Sergei Rachmaninoff’s (post 1917) Collection of Printed Music: Introduction and first impressions
By Elger Niels & Wouter de Voogd
For all the admiration, surprise and delight that Sergei Rachmaninoff elicited worldwide as a musician, his most singular achievement never seems to have been fully in focus: in 1918 at age 44, far later in life than any other virtuoso of his stature before or after him, Rachmaninoff embarked on a concert pianist's career and went down in history as one of the most phenomenal virtuosos ever.
Of course he could rely on the unique capacity of his musical memory, on the physical potential of his gigantic handspan as well as on his widespread reputation as the composer of the ‘Prelude in C Sharp Minor’. Graduating with a Great Gold Medal from the Moscow for excellence in two subjects he had studied the cornerstones of piano repertoire with his reputed teachers Nikolai Zverev (1833-1893) and Alexander Siloti (1863-1945). In addition, he heard Anton Rubinstein (1829-1894), the spiritual father of Russian piano playing, in try outs for his historic farewell recital series that carried on its programs a wide selection of keyboard music from three centuries (1).
But it is a fallacy of hindsight to think that Rachmaninoff simply took the path of least resistance. At the time he left Russia, after the Bolshevik attack to power, his reputation as one of the country’s foremost conductors and composers had long since preceded him to the West. He could have easily pursued the same career in exile. Yet it was his deliberate decision not to do so.
Three Collections
We were certainly not the first to be granted the privilege of browsing through Rachmaninoff's private sheet music collections. We are the first however to publish on the world wide web an inventory of what likely amounts to the majority of printed sheet music owned by Sergei Rachmaninoff during the final 25 years of his life.
And yet, while we are now releasing the information in the form of an inventory, it is important to remember that the creation of an inventory was not our primary goal. It emerged merely as a by-product of our work on the digital preservation of primary (and partly also secondary) source material related to the composer. As such it is a work in progress, which will certainly be updated and improved in future versions. At a detailed level, it is not yet fully consistent: due to the fact that our working method was not focused on recording all title information, but first and foremost on capturing notes and other inscriptions added by the composer or his inner circle. (2) We have nevertheless decided to publish the inventory in its current state, to make the world aware of the material’s research potential.
Starting point was our ground-breaking project at SENAR, Rachmaninoff's former country retreat on Lake Lucerne in Switzerland. Between 2016 and 2021 we physically organized, stabilized and digitally preserved its archive collection including all sheet music in the SENAR music cabinet. In 2019, Rachmaninoff’s great-granddaughter Princess Natalie Wanamaker-Javier – from the American branch of the family – came to visit us at SENAR. She generously offered us the opportunity to cross the Atlantic and also digitalize the contents of the music cabinet which was originally at Rachmaninoff’s New York apartment (referred to as the NYC music cabinet). A pandemic intervened, but we were able to make the trip in 2024 and so it is thanks to her, that we were able to draw up an inventory that pulls together information from the main two private collections. To this we have added title information of the sheet music collection currently at the Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive at the Library of Congress in Washington in order to offer an overview as complete as possible. (3) Not all the music Rachmaninoff performed in the West is represented. Therefore it is likely that additions from collections elsewhere will follow. We certainly welcome useful tips and suggestions.
To prevent damage to the sometimes very delicate paper, we. removed the drawers of the NYC music cabinet before working on the contents. Here, drawer 30, with a score of Ernst von Dohnanyi's Variations on a Hungarian Folk Song, Opus 29 on top, with a dedication to Rachmaninoff from the composer himself.
Score of Alexandre Gretchaninoff’s Aquarelles with on the cover in Rachmaninoff’s hand the SENAR shelf number as well as Gretchaninoff’s address details.
Authentication
For conductors and string players the practice of marking scores often represents a vital part of their preparation. Pianists annotate their scores less extensively, but many of them do at least record important or unusual fingerings. Sergei Rachmaninoff however, who, according to many eyewitnesses, possessed a fabulous memory, seldomly made annotations. Even so, the collection provides not only a lot of insight into Rachmaninoff's preparation and working methods, but also into his activities, interests and contacts.
