The world of Rachmaninoff

Hi Charlie! Today I will talk about someone that everyone expected me to write about: Rachmaninoff. 

I know it is quite long but it is partly because I try to explain musical terms (I hope it is understandable)

 and also because I am a bit obsessed with his music but I assure you it really is fascinating!

If you find one part too technical or boring you can also skip it :)

Rachmaninoff at age 10, and around age 30 and 60

If you don’t know, he is a post-romantic composer (the equivalent of the late XIXth century and the 

beginning of the XXth century) very famous in Russia and in the world of classical music. He is well 

known for his 2nd symphony (which Star Wars used in an almost non twisted way I believe) 

and his piano concerto no 2, and for his preludes with the op 3 no 2, the most popular one (there must 

something with the number 2...) as well as plenty other pieces. 

You will see “Rachmaninoff” written with two “ff” at the end or with a “v”. Rachmaninov is the original 

version of his name with the Russian spelling, but as he fled the Soviet Union and went to the United 

States, his name was anglicized for people to have the right pronunciation. Therefore he always wrote 

his name with the Latin spelling so that is why I spell it like this. He became so famous that he is one 

of the only composers to have a nickname by his international audience: “Rach”. For example, 

they called his third piano concerto “Rach 3”.

He is often seen as a depressed man, like his works. This vision of him is partly true but not entirely 

since he had many years of happiness in Russia near Moscow. If you are interested there is a great 

documentary by the BBC called “the joy of Rachmaninoff” available:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3YTSrxmFX8

 

He was born in a family from the Russian gentry, which had music and military leanings. He had 

three sisters and two brothers and the family had financial troubles because Rachmaninoff’s 

father was a compulsive gambler. He started playing the piano at age four with a remarkable 

talent (he was able to hear a piece, and play it by memory as if he knew and worked on it), taking 

lessons with his mother then with Ornatskaya, a teacher and recent graduate of St Petersburg 

conservatory. He will dedicate one of his 12 romances, the op14 to her. He was greatly influenced 

by Tchaikovsky’s works, but with time found and confirmed his own compositional style: like his 

physical appearance - he was known to be a giant - he writes with massive, spaced and powerful 

chords, lyrical melodies and uses flexible rhythm. In 1885 he moved in with Zverev, his new teacher 

and Alexander Scriabin (a famous piano composer, I knew his name before his master’s one). 

After learning with him for 4 years he went to learn with Alexander Siloti, a student of Liszt because 

thought composition was a waste of time. He spent every holiday at Ivanovka, the best place to 

compose for him. 

There he wrote many of his pieces, such as his first piano concerto dedicated to Siloti. During his 

final year at the Moscow’s conservatory he wrote his first opera “Aleko” based on the  poem 

“The gypsies” of Alexander Pushkin. Rachmaninoff doubted very much about its success but got 

praised by Tchaikovsky himself who attended the representation. Later, after Tchaikovsky’s death he 

was lacking inspiration but finally completed his first symphony. For the first representation 

he was so nervous that he was hiding in a staircase. The conductor, Alexander Glazunov was perhaps 

drunk that day and he also made “poor use of rehearsal time” according to a memoir of Alexander 

Ossovsky (common first name apparently!). For these reasons composer and critic Cesar Cui was very 

critical about it, comparing it to the ten plagues of Egypt (in the Bible when the God of Israel inflicted 

10 disasters in order to force the Pharaoh to allow the Israelites to depart from slavery). Rachmaninoff 

entered a four year depression, and could not compose anymore. He then was treated successfully 

by Nikolai Dahl, to whom his famous second piano concerto is dedicated. After the first russian revolution 

of 1905 and the many others following it, he fled Russia to go to the United States. He will spend the 

rest of his life there, composing, giving piano recitals and conducting. Though he obtained the American 

nationality, he always felt Russian as he says here: "I left behind my desire to compose: losing my 

country, I lost myself also".

