sergei rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff was born on April 1, 1873, at the family estate in Oneg, deep in the Nogorod countryside. His parents were Lubov Boutakov and Vasily Rachmaninoff. His father, Vasily, was an ex-officer in the Russian army. He had two elder sisters, Elena and Sophia, and an older brother named Vladimir. He had two younger siblings which joined the Rachmaninoff family, a girl named Varvara and a boy called Arkady. Varvara died when she was just a baby. Music was an important part of the Rachmaninoff family tradition. His father and his grandfaher had both played the piano. Alexander Siloti, Rachmaninoff's cousin, was already an acomplished pianist and was becoming popular by the time Rachmaninoff was born. Sergei was six years of age when he had his first piano lesson from Anna Ornatsky. She was from the St. Petersburn Conservatory. Rachmaninoff seemed to have a natural ability at the piano. Anna recommended that he receive a scholarship at the St. Petersburn Conservatory in 1881. He was but 9 years old when he began his formal lessons at the Conservatory. During the next few years he would skip his classes to play games and "train hop", which
By 1917, he and the public both viewed himself primarily as a composer and second as a pianist. Rachmaninoff had his first introduction to composing at The Moscow Conservatory, There, under the instruction of Sergei Taneyev and Anton Arensky, he obtained a better understanding of counterpoint and harmony and began composing on his own. These conversations, along with encouragement from close friends, provided Sergei with assurance and a peace of mind, and he once again began to compose. Shortly after graduation he composed "C Sharp Minor Prelude" which he came to be known for for the rest of his life. It took him eight months to complete this undertaking. His complete works entailed over forty-five major compositions. " Having virtually no money and their family estate at Ivanokva demolished by revolutionaries, Rachmaninoff and his family decided to leave Russia. Over a period of time the dicipline began to pay off as their musical evenings soon attracted many of Russia's principal musicians. By this time, circumstances at home had left Lubov and the children with next to nothing because Vasily had pissed away all of the families earnings. His works still continue to be heard to this day, and are just as soul-stirring today as they were the day he scrawled the first note onto the now yellowed parchment. They made an arrangement that Sergei could continue to study at the Conservatory, at which point the family moved to Moscow. Among some of the more notable guests was Tchaikovsky, whom Rachmaninoff became close friends with. His instructer, Zverev, felt that he was wasting his talents composing at the keyboard. While he might not have been the most influential composer of his time, his skills at conveying the emotions behind the pieces he played far exceeded that of most any other man. The performance was a disaster , which left young Rachmaninoff devasted.
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