As far as the authentication of the collections is concerned, we were fortunate in starting our work at SENAR. Not so much because the SENAR music cabinet had never been moved, but mainly because Rachmaninoff himself wrote on the covers the numbers of the shelves on which he kept his scores. Additionally, since Rachmaninoff was a chain smoker, traces of nicotine reveal which scores were used intensively. These too contain but few markings, usually concerning fingerings.
In addition to Rachmaninoff's highly characteristic handwriting, we regularly encountered the handwriting of his granddaughter Princess Sophia Wolkonsky-Wanamaker (1925-1968) on vocal scores in the SENAR music cabinet. Occasionally we found the handwriting Rachmaninoff’s sister-in-law Dr. Sophie (Alexandrovna) Satin (1879-1975), who, after the death of the composer and his wife Natalia (Alexandrovna) Rachmaninoff-Satin (1877-1951), was responsible for selecting, compiling and organizing the Rachmaninoff Archive in the Library of Congress. Trained as a biologist, she adopted a different methodology than an archivist would, but she worked with impeccable precision, loving devotion, and a strong sense of historic responsibility.
Because by 2024 we had become well familiar with the handwriting, roles and customs of key people in Sergei Rachmaninoff's inner circle, we had little difficulty in authenticating the sheet music in Rachmaninoff's NYC music cabinet, which, unlike the SENAR music cabinet has since been moved, but is still carefully kept. It is a stylish piece of art deco furniture with forty-two drawers – lacquered and polished exactly like a grand piano.
On the ‘New York’ covers, Dr. Sophie Satin’s handwriting is clearly prominent. After the death of her elder sister, she undertook the sorting out of the estate together with her cousin, Rachmaninoff’s eldest daughter Princess Irina Wolkonsky-Rachmaninoff (1903-1969). The alternation of their handwriting suggests with some certainty that the two worked simultaneously on separate drawers. Some of the drawer numbers were provided by Rachmaninoff himself. It is unknown why, compared to SENAR, in New York he numbered only part of his scores. In the 1930s, the composer spent more days at SENAR outside the concert season than during the concert season in New York. Thus it is conceivable that he spent more time on his scores at SENAR in order to select and prepare new concert programs. The reason could also be purely practical: Bookshelves are dusted regularly, but drawers are different, of course.
One of the scores originally belonging to Princess Irina Wolkonsky-Rachmaninoff
Intimate music making
Not all the sheet music in the two music cabinets actually belonged to Rachmaninoff. This is equally true even of the collection at the Library of Congress. (4) All three collections also contain music editions that were published after Rachmaninoff's death. In addition, there is the music with which family and friends enjoyed themselves in a small circle. At intimate soirees, both daughters sang and Rachmaninoff played all kinds of music from opera arias to folk songs and popular dance numbers.
As one of the guests, the painter Konstantin Somov (1869-1939), noted in his diary on October 8, 1925:
The evening passed delightfully: first were the American chansonettes which Irina S[ergeyevna] sang extremely musically, chique, with excellent (American) diction. Then Sergei Vasilievich played a many selections from “Evgeny [Onegin]”, “The Queen of Spades” – almost the entire scene in the Countess’s room. From “Carmen”, “The Oprichnik”, romances, his favorites: Rubinstein's “Persian Songs”, Rimsky-Korsakov, even Davydov, whom he loves. (5)
A score of Bizet's Carmen, purchased in Berlin, was found in the music cabinet at SENAR, just as a variety of ‘American chansonettes’.
Somov notes that Rachmaninoff’s wife was unfortunately ill that evening. The two of them played duets with some regularity. Natalia Rachmaninoff had in fact received a full conservatory training as a pianist with no lesser a teacher than Konstantin Igumnov (1873-1948). The Polka Italienne was their big hit, but the NYC music cabinet also contains visibly used copies of Moszkowski's Spanish Dances, Grieg's Valses-caprices (with on its cover a pencil note in Natalia Rachmaninoff's hand) as well as Schubert's famous Fantasy in F minor, Op. 103 (D 940).
One of the many editions in Rachmaninoff's collection prepared by Emil von Sauer
Favorite editors
While as a composer Rachmaninoff is hardly ever considered a forerunner, as an interpreter he is often perceived as a pioneer of modern piano playing. His collection of printed music reveals that both assessments need to be nuanced in the light of his sense of responsibility towards the traditions to which he felt connected.
