Rachmaninoff/Rakhmaninov

 

 

Rachmaninoff. These days it's Rakhmaninov but the composer preferred the former transliteration.

Yuri Simonov was rehearsing one of the London orchestras in a City church and afterwards, a little man in a dog collar came up and introduced himself as Chad Varah. he was as you may know the founder of the Samaritans. The orginal Samaritans' telephone was still there at the church.

Varah was very sweet and entertaining. He told the story of how as an 8-year old he was taken to a Rachmaninoff recital at Leeds Town Hall. After the last piece he called out 'Play C sharp minor.' At first Rachmaninoff ignored him but Varah persisted. Finally with a baleful look, Rachmaninoff sat down and played the Prelude in C sharp minor as he must have been asked to on too many occasions.

A footnote: Gennady Rozhdestvensky told me that as Chief Conductor of the Bolshoi Theatre, Rachmaninoff was the first to stand in front of the orchestra and not more or less behind them with his nose up against the proscenium. It's true that in many illustrations of say Verdi conducting, the conductors are in that weird position facing the singers. I wonder how the orchestral musicians could follow them?

 

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