Elger Niels

New Video Release: Sergei Rachmaninoff & Willem Mengelberg In memory of Rachmaninoff's death, 83 years ago today, the Rachmaninoff Network publishes the video production ‘Sergei Rachmaninoff & Willem Mengelberg - Legacy of a Friendship’.

In addition to a 78 rpm record with arias from Gaetano Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, we also found a signed portrait picture at SENAR. The almost perfect condition of the photo testifies to Rachmaninoff's particular appreciation for this gift. Sergei Rachmaninoff's love of the human voice shines through in his groundbreaking choral works and songs. Even when he was no longer setting poems to music in the West, the human voice could still move him profoundly. Biographies often mention how...

Many a Rachmaninoff enthusiast might have wondered whether the hint of Rachmaninoff in the harmonies of the music of Heitor Villa-Lobos is merely coincidence or a direct influence of the Russian on the Brazilian. A resounding answer to that question can be found in the choral repertoire that Villa-Lobos developed for the project set up to benefit national music education: Canto Orfeônico. For these songbooks, Villa-Lobos not only adapted native or popular Brazilian music, but also works by...