First of all, it should be taken into account that in Rachmaninoff's time there was no such thing as a recorded music history. Where today's musicians can orient themselves on historical recordings, back then they had tradition alone to rely upon. So the ‘authenticity’ of 19th and early 20th century performance practice was not determined by historians, but by the contemporaries and students of major composers. Masterpieces of the piano repertoire generally appeared in editions annotated and edited by pianists specifically associated with the published composers. Rachmaninoff clearly valued this, as is evident from his sheet music collection.
In addition to illustrious predecessors such as Hans von Bülow (1830-1894), Carl Czerny (1791-1857) and Rafael Joseffy (1852-1915) however, somewhat older contemporaries such as Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924) and Emil von Sauer (1862-1942) and even his younger colleague Ignaz Friedman (1882-1948) also take the spotlight.
Rarely if ever mentioned in connection with Rachmaninoff, the association with Emil von Sauer has remained unexplored to this day. Von Sauer was a fellow pupil of Rachmaninoff's cousin and teacher Alexander Siloti. Both studied with Nikolai Rubinstein as well as with Franz Liszt. Von Sauer’s editions are extremely well represented in Rachmaninoff's collection. As an editor, he clearly was a highly valued guide. And not only in Liszt's piano work, but also in that of Robert Schumann and a variety of other composers. Many of these editions were used extensively, including those of Schumann's Carnaval, Tchaikovsky's Piano Sonata, as well of the Ballades of Johannes Brahms and a selection of Sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti.
Rachmaninoff's regard for Ignaz Friedman's virtuosity and old fashioned approach to piano playing is recalled often. It is clear from the collection that he enjoyed Friedman's (sometimes very free) approach to miniatures ranging from Boccherini to Johann Strauss and also consulted his Liszt editions.
Ferruccio Busoni's editions of Bach's music reveal another side to Rachmaninoff, less well-known among enthusiasts and researchers: Bach's music actually forms one of the pillars of his sheet music collection. Busoni's Bach editions apparently served as a trusted guide and he consulted some of Carl Czerny's editions also.
Anton Rubinstein
Among contemporaries, Rachmaninoff was in fact one of the few musicians of his stature who had not enjoyed a direct relationship with one of the great romantic composers. He met neither Brahms nor Liszt or even Clara Schumann, for that matter. Rachmaninoff was completely ‘home grown’ and could ‘only’ boast of direct contact with the great Russian piano virtuosos. He prided himself on this and at the same time considered himself indebted to them.
As a pianist, he associated himself in particular with Anton Rubinstein, although, unlike contemporaries Josef Lhevinne (1874-1944) and Josef Hofmann (1876-1957), or even his own teacher Alexander Siloti, he never actually became Rubinstein’s pupil. As a teenager, however, Rachmaninoff had attended the tryouts of Rubinstein’s historic farewell recitals. Spread over four epic concerts, Rubinstein presented an anthology of keyboard literature. This made an indelible impression, which Rachmaninoff carried with him like a torch throughout his career. His collection of printed music contains over 90 of the 140 programmed works – including all the large-scale piano works that Rubinstein performed at the time.
Preferences known and unknown
Beethoven, Schumann, Liszt, Chopin, Bach and Schubert present the central pillars of Rachmaninoff's sheet music collection. It is particularly remarkable that he has evidently been far much more deeply involved with the music of the latter two composers than is apparent from either his recordings or concert repertoire. As for Bach, his interest in the great master’s work confirms observations already made by a number of researchers and musicians regarding stylistic quotations and polyphony in Rachmaninoff's own compositions. Schubert's influence however was previously only perceptible on the surface – as a young man Rachmaninoff titled his Opus 16 as ‘Six Moments-musicaux’ following Schubert's example and in later life he transcribed the song ‘Wohin’ from the cycle Die Schöne Müllerin.
Russian and contemporary piano music
At solo recitals Rachmaninoff performed a limited amount of Russian piano music and often included but a handful compositions of his own. In addition to a selection of short works – established crowd pleasers (such as l’Alouette by Balakirev and Liadov's Musical Snuff Box) as well as miniatures by Arensky, Rimsky-Korsakoff and Rubinstein less well known at the time, his sheet music collection holds well-known works and masterpieces by his Russian predecessors (such as Islamey by Balakirev, Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition and Tchaikovsky's Piano Sonata Opus 39 and Theme and variations opus 19 no. 6.)
