Sergei Rachmaninoff: A Bio-Bibliography by Robert E. Cunningham, Jr. (review)

Abstract

738 SEER, 80, 4, 2002 is the product of extensive and meticulous research,highlightsboth detailsof the film's eventful production history and release as well as fascinating accounts of positive and negative response by the press and public. The final two studies, on the film'srole both as a statement about Soviet historyand as a piece of historyin itself,provide particularlystrong and thought-provoking commentaries on the director'sintent, message and effect. The only feature which detractssomewhat from this concluding section is the omission of two well-known films in the 'FurtherViewing' section. Kvirikadze's TheSwimmer (Plovets, I98I) and Ogorodnikov's Prishvin'sPaperEyes (Bumazhnye Glaza Prishvina, I989) would have been worthyof inclusionhere, aswell as, perhaps, a filmographyof the director. On the whole, this film companion constitutes a welcome addition to the canon of published materialon Repentance. As taught courses on Russian and Soviet film, including those for non-Russian speakers,become increasingly popular, the need for reliable, English-languagetexts on these areasbecomes ever more important.Despite the book's relativelylimited value as a tool for thematic analysis and lack of reference to other film works, it should nevertheless serve as a useful resource for any student and interested filmenthusiastand encourage readersto embrace furtherthe wider dimension of Russian, Soviet and Georgianfilm. Department ofModernLanguages B. SANDERSON Ulniversity ofStrathclyde Cunningham, Robert E., Jr. SergeiRachmaninoff A Bio-Bibliography. BioBibliographies in Music, 8I. Greenwood Press, Westport, CT, and London, 200I. Appendices. Index. xii + 353 pp. [66.95. THE days have gone when it was fashionable to denigrate the music of Rakhmaninov, Chaikovskii'smost celebrateddisciple, for its unashamedlack of modernismand, indeed, itsroleasthelastRussianexampleoflate-romantic emotional sweep. Phrases like 'polished superficiality' and 'flaccidity of invention' (p. 65) were commonplace amongst criticsas little as twentyyears ago, but, asthe compilerof thisvolume pointsout, 'atthe close of the twentieth century [. . .] Rachmaninoff's historical significance appears larger than formerly estimated [. . .] In retrospect [he] represents, not a dead tradition, but a temporarilysubmergedyet powerfulstylisticundercurrent'(p. 20). This is reflectedpartiallyin the numberof excellent books about the composer that have appeared recently by such scholarsas Robert Palmieri,GeoffreyNorris and Barrie Martyn, and, for this reason, the volume under review provides only a relatively short biographical section. It is followed by 'Works and Performances' (pp. 2I-50), a listing of all works with opus numbers and, where available,the dates, places and musiciansof firstperformances. The Bibliography (pp. 51-215) takes up most of the book and is divided into many subsections:reference books and articles, subdivided into music dictionaries, catalogues, bibliographies, discographies and other references; general surveysof Rakhmaninov'slife and works,book-lengthbibliographies; extended discussions of selected works; brief discussions of selected works; REVIEWS 739 Rakhmaninov'sinterviewsand letters;Rakhmaninovand his contemporaries; Rakhmaninov's performing art; reviews and discussions of performances, books, music editions and recordings;and, finally, miscellaneous books and articles. The discography aims at completeness, although not all the recordings listed are still available. To indicate the scale, there are I6I recordingsof the Second Piano Concerto, before arrangementsare takeninto account. Finally,there are three appendices:Rakhmaninov'sworksby performance medium;his recordedrepertoire;and a listof abbreviationsand acronyms. Robert Cunningham has performed his task with great care and good judgement (forexample in the annotations to the bibliographicalitems). The price of thisvolume may discouragemany of the composer'snon-professional admirers,but it certainlydeservesa place in the librariesof all universitiesand colleges of music. School ofSlavonic andEastEuropean Studies ARNOLD MCMILLIN University College London Lovrenovic, Ivan. Bosnia.A Cultural Historj.New YorkUniversity Press,New York, 2001. 254 PP. Maps. Illustrations.Chronology. Glossary. Bibliography .Index. $32.50. OF all the many books on Bosnia publishedover the last ten years, this is one of the most balanced and certainly the most positive that I have read. Ivan Lovrenovic is one of Bosnia's most prominent intellectual figures. Formerly editor of the literary magazine Odjekand currently editor-in-chief of the Svjetlost publishing company, he has published numerous poems, novels, essaysand screenplays. Originally published in Zagreb in I998 as Unutarnja zemlja.kratki pregled kulturne pov?jesti Bosnei Hercegovine, the work gives a comprehensive account of the cultural development of Bosnia and Herzegovina from Paleolithic times until the present day. It is well illustrated with maps, clearly showing the changing shape of the territoryover time, and with...