People, Names, Dates and Sources

Family

Rachmaninoff, Natalia Alexandrovna (1877-1951)

Rachmaninoff's wife and first cousin, whom he married in 1902. Born Natalia Satina, Tambov, Russia; died New York.

Irina (1903-69)

Daughter; after marriage to Prince Pyotr Volkonsky, became Princess Irina Sergeyevna Rachmaninoff Volkonsky. Her family nickname was Boolya. Born Moscow; died New York.

Tatiana (1907-61)

Daughter; after marriage to Boris Conus, became Tatiana Sergeyevna Rachmaninoff Conus. Born Tambov, Russia; died Hertenstein, Switzerland.

Volkonsky [Wanamaker], Sophie (1925-68)

Granddaughter.

Conus [Rachmaninoff], Alexander (1933-2012)

Grandson.

Satina, Sofia (1897-1975)

First cousin and sister-in-law of Rachmaninoff. Sister of Natalia. Research botanist and pioneer of women's education, working at the Women's University in Moscow until her emigration in 1921. She later worked at Smith College, Massachusetts, USA.

Satin, Sophia (1915-96)

Sergei and Natalia Rachmaninoff's niece; god-daughter of Natalia, and niece, too, of Sofia Satina. Later in life lived in London. We have followed her chosen spelling of her name, which may help the reader distinguish her from her (more frequently mentioned) aunt.

Siloti, Alexander Ilyich (1863-1945)

First cousin, friend, pianist, pupil of Franz Liszt, teacher of Rachmaninoff.

Secretaries

After leaving Russia, Rachmaninoff had three private secretaries, important figures in his life who dealt with concert schedules, travel, agents and correspondence.

Rybner, Dagmar (1890-1965)

Born in Switzerland of Danish heritage, she studied piano and composition in Germany and New York. Her father was Head of the Department of Music at Columbia University, where she later taught singing. She offered her services to Rachmaninoff when he arrived in New York in 1918, and stopped working for him after her first marriage (to a lawyer, J. Whitla Stinson) in 1922.

Somov, Yevgeny Ivanovich (1891-1962)

Rachmaninoff's secretary from 1922 to 1938, and, with his wife, Yelena, a close family friend. They had first met in Russia. Somov later worked with Michael Chekhov at his Theatre Studio, Ridgefield, Connecticut (his name anglicised to Eugene Somoff).

Mandrovsky, Nikolai B. (1890-1966?)

Took over from Somov as secretary in 1939 until the composer's death in 1943.

Friends and Colleagues

Balmont, Konstantin Dmitrievich (1867-1942)

Russian symbolist poet. Emigrated 1918, died in France. He made a free Russian translation of Edgar Allan Poe's poem The Bells, used by Rachmaninoff in his 1913 choral symphony of that name.

Chaliapin, Fyodor Ivanovich (1873-1938)

Russian bass. From 1895 sang in the Mariinsky, and from 1896, at the Bolshoi, Moscow, living abroad from 1922; close friend of Rachmaninoff.

Chaliapin, Boris Fyodorovich (1904-79)

Son of Fyodor Ivanovich, painter.

Chaliapin, Fyodor Fyodorovich (1905-92)

Son of Fyodor Ivanovich, Hollywood film actor.

Chekhov, Michael (Mikhail Alexandrovich) (1891-1955)

Russian-American actor, director, author. A nephew of Anton Chekhov and a student of Konstantin Stanislavsky, he established the Chekhov Theatre School at Dartington Hall, Devon, UK and then in the USA.

Damrosch, Walter (1862-1950)

German-born American conductor/composer who conducted the first performance of Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto (1909) with the composer as soloist.

Koshetz, Nina Pavlovna (1891-1965)

Kyiv-born soprano and actress, who later lived in America. She was the dedicatee of Rachmaninoff's op. 38 songs.