As for the music of contemporary Russian composers of the time, the sheet music collection shows a marked preference for the music of Scriabine and Medtner. It is well known that Rachmaninoff strongly supported both. He had already performed Scriabine's music at memorial recitals before 1917 and in the West continued to promote his, at that time but little known music. Rachmaninoff however, did not perform any music from Scriabine's final years. These compositions are notoriously absent in his sheet music collection also. (6)
After his emigration to the West, Nicolas Medtner was supported by Rachmaninoff in many ways. In concert however, Rachmaninoff played fewer works by Medtner than by Scriabine. His sheet music collection on the other hand, holds an impressive portion of Medtner's compositions for piano solo, many of his songs, as well as the score of the Second Piano Concerto, which Medtner dedicated to Rachmaninoff.
Of course, music by other Russian contemporaries is also represented in Rachmaninoff's collection of printed music. Yet he does not seem nearly as much engaged as he was with Scriabine and Medtner. Given the spotless pages of most of these piano scores – including music by Serge Bortkiewicz, Alexander Glazunov, Alexander Gretchaninoff, Vladimir Pohl, Dmitri Shostakovich and Igor Stravinsky – it seems that Rachmaninoff often received these editions as a gift or merely studied them to familiarize himself with the new generation. Friendship also played a role – perhaps most movingly in the case of his close friend Nikolai Struve, who had died in an elevator accident (7): we found a manuscript copy (possibly a Stichvorlage) in Rachmaninoff's printed copy of Struve's Nabroski for voice and piano.
Rachmaninoff’s interest in piano works by non-Russian contemporaries was just as focussed. Claude Debussy, Ernö Dohnanyi and Francis Poulenc are actually the only non-Russian composers of whom he had at least one composition in his concert repertoire and several piano scores in his sheet music collection. The common factor between these composers and Rachmaninoff's Russian favourites Scriabine and Medtner is that they all advanced piano playing by means of their individual approach to virtuosity. Incidentally, Rachmaninoff did perform the Toccata from Ravel's Tombeau de Couperin during recitals in February, March, and April 1929, although no score of it has survived in our collections. Nor is Ravel represented with any other piano solo work.
One of the trophies brought from Russia to SENAR: Rachmaninoff’s copy of the score of Rimsky-Korsakoff's opera The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh
Works for Orchestra
With this observation we reach the point where we might shift our perspective from Rachmaninoff the pianist to Rachmaninoff the composer.
By far the most legendary score in Rachmaninoff's SENAR music cabinet is the score of Rimsky-Korsakoff's opera Le Coq d'Or which he purportedly took with him from Russia to the West. We can be certain that this indeed is the copy, because it happens to be a library copy, provided with a pencil inscription on the title page unmistakably in Rachmaninoff's own handwriting.
It takes up a lot of space and weight, so the composer must have attached considerable importance to it. It can hardly have been in the small suit case Rachmaninoff carried according to biographers Sergei Bertensson and Jay Leyda. (8) In fact, he also brought the accompanying keyboard reduction as well as the equally sizeable orchestral score of Rimsky-Korsakoff’s opera Invisible City of Kitezh – both of which were found in the SENAR music cabinet. Indeed, the composer specifically refers to the orchestral scores in a letter of 21 May 1934 to his secretary Eugène Somoff. And not without reason, because at that time he was working on his Paganini Rhapsody – one of the four orchestral works that show the influence of Rimsky-Korsakoff's orchestration technique.