I always knew his music because my father used to play the famous prelude but only the first slow 

part. And then I immediately fell in love with Rachmaninoff’s compositions. I thought of it as dreamy 

rather than dark, and I really liked it! When I found the score many years later, I started to learn it 

at the age of 10. But I only had 1 year of piano and 2 years of organ behind me and still pretty 

small hands, with no one to teach it to me, so I didn’t get that far. I only started working seriously 

on it at 14 and finished one year later with my piano teacher (yes it took that long for only 4 pages). 

But in those years I listened to pretty much everything he wrote (even though I know I will still discover 

pieces I didn’t know) and that’s how I became very appreciative of his music!

If you were at the talent show last year, you’ve already heard me play this prelude but if you want 

to listen again or discover it here is a link leading a recording of Rachmaninoff playing it himself! 

You will notice that sometimes he doesn’t respect his own markings like “tempo primo” for the third 

part that he plays much faster: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXGSfJn3nKQ

My old score, I know it looks even more complex with all the annotations but it is easier for me!

As I mentioned above, you will need pretty big hands to play that (though this one is still pretty 

accessible contrary to some other pieces, you only need an octave (interval of 8 notes)), or you 

will need to arpeggiate a lot (split chords or play the notes very quickly to pretend to play a chord, 

for instance in a 4 notes chord you will play the 3 lower notes then the higher one left). Rachmaninoff 

was known to have huge hands, because he could take 13 notes with one hand, meaning he could 

play c4 to a5. Trust me this is absolutely gigantic! 

 

The composer wrote it when he was only 19, and due to an overwhelming success compared 

to his other pieces, in his opinion equal or worth more this one, as well as no copyright on it so he 

didn't get any money when it was played, he despised it. At the end of his performances, people would 

shout “c#” (tonality of the piece) and he did play it but apparently very aggressively. He said once 

“Many, many times I wish I had never written it.”.

The piece has a structure in ABA' with a coda, which means we first hear the theme (A, page 1) 

- you could call it the melody, the one thing you have stuck in your head for hours and days - 

then we have a second part which have nothing to do with the first one (B, page 2-3 with 3 systems 

(lines) in the third page), and finally a last one which is not exactly A, but we still recognize the main 

motif (the melody). We call this section A' because it looks like A, but it is twisted and sounds a 

bit different. The coda is just the name we give to the end of a piece.

This prelude has an invented story like most pieces, or we generally invent one of not. I know it is 

not necessarily the happiest one but it really makes sense when you hear the piece!

If we look at section A first, we see it is very slow since we have the indication "Lento" and goes from 

"fortissimo" (ff which means very loud) to "pianississimo" (ppp, very soft). To do that we need to 

use the left pedal of upright pianos called the "una corda" (you can see “UC” written on the score 

in red) or soft pedal.  This first part is represented in the story with the awakening of a person in 

a coffin (I told you it was happy… I believe at the time they used to bury some people alive, 

that's why there was a little bell on top of graves, attached to the person's big toe to prevent 

premature burial, that's also why we say "saved by the bell") slowly waking up, realizing what was 

happening. The first 3 chords are not only opening the piece and getting the attention of the audience, 

it is also foreshadowing the death of the person, seeking the lowest notes on the piano.

In section B, he is panicking: it is the faster part of the piece, it gets a little bit louder since it is mezzo 

forte (mf, a kind of medium level). It is also shown by the indication “agitato”, agitated.  It contrasts 

with part A since the tempo/speed increased a lot. With a big descent which is a transition between 

part B and A', the moment he realizes he will die.

And then the last part in which he dies, slowly and painfully (because it is also painful for the pianist 

to play it). This section is very complicated to learn, because it has 4 staves (two for your right hand 

and two others for your left hand) instead of 2 . At first I didn't understand and started playing the 

right hand with both hands. But you have to play everything at the time! At the beginning of the section 

we see an indication saying "tempo primo", first tempo. That is where Rachmaninoff plays it differently 

in the recording, much faster. But if we follow the score, we have to play it as slow as the first part. 

