Rachmaninoff: Life, Works, Recordings (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by Tammy Ravas University of Houston Rachmaninoff: Life, Works, Recordings. By Max Harrison. London: Continuum, 2005. [vi, 422 p. ISBN 0-826-45344-6. $21.95.] Bibliography, discography, indexes, music examples. While better known for his writings on jazz, Max Harrison has penned reviews of classical music and took at least nine years to craft this updated biography, which focuses on Rachmaninoff's works and recordings (Paul Baker, "Max Harrison," Jazz Notes 8, no. 3 [1996]: 12–13). Three other standard Rachmaninoff biographies in the English language complement one another in that they all contain different perspectives on the composer. Sergei Bertensson and Jay Leyda's Sergei Rachmaninoff: A Lifetime in Music (New York: New York University Press, 1956) is an important publication in terms of Rachmaninoff's purely biographical details. Barrie Martyn's Rachmaninoff: Composer, Pianist, Conductor (Aldershot, Hants, England: Scolar Press, 1990) comprehensively addresses Rachmaninoff's career as a composer, pianist, and conductor; it contains separate parts dedicated to the individual facets of his career, and features a very detailed discography of his recordings. The second edition of Geoffrey Norris's Rachmaninoff (New York: G. Schirmer, 1993) covers the composer's style and history behind his more significant compositions and cites many Russian sources (see Robert Cunningham, Sergei Rachmaninoff: A Bio-Bibliography [Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001], 88, 90–91). This current contribution by Harrison builds upon these sources, as well as others, with some new information, new approaches, and elaborates upon Rachmaninoff's recordings in the latter portion of the book. Rather than organize the different facets of Rachmaninoff's career in separate chapters, as Martyn had done, Harrison addresses this biography in chronological order. He briefly outlines the composer's youth and schooling, and occasionally mentions other [End Page 842] personal details while weaving in detailed descriptions of Rachmaninoff's career as a conductor, concertizing pianist, and composer. The main focus of this book is Rachmaninoff's compositions and Harrison approaches them in an encyclopedic manner. "Musical Examples" (pp. 356–81) follow at the end of the text along with a "Chronological List of Works" (pp. 382– 84), "Classified List of Works" (pp. 385– 89), a discography, bibliography, an index of Rachmaninoff's pieces, and another of names mentioned in the book. Harrison provides only the basic aspects of Rachmaninoff's personal life. He intentionally decides not to focus too much on them for the following reasons (from his introduction): "Our continuing preoccupation with a composer's personal relationships is a leftover from the nineteenth century's investment in the artist as a deviant psychological type. Critical moments in a life are constantly in danger of being engulfed by a host of small irritations and distractions." (p. 2). Among relevant biographical events briefly mentioned in the text, Harrison provides a brief overview of some of Rachmaninoff's personal traits on page 3 of his introduction; for instance, his lack of self-confidence, strong work ethic, and need for privacy. Rachmaninoff's lack of recognition as a composer is a topic addressed by other recent biographers, and Harrison tackles this to some degree in his biography. He gives several reasons as to why Rachmaninoff was not given such recognition. One reason is that many of his critics generally dismissed his music for not being progressive enough for its time: "A main argument against Rachmaninoff was that his work did not partake of the innovations embodied in the music of composers like [Schoenberg, Bartók, Stravinsky]. Yet we do not reject [Johann Sebastian] Bach because he was a conservative in his own time, as was Rachmaninoff" (p. 1). However, Harrison does mention later in the text that not all of his music was conservative. Some examples include his descriptions of Rachmaninoff's First Symphony (pp. 77–80), which uses devices such as whole-tone scales, and the seventh movement of the Études tableaux op. 33 (p. 179), which hints at jazz influence. Rachmaninoff's talents in three distinct areas of music as a celebrated pianist, composer and conductor may have added...