Score of Jean Sibelius’ Valse triste from Rachmaninoff’s NYC cabinet
Contemporaries
As far as contemporary music is concerned, there are relatively few orchestral scores by composers other than himself. This might seem strange for an established conductor, yet due to Rachmaninoff’s phenomenal memory there probably was little need for him to purchase music in score that he did no longer perform. Most of the orchestral scores in Rachmaninoff’s collection of printed music are either printed copies of his own work, or gifts by fellow composers and complimentary copies by publishers. The remainder however, seems to have been acquired for study purposes. Among these are Ravel's Boléro and Stravinsky's Concerto for Piano and Winds. As with the scores of Rimsky-Korsakov's operas brought from Russia, orchestration may have been Rachmaninoff's primary interest. Some passages in his final opuses indeed recall Stravinsky’s orchestrations. Researchers have already made a connection between the waltz from Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances and Ravel's La Valse. And indeed, a copy of Ravel’s orchestral score was found in the NYC music cabinet. However, a perhaps even more obvious relationship with Jean Sibelius' Valse triste is also confirmed by the discovery of a pocket score of this work in the very same drawer of the NYC music cabinet.
Transcriptions
Rachmaninoff not only informed himself about the achievements of colleagues whenever he was orchestrating, but also when he created piano transcriptions and variation works. The SENAR music cabinet holds a score of Archangelo Corelli's Concert XII ‘La Folia’ in an edition by Henri Lemoine. In addition, however, we found Fritz Kreisler's free arrangement of this work for violin and piano, which in terms of structure and atmosphere shows striking parallels with Rachmaninoff’s Variations Opus 42 on a theme by Corelli, completed in 1930. The composer dedicated this piano solo piece to violinist Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962) and kept one of his own copies of the first edition in drawer 32 of the NYC music cabinet – not with his own work, but with compositions and transcriptions by his Austrian friend. Incidentally, Kreisler had also arranged the Prelude and the Gavotte from Bach's Violin Partita BWV 1003, which Rachmaninoff included in 1933, along with the Gigue, in his Suite from the Partita in E Major transcribed for piano solo. No connection has yet been drawn with Fritz Kreisler's transcription of Paganini's Capriccio XXIV from which Rachmaninoff borrowed the theme for his Rhapsody, completed a year later. It will come as no surprise however that both of Johannes Brahms' Volumes of Variations on a Theme by Paganini can also be found – divided between the SENAR and NYC music cabinets.
The collections of printed music furthermore give rise to the suspicion that other arrangements may have prompted Rachmaninoff to making his own transcriptions or may have been consulted by him: Rimsky-Korsakoff's Flight of the Bumble Bee, which Rachmaninoff transcribed in 1929, was found (both in the SENAR music cabinet as well as the NYC music cabinet) in an arrangement by the Russian composer, choir conductor and organist Joseph Strimer (1881-1962). The NYC music cabinet also contains Mendelssohn-Bartholdy's Scherzo from A Midsummer Night's Dream, in an arrangement by Théodore Ritter (pseudonym for the French pianist and composer Toussaint Prévost 1840-1886). Rachmaninoff made his own famous transcription of the Scherzo in 1933.
A rare volume of Russian Church Chant (from the lenten Triodion and festal Triodion) Rachmaninoff brought from Russia to SENAR
Sacred Music
It seems likely that Rachmaninoff also brought from Russia two rare volumes from the collection of canonical chants, compiled in 1772 and reprinted by the Moscow and St. Petersburg Synods – the Heirmologion and the (lenten and festal) Triodion. In any case he carefully kept these treasured volumes in the SENAR music cabinet.
To this day Rachmaninoff's lifelong occupation with church music remains the most neglected aspect of his output as a composer. Less than three years before his emigration, however, he had created one of the highlights of polyphonic Russian church music with the All Night Vigil Opus 37. And even though Rachmaninoff did not compose any more sacred music in the West, specialists on church music were still among his closest friends. One of them, composer and conductor Oskar von Riesemann, would become his first biographer. (9) Rachmaninoff even had the ‘Nunc Dimittis’ from his All Night Vigil printed in Riesemann's pioneering biography. Later, he also quoted the ‘Blagosloven yesi Gospodyi’ from this work in the finale of his Symphonic Dances. (10)
The collection of spirituals with a selection of numbers unmistakably written in pencil by Rachmaninoff himself
New directions
It is understandable that both family members and friends, as well as music historians, could not resist the temptation to give a conclusive meaning to the Symphonic Dances after Rachmaninoff's sudden death in March 1943. It should be noted however, that all of Rachmaninoff's large scale symphonic works deal with existential questions and one could just as well attribute such a conclusive meaning to his Choral Symphony The Bells Opus 36 as well as to his Third Symphony Opus 44.