Koussevitzky, Sergei Alexandrovich (Serge) (1874-1951)

Russian-born double-bass player turned conductor, champion of contemporary music, publisher. Music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, 1924-49.

Kreisler, Fritz (1875-1962)

Austrian-born American violinist and composer, friend.

Ormandy, Eugene (1899-1985)

Hungarian-born American conductor. Music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra 1936-80, initially sharing the role with Leopold Stokowski. Conducted the premiere of Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances, dedicated to the orchestra.

Scriabin, Alexander Nikolayevich (1872-1915)

Russian composer; fellow student, with Rachmaninoff, of Zverev.

Shaginian, Marietta Sergeyevna (1888-1982)

Russian symbolist poet who corresponded with, and met, Rachmaninoff between 1912 and 1917, dedicating her first published set of poems to him. After the Revolution she abandoned poetry and became a Stalin loyalist and high-profile Soviet activist, historian and novelist.

Slonov, Mikhail Akimovich (1868-1930)

Fellow student at Moscow Conservatory.

Stokowski, Leopold (1882-1977)

British-born conductor of Polish origin, who was music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1912 to 1938. He collaborated frequently with Rachmaninoff, conducting premieres (including Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini) and making an historic acoustic recording (with Victor, in 1923-4) of the Piano Concerto no. 2 with the composer as soloist. He was the dedicatee of the Three Russian Songs.

Struve, Nikolai Alexandrovich von (1875-1920)

Musician; business manager and board member of the Russischer Musikverlag, making him a colleague of Koussevitzky and Stravinsky among others. He dedicated a song cycle to Rachmaninoff, with whom he became close friends in Dresden.

Swan, Alfred (1890-1970)

Russian-born, English-educated composer, writer and musicologist, who with his first wife, Katherine, became a friend of the Rachmaninoffs in America, living in California in the 1940s. They recorded their friendship with the composer in an intimate memoir.

Taneyev, Sergei (1856-1915)

Pupil of Tchaikovsky who was director of the Moscow Conservatory from 1885 to 1889.

Vilshau, Vladimir Robertovich (1868-1957)

Pianist and professor at the Moscow Conservatory, 1909-24. He remained a lifelong correspondent and confidant to Rachmaninoff, and a helpful source of information about life in post-Revolutionary Russia.

Zverev, Nikolai Alexandrovich (1833-93)

Pianist and teacher at Moscow Conservatory, whose pupils included Alexander Siloti and Alexander Scriabin as well as Rachmaninoff.

Note on Names

Russian transliteration has no universal standard for names. I have chosen the spelling of Rachmaninoff that he himself used. In general I have used masculine endings except when a feminine form occurs frequently, or to distinguish it from other names (so Rachmaninoff's sister-in-law is referred to as Sofia Satina and his niece as Sophia Satin). In quotations I have left diminutives, often longer rather than shorter, as used by the speaker. In press reports, spellings vary widely. I have 'corrected' in keeping with the spellings chosen elsewhere (so Sergei, often referred to as Serge, or Sergy, is always Sergei). For Russian speakers, the use of the patronymic (the middle name taken from the father's first full name, with -ovich, -evich, or if feminine, -ovna or -evna added) comes easily. So Rachmaninoff is addressed as Sergei Vasilievich. With exceptions, according to context, in general I have stuck to first name and surname.

Dates

Until February 1918 Russia used the Julian (Old Style) calendar - in the twentieth century, this was thirteen days behind the Gregorian (New Style) calendar used in the West. The Gregorian calendar was adopted by the Bolsheviks on 31 January 1918: the next day, accordingly, became 14 February 1918. For simplicity, I have in this book kept dates before February 1918 to a minimum. They are vital for a history of the Russian Revolution, but less important here except as chronological guidelines. Any which do occur are in Old Style, which at least means that the October Revolution occurs in October, not in November.

Note on St Petersburg

The city changed its name to Petrograd in 1914, after the outbreak of World War I (to remove German associations). In 1924, after Lenin's death, it was...