That much notes in the chords could lead us to think about how tragic this part is.

 

The coda however changes the meaning of the story. As Rachmaninoff was a Russian orthodox, 

the last two chords could be a reference to religion, like Bach when he writes ascending motifs in 

chorals or when he finishes on a sudden chord major whereas the whole piece was in minor. 

After such dark passages we would expect the piece to end in minor but instead as the final chords 

progress, it brightens up until the final suspensive one. However we see the death with final c# 

repeated lower and lower, as life vanishes. The hands also cross each other a lot in the first part. 

It could either be seen with a religious interpretation or less probable, the person was saved 

thanks to the bell. 

Bells are also an important part of this piece and Rachmaninoff's music since he was imitating 

them in his pieces, especially this one. One of his works was even named “The bells”, it is not very 

well known but you can easily find it on youtube! The first movement sounds a bit christmassy 

but the 3 other ones sound more melancholic. In the prelude, the third bar the quavers/eight 

notes are what portrays the bells, if you play these chords alone, you will maybe hear them. 

And as the last section (A') is taking the theme of section A, we find them here too. Bells also are 

a symbol of death, so it would make sense here.

From the third bar after the minim, the quavers could make us think of bells

 

If you like this piece, you can also listen to Vierne’s arrangement of this prelude for the organ, 

it really is a great transcription! You can to listen to this interpretation of Olivier Latry (the teacher of 

my teacher): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4sViFyqB1A

 

The Isle of the Dead is another piece I love, this time played by a symphonic orchestra. When 

Rachmaninoff visited Paris in 1907, he saw a black and white reproduction of Arnold Böcklin’s 

painting, “The Isle of the Dead”. It inspired him this symphonic poem, beginning with the sound of 

oars on the way to the the isle, then getting louder and leading to the quote of the Dies Irae plainchant 

(a gregorian chant used a lot by the composers in a twisted way to depict death, for example it 

appears in Mozart’s Requiem, Carmina Burana by Carl Orff, the tenth variation of the Rhapsody 

of the theme of Paganini by Rachmaninoff…). When he saw a colored version of the painting, 

he said: "If I had seen first the original, I, probably, would have not written my Isle of the Dead. 

I like it in black and white."

The photograph black and white version of the painting, followed by the fifth version of the painting 

Rachmaninoff saw in Leipzig and the original version.

This painting also inspired many other works such as music, films, theater and literature as well 

as other paintings.

I am also studying the prelude op 23 no 5, a piece I really like. I won’t go in as much detail as the 

op 3 no 2, but this composition is much brighter, and heroic. It has the same structure in ABA’ 

except it is reversed for the nuances and the speed: the first and last part (first 2 pages and from 

page 4 to the coda) are played pretty fast and sounds loud even though it is meant to be pianissimo 

because there are a lot of chords, and the middle part is written in a more horizontal way (called 

counterpoint, notes are not under a chord form and we hear a melody with a light accompaniment) 

and played very soft. If you want to hear it, go listen to the interpretation of Rachmaninoff: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8RyWFA7PSY

I also really like the interpretations of Valentina Lisitsa, she always plays pieces a little bit faster than 

the usual tempo but it is a sort of signature, and she plays so well that you would think it is the 

normal speed.

I find this piece is a lot harder than the first prelude I played, because as there are a lot of passages 

with a lot of fast chords and a lot of shifts, if you play too loud or if your wrists are tense you won’t 

be able to play until the end. So when I heard Paul Barton (an excellent pianist and artist living in 

Thailand who often plays for old elephants and monkeys) saying it was “one of Rachmaninoff’s 

easy pieces to play” I was laughing quite hard… But hopefully as I had seen in the comments, 

I wasn’t the only one! What I think he meant by this is that it is much simpler than his piano 

concertos to play (I can't even take the first chord!) or other longer pieces. Also I will maybe 

play it at this year’s talent show so I thought a brief introduction would be great!

 

Thank you for reading and hope you liked my article,

Astrid