The simple truth is that had death not intervened, Rachmaninoff's oeuvre would certainly have developed in new directions. Drawer 36 of the NYC music cabinet provides a fascinating clue. In it we found a small volume of ‘Thirty Six South Carolina Spirituals’. On its cover, Rachmaninoff wrote numbers 5, 8, 22 and 23, referring to: Ev'ry time I feel the Spirit, I've got a home in the rock, don't you see, Funeral Chant and Weep no more for baby.
Given that these are two- to four-part choral settings, it is certain that Rachmaninoff had no plans to program them in his piano recitals. It can safely be assumed therefore that he intended to develop these spirituals as a composer. Unfortunately we will never know what music they would have yielded. Just as we will never find out if Rachmaninoff by taking up spirituals he wished to convey a message to society – as he in fact did in most of his other sacred works. (11) And so this article concludes on a fascinating glimpse into a future that never materialized. Which is one of the many reasons why we are convinced that research into Sergei Rachmaninoff’s collection of printed music will bring a new perspective to his life and art.
Notes:
(1) more about dates, venues and repertoire played by Anton Rubinstein may be found here: https://classical-pianists.net/generation-v/anton-rubinstein/performance-chronology-3/
(2) Only covers and pages with markings were photographed. Although most information about a publication can be found on the cover, this is not always the case.
(3) full source: https://findingaids.loc.gov/db/search/xq/searchMferDsc04.xq?_id=loc.music.eadmus.mu015003&_start=876&_lines=125
(4) The Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive at the Library of Congress also holds numerous posthumous publications and numerous titles that obviously belonged to Princess Sophia Wanamaker-Wolkonsky.
(5) excerpt translated from ‘Konstantin Somov – Dnevnik – 1923-1925’, edited by Pavel Golubev, published by Dmitry Sechin, Moscow, 2018. ISBN 978-5-904962-61-6
(6) the work with the highest opus number by Scriabine that Rachmaninoff had in his repertoire as a pianist was the Piano Sonata No. 5 Opus 53, a work that forced the breakthrough to the last stylistic period in Scriabine's music, but at the same time is clearly related to the previous stylistic period.
(7) Composer Nikolai von Struve (1875-1920) was head of the Russian Music Publishing House in Berlin. Among his teachers were Rachmaninoff's teacher Nikolai Zverev, and the Dresden-based composers Otto Urbach and Felix Draeseke. More information: https://www.struvefamily.org/?page_id=264
(8) Dr. Sophie Satin wrote a detailed account of how she saw off her brother-in-law and furthermore adds a little more information in her personal memoirs. How Rachmaninoff’s wife and children travelled is known only in rudimentary terms. Although it can be assumed that the family was forced to take relatively little with them, as extant sources suggest, the books, manuscripts and memorabilia brought from Russia and found at SENAR make up for about half of a large cabin trunk.
(9) Oskar von Riesemann (1880-1934) was more than just a music historian. As a conductor, back in Russia, he had accompanied Rachmaninoff in a performance of the Third Piano Concerto with Serge Koussevitzky’s orchestra. In the early 1930s he played a pivotal role in the acquisition of the Villa Carolina in Hertenstein and the construction of SENAR on this land. The conflict that arose between Von Riesemann and Rachmaninoff over the biography was therefore all the more painful for both men. The parties reached a settlement, but von Riesemann died shortly afterwards. A combination of circumstances that explains why the entire matter has been kept quiet by the family.
(10) It is clear that Rachmaninoff and Oskar von Riesemann also discussed church music. In the SENAR music cabinet we found both the original and a German translation by Riesemann of a book by the former director of the Moscow Synodal School Alexander Kastalsky (1856-1926) ‘Properties of the Russian Folk Music System’. Kastalsky formulated a number of techniques that could be used in polyphonic setting of original Russian church chants. Rachmaninoff applied these techniques in his All-night Vigil Opus 37 and regarded this composition as one of his chief opuses.
(11) This applies not only to the Liturgy Opus 31 or the All Night Vigil Opus 37, but also to songs such as the well-known Khristos voskres (Christ is risen) Opus 26 No.6