October 18 1911

Satina noted that her information for this concert in the Felix Corbett series was sent to her by Mr J. Tillet. She further noted that in Rachmaninoff’s notebook he wrote that he played ‘only 2 piano solos’, but in a later typewritten comment pondered that it was ‘possible he meant he appeared twice’. While Satina noted the Schubert she didn't indicate Rachmaninoff's participation, yet from a review in the Teeside Weekly Herald from October 21 it is apparent that the performance of Schubert's Rondo in B minor for violin and piano was performed by him with Fritz Kreisler, which would seem to be both the first time the two played together, and the only known time they did so in a public concert. The exact order of the program is not known, and difficult to determine from the review, which also notes the Prelude in C sharp minor, op. 3, no. 2, was repeated as an encore. Rachmaninoff corresponded with R.L. Ibbs in February 1911 regarding this concert, the letter appearing in Christopher Fifield's 2005 biography of Ibbs & Tillett, subsequently published in Lyudmila Kovalyova-Ogorodnova's 2015 two-volume biography of Rachmaninoff. The letter in Fifield's book, translated from the German original, appears twice: on p. 533, Rachmaninoff is quoted as indicating that after playing two movements from his First Sonata and some early smaller works he could instead perform his 'Second sonata' and some preludes, which Kovalyova-Ogorodnova interprets as evidence the later sonata was composed as early as 1911 (vol. 2, p. 174). However, on p. 77 the translation appears more plausibly: '...the programme is as follows: 1) Adagio and Finale from the piano sonata in D minor, 2) Elegie, Prélude, Melodie, Polichinelle Op. 3, Barcarolle, Humoresque Op. 10 but add that I can substitute the two pieces from the sonata with 6 Preludes from Opp. 23 and 32.' While ultimately the Sonata no. 1 was not played at this concert, it is of interest that at the time he proposed playing only its second and third movements. LoC, Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, ML31.R33, Papers of Sophie Satin, boxes 82-89.