Solo Pianist - Diary entries
Many of the initial performance details listed here were 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, especially substantial research that identified precise program details, 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), 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.
October 20 1942
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: The Waltz by Chopin could have been either op. 42, or op. 64, no. 3, or op. 69, no. 1, and the Etude-Tableau in A minor could have been either no. 2 or no. 6. The attached review indicates that a Chopin mazurka and the Prelude in C sharp minor, op. 3, no. 2, were played as encores. LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
October 22 1942
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: The Liszt Sonetto del Petrarca could have been no. 104 or no. 123. A Chopin mazurka and Waltz in A flat major, plus the Prelude in C sharp minor, op. 3, no. 2, are noted in the attached review as encores. LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
October 25 1942
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: Satina does not provide further information, but the Etude-Tableau in A minor could have been no. 2 or no. 6. The Liszt Sonetto del Petrarca was either no. 104 or no. 123. LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
October 28 1942
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: The Liszt Sonetto del Petrarca was either no. 104 or no. 123. LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
October 30 1942
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: The Liszt Sonetto del Petrarca could have been no. 104 or no. 123. Three pieces by Chopin are noted as the encores in the attached review. LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
November 2 1942
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: The Waltz by Chopin could have been either op. 42, or op. 64, no. 3, or op. 69, no. 1, and the Etude-Tableau in A minor could have been either no. 2 or no. 6. The Prelude in C sharp minor, op. 3, no. 2, is noted as an encore in the attached review. LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
November 4 1942
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: The Waltz by Chopin could have been either op. 42, or op. 64, no. 3, or op. 69, no. 1, and the Etude-Tableau in A minor could have been either no. 2 or no. 6. LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
November 7 1942
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: Satina did not provide further information, but the Etude-Tableau in A minor could have been no. 2 or no. 6. The Liszt Sonetto del Petrarca could have been no. 104 or no. 123. Satina also noted that ‘the entire proceed of this concert was given by Rachmaninoff to the American and Russian War Charities’, which is confirmed by the attached press clipping. LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
November 15 1942
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: The second attached review indicates that a Mazurka in C sharp minor by Chopin, and the Prelude in C sharp minor, op. 3, no. 2, were played as encores. Reference is also made to a 'Humoresque' by Tchaikovsky in Rachmaninoff's arrangement as an encore, however this could be a mistaken reference to the Lullaby that was transcribed the previous year. LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
November 22 1942
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
December 1 1942
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
February 3 1943
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: The attached review refers to a work by Mussorgsky (presumably Rachmaninoff's arrangement of the Hopak), yet Satina had no record of this being on the program. LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
February 5 1943
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: Satina indicated that the concert began at 8.30pm. Her annotation on the attached program image indicates that the Schubert Rondo was replaced by the Nocturne and Scherzo by Chopin, listed here. LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
February 15 1943
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: Satina noted that, based on the different materials she had been sent, the program was not entirely clear. In regard to the works by Chopin, the attached review is at odds with the attached press clipping. For now, it is presumed that rather than the Polonaise and Ballade, Rachmaninoff played the Nocturne and Scherzo. While there is no mention in the review of Liszt's Valse oubliée, it likely still was part of the final bracket of compositions. LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
February 17 1943
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: Satina notes that this concert, commencing at 8.15pm, was the last that was given by her brother-in-law. Satina also indicates that the concert in Knoxville had been planned two months earlier (along with a concert in Chatanooga), hence, one imagines, Rachmaninoff’s willingness to return to perform here. A press clipping that advertises the concert, originally scheduled for November 9, is included with this entry. The attached reviews offer conflicting information about which works by Rachmaninoff were performed: one notes the Etudes-Tableaux in B minor and A minor, which the fourth attached press clipping indicates were programmed, while the other notes only one with the Prelude in G major, op. 32, no. 5, being added. The first review has been followed in this instance as it seems more authoritative. Confusingly, however, this review refers to the Prelude in C sharp minor, op. 3, no. 2, being performed (perhaps as an encore), but refers to it as 'no. 4'. It also notes the transcription of Mussorgsky's Hopak as an encore, but refers to the composer as Rimsky-Korsakov in error. Poignantly but quite plainly, in her notes Satina writes ‘all the concerts which were listed after – Orlando, Houston, San Antonio, Dayton, Pasadena, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Long Beach, etc. – were cancelled.’ LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.