Conductor - Diary entries
Many of the performance details listed here have been compiled from Zarui Apetian’s important research, published in Literaturnoye Nasledie [Collected Literature] (Sovietskii Kompozitor: Moscow, 1980, vol. 3, pp. 439-467). These details have been subsequently cross-referenced and checked with the many itineraries and other corroborating materials collected by Rachmaninoff’s sister-in-law, Sophia Satina, housed in the Rachmaninoff Archive of the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C (LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R22, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89). Further information has been gathered from Barrie Martyn’s book Rachmaninoff: Composer, Pianist, Conductor (Scolar Press: London, 1990, pp. 532-562), A Catalogue of the Compositions of S. Rachmaninoff by Robert Threlfall and Geoffrey Norris (Scolar Press: London, 1982), and research undertaken at the Glinka Museum of Musical Culture, Moscow.
January 30 1898 (Julian calendar)
Rachmaninoff's role: Conductor
Notes: Chaliapin played the role of the Mayor in this production. LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
February 2 1898 (Julian calendar)
Rachmaninoff's role: Conductor
Notes: LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
February 3 1898 (Julian calendar)
Rachmaninoff's role: Conductor
Notes: Chaliapin played the role of the Mayor in this production. LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
February 8 1898 (Julian calendar)
Rachmaninoff's role: Conductor
Notes: Chaliapin played the role of the Mayor in this production. LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
February 12 1898 (Julian calendar)
Rachmaninoff's role: Conductor
Notes: Chaliapin played the role of the Mayor in this production. LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
February 15 1898 (Julian calendar)
Rachmaninoff's role: Conductor
Notes: Chaliapin played the role of the Mayor in this production. LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
April 19 1899
Rachmaninoff's role: Conductor and Solo Pianist
Notes: Satina notes that this was Rachmaninoff’s first appearance in England. The concert was the 3rd in the season of the Philharmonic Society of London. Satina indicates that the program was copied from the book ‘History of the Philharmonic Society of London: 1813-1912’, p. 462. LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
February 17 1900 (Julian calendar)
Rachmaninoff's role: Conductor and Chamber Musician
Notes: Details of this concert are in the Russian National Museum of Music (formerly known as the Glinka Museum). Neither Satina nor Martyn list the event. Songs and arias with Chaliapin could be similar to works performed in concerts on March 9 and December 2 later this year.
March 11 1902 (Julian calendar)
Rachmaninoff's role: Conductor
Notes: Threlfall and Norris note the first performance of Rachmaninoff's cantata 'Spring', op. 20, on this date, but indicate that Ziloti conducted. Yet Keldysh (p. 203) believed that the composer conducted, citing press reviews. Specifically, from Moskovskiye Vedomosti on March 13: 'Despite Rachmaninoff's confident conducting, noted in the press reviews, it [the performance of 'Spring'] was not entirely successful'. It might be that Ziloti conducted the other works on the program.
March 26 1902 (Julian calendar)
Rachmaninoff's role: Conductor
Notes: Satina cites Apetian, p. 207, as her reference. Martyn, p. 536, indicates that Siloti conducted the symphonic works on the program. LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
December 13 1903 (Julian calendar)
Rachmaninoff's role: Conductor and Chamber Musician
Notes: LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
September 3 1904 (Julian calendar)
Rachmaninoff's role: Conductor
Notes: Keldysh (p. 210) notes that while Rachmaninoff was scheduled to have conducted the season-opening performance of Glinka's 'A Life for the Tsar', delays in that production meant that this appearance was Rachmaninoff's first at the Bolshoi Theatre.
September 17 1904 (Julian calendar)
Rachmaninoff's role: Conductor
Notes: Keldysh (p. 213) notes Chaliapin in the role of Galitsky in this performance.
September 21 1904 (Julian calendar)
Rachmaninoff's role: Conductor
Notes: Keldysh (p. 213) provides details of this entirely new production of Glinka's opera, which sought to restore the composer's original work, and quotes numerous and highly laudatory reviews of Rachmaninoff's conducting.
October 26 1904 (Julian calendar)
Rachmaninoff's role: Conductor
Notes: This was a special celebratory 100th performance of the opera at the Bolshoi Theatre, with Chaliapin’s first performance as Tomsky. Keldysh (p. 216) also notes Nezhdanova as Prilepa, and Zbrueva as Polina and Milovzor. LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.