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.
January 19 1917 (Julian calendar)
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: Satina notes an all-Rachmaninoff program at this concert. LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
January 26 1917 (Julian calendar)
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: Satina notes that this was the 6th Concert of the season of the Rostov Branch of Russian Music Society. Satina also indicates that the program included some earlier compositions, including the Polichinelle, op, 3, no. 4, but that the order the pieces were played in is unknown. LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
January 27 1917 (Julian calendar)
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: Satina indicates that this was an all-Rachmaninoff program. LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
January 28 1917 (Julian calendar)
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: Satina indicates that this was an all-Rachmaninoff program. LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
January 29 1917 (Julian calendar)
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: Satina indicates that this was an all-Rachmaninoff program, also that it was an afternoon concert. LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
January 31 1917 (Julian calendar)
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: Satina indicates that this was an all-Rachmaninoff program. LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
February 21 1917 (Julian calendar)
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: Satina notes Apetian’s claim that Rachmaninoff added one more Etude-Tableau, op. 33, to the program, and that only 4 Preludes were played, citing p. 472-473. While this is the first programmatic reference to the complete set of 'nine' Etudes-Tableaux, op. 39, with many programs over the previous month unknown it cannot be ascertained when the complete set was first performed. Satina indicates that 50% of the proceeds from the concert were given ‘to the Russian Musician Fund to help the needy Composers and their families’. St Petersburg was known as Petrograd at this time. LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
February 26 1917 (Julian calendar)
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: Satina notes that ‘50% of the money received will be given to the All-Russia Union of Cities, to help the sick and wounded soldiers’. Satina also indicates that the performance took place at the ‘Zimin Opera House’, which might be a reference to the Nikitsky Theatre. LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
February 22 1918
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: Satina notes that this was an all-Rachmaninoff program. LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
March 18 1918
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
March 22 1918
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
April 24 1918
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
April 26 1918
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: The ordering of the two Etudes-Tableau in E flat minor, and in C minor, could be different, although Rachmaninoff frequently played the E flat minor op. 33 work before the E flat major op. 33 work, both prior to this concert and later. In hand-written notes, Satina appears unsure whether one or two Moments musicaux were played. LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
May 2 1918
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: Satina notes that the rest of the program is unknown, but also that it included ‘songs’ sung by ‘Madame Skalontz’. Bertensson and Leyda confirm this concert, also noting that Skalontz sang songs by Rachmaninoff. LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
September 18 1918
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: Satina indicates that Tchaikovsky’s Romance might not have been played. A piano made by Hornung and Moller is noted. LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
September 19 1918
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
September 27 1918
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
September 30 1918
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
October 1 1918
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
October 2 1918
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
October 3 1918
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
October 4 1918
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
October 7 1918
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: While the Elegy, op. 3, no. 1, was listed on the program, a direct line through it in the copy in the Library of Congress would appear to indicate that it wasn't performed. LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
October 9 1918
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
October 10 1918
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
October 13 1918
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
October 16 1918
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
October 18 1918
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
December 8 1918
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: Satina indicates that in Providence a program misprint had stated that the Chopin Nocturne was in A minor. She also notes that this was Rachmaninoff’s first appearance in the USA since 1910. LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.
December 15 1918
Rachmaninoff's role: Solo Pianist
Notes: Satina notes that the concert began with ‘the American Hymn’. LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89. Review: Boston Herald 1918.12.16 p. 11.