survived, but it is technically crude. Rachmaninoff was much attracted by the Russian colony at the Hollywood film studios: composers, actors, film directors and the like were welcome company, and the Rachmaninoff’s met up again with Nina Koshetz and her family (she had remarried) who were also in Los Angeles. They frequented each other’s homes, and Abram Chasins recalled that hearing Koshetz and Rachmaninoff perform almost all the songs was a priceless and unforgettable experience. Once again, a unique recording opportunity passed by. Rachmaninoff decided to make his permanent residence in Beverly Hills, and to buy a house on Elm Drive.
As he was approaching his seventieth birthday in April 1943, he decided his next season would be his last, and that he would retire from public performances when it was over. His beautiful Beverly Hills home possessed a superb garden: here he would tend his flowers. First he gave a number of concerts (including a Hollywood Bowl appearance) for war charities. The season began on October 12th in Detroit, but he had been suffering from lumbago and tiredness: a six-week break was included in the tour so he could rest. In New York in December he played the Rhapsody with the Philharmonic under Dmitri Mitropoulos, who conducted the Symphonic Dances in the same concert. Only Rachmaninoff, in the audience, could have known of two important self-quotations in this work: towards the end of the first dance Rachmaninoff quotes the motto theme from his First Symphony, the score of which was still unknown and, in the ‘Alleluia’ section, from the Night Vigil. Following the concert a party was held to celebrate Rachmaninoff’s fiftieth anniversary as a concert artist. The tour resumed in February 1943, but he still complained of fatigue and pains and a persistent cough, aggravated by his smoking. After several recitals, he played the Beethoven Concerto and his Rhapsody twice in Chicago. After the second concert his pains increased, but against doctor’s orders he continued with engagements in Louisville on February 15th and in Knoxville, Tennessee, on the 17th. Rachmaninoff was particularly anxious to play in Knoxville as he had been obliged to cancel a recital there some years before. While on the train to Florida he became very ill and, following doctor’s advice this time, the remaining concerts were cancelled. He travelled south to New Orleans for the warmer air, where it was hoped his condition might improve. Shortly after his arrival, however, he took a turn for the worse, and on February 22nd he wrote to Victor Seroff:
Photo: RCA.
… I am ailing all the time. And I play fewer concerts than the number I cancel. Right now, I have cancelled three concerts so that I can go ‘direkt’ to California & & &
With his wife beside him, Rachmaninoff caught a slow train back to Los Angeles; a laborious and painful journey which took sixty hours. An ambulance was there to meet them, and took Rachmaninoff immediately to the Hospital of the Good Samaritan. A series of tes
ts did not at first disclose the nature of his illness. But cancer was suspected, and Natalia took him home to Elm Drive. His daughter and sister-in-law came from New York, and so did Fedya Chaliapin, the son of the bass. The presence of his family and the ministerings of a Russian nurse made his suffering more bearable. Further tests now revealed the terrible truth: Rachmaninoff was suffering from a rare and fast-spreading cancer.
Photo: RCA.
A radio was installed in his room so that he could follow the news of the war. By March 1943 the American offensive was proving irresistible across the Pacific, and the German Army had been cleared out of North Africa. Cheered by this news, Rachmaninoff was encouraged by the advance of the Red Army, following the heroic Russian resistance to the German offensive at the seige of Stalingrad at the end of 1942. After Stalingrad, Midway and El Alamein, the Axis powers were fighting from a position of retreat on all fronts.
Comforted as he was by this news, in the last week of March Rachmaninoff’s condition deteriorated: unable to eat, he passed into a coma on March 26th. The next day a cable arrived from Russia, signed by many Soviet composers, to congratulate him on his seventieth birthday, which was due on April 2nd, but his life was slipping away. Early the following morning, March 28th 1943, the struggle was over.
1 And later composers, including Boris Blacher, Lutoslawski and Andrew Lloyd Webber