Solo Pianist - Diary entries
Many of the initial performance details listed here were compiled from Zarui Apetian’s important research, published in Literaturnoye Nasledie [Collected Literature] (Sovietskii Kompozitor: Moscow, 1980, vol. 3, pp. 439-467). These details have been subsequently cross-referenced and checked with the many itineraries and other corroborating materials, especially substantial research that identified precise program details, collected by Rachmaninoff’s sister-in-law, Sophia Satina, housed in the Rachmaninoff Archive of the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C (LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R22, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89). Further information has been gathered from Barrie Martyn’s book Rachmaninoff: Composer, Pianist, Conductor (Scolar Press: London, 1990), A Catalogue of the Compositions of S. Rachmaninoff by Robert Threlfall and Geoffrey Norris (Scolar Press: London, 1982), and research undertaken at the Glinka Museum of Musical Culture, Moscow.
February 17 1943
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: Satina noted that this concert, commencing at 8.15pm, was the last that was given by her brother-in-law. Satina also indicated that the concert in Knoxville had been planned two months earlier (along with a concert in Chattanooga), hence, one imagines, Rachmaninoff’s willingness to return to perform here. A press clipping that advertised the concert, originally scheduled for November 9, is included with this entry. The attached reviews offer conflicting information about which works by Rachmaninoff were performed: one notes the Etudes-Tableaux in B minor and A minor, which the fourth attached press clipping indicates were programmed, while the other notes only one with the Prelude in G major, op. 32, no. 5, being added. The first review has been followed in this instance as it seems more authoritative. Confusingly, however, this review refers to the Prelude in C sharp minor, op. 3, no. 2, being performed (perhaps as an encore), also referring to it as 'no. 4'. It also notes the transcription of Mussorgsky's Hopak as an encore, but refers to the composer as Rimsky-Korsakov in error. Poignantly but quite plainly, in her notes Satina wrote ‘all the concerts which were listed after – Orlando, Houston, San Antonio, Dayton, Pasadena, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Long Beach, etc. – were cancelled.’ LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.