Talk:Sergei Rachmaninoff

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[edit] Music samples and fair use

We need some critical comment on the particular performances featured in the sound clips otherwise a claim of fair use is not justified. See WP:Fair use#Audio clips:

Brief song clips may be used for identification of a musical style, group, or iconic piece of music when accompanied by critical or historical commentary and when attributed to the copyright holder.

Right now there's no critical or historical commentary. Also, there's no copyright attribution. Ideally, we would have multiple performances of the same music and a critical comparison of them.

Grover cleveland 07:09, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Trivia

  • Rachmaninoff owned two New York Steinways D-274 in his Beverly Hills home on Elm Drive, he also owned a New York D in his New York home, however, in 1933, he chose a Hamburg D for his new home, villa Senar, in Switzerland. [citation needed]
  • According to the son of aviation pioneer Igor Sikorsky, Rachmaninoff met Sikorsky in 1923, and after studying his designs, handed him a check for $5,000 (roughly $61,000 in 2007 dollars), saying "I believe in you, I trust you, pay me back when you can, go, start building your airplanes."[citation needed]
  • Rachmaninoff once accompanied the gypsy singer Nadezhda Plevitskaya. Their 1926 recordings of "Powder and Paint" and "The Little Apple" were not released for decades.
  • The tune of "Never Gonna Fall In Love Again," also released by Eric Carmen, is based on the main theme of the adagio, played on solo clarinet, of the third movement of Rachmaninoff's Second Symphony in E Minor.
  • The melody of "Full Moon and Empty Arms", a popular song from 1945, is a theme from the last movement of his Piano Concerto No. 2.
  • Rachmaninoff is an important influence on Matt Bellamy of Muse, as illustrated in songs such as "Space Dementia," "Megalomania,", "Butterflies and Hurricanes." and "Hoodoo".[citation needed]

Rachmaninoff was aware of the appeal of this melody, reportedly saying of it "This one is for my agent."[1]

  • His Piano Concerto No. 2 was also featured in the anime Nodame Cantabile, with the piano solo played by Shinichi Chiaki, and the orchestra conducted by Franz von Stresemann.
  • Movements II and III of his Piano Concerto No. 2 are featured in the film Center Stage.
  • A comparison of the creative trajectories of Rachmaninov and Scriabin has fueled psychoanalytic speculation on the distinction between talent and genius.[2]

Removed until an idea of what to do with it comes forth. I'm integrating the film portrayals and perhaps some mentions, but I don't know what to do with the rest. See Wikipedia:"In popular culture" articles ALTON .ıl 09:25, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

You people are retarded. You have a citation needed flag on the lives of the composers thing

THE CITATION IS IN THE TEXT NOT EVERYTHING NEEDS A GODDAMN FOOTNOTE. IT FUCKING SAYS: SCHONBERG LIVES OF THE GREAT COMPOSERS

87.102.73.123 (talk) 01:59, 21 February 2008 (UTC)


[edit] Merge with Life of Sergei Rachmaninoff

The following discussion is an archived discussion of the merge request. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Don't move, two editors, including me, have strong opinions against this. ALTON .ıl 21:37, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

Dmiat (talk · contribs) proposes a merge with Life of Sergei Rachmaninoff.

  • Oppose, as creator etc. The article is totally different, starting from the lead down, although it is a copy from the existent biography it is also a work in progress. Important figures such as Ludwig van Beethoven have Beethoven's biography and Franz Liszt has a page talking about his later works only. I think these supporting articles greatly add to the depth that you can achieve with this article, because most of the detailed information would be cut on the main page (in the spirit of "summary style"). The "Upbringing" section, for example, is cut to a few sentences mentioning nothing about his dead sisters and the importance of his grandmother. Merging would lose so much of this valuable content. ALTON .ıl 18:33, 7 January 2008 (UTC)
  • Oppose, as a pianist who plays Rachmaninoff. He was a really unique figure who experienced so much that could be enough for several full lives. His greatness comes to one's awareness gradually with exposure to his music, his letters, his pianos, and places where he grew up, studied, worked, and died. Two articles give a better scope for showing such a complex and important figure, especially for describing Rachmaninoff from two different prospectives, one for a biography, and one for career, compositions and heritage. He was instrumental in many important cultural and business developments, gave the start-up capital to Igor Sikorsky for aviation industry, funded music school in Paris, funded Michael Chekhov's acting seminars in Europe, then introduced Chekhov to Hollywood, helped the family of Vladimir Nabokov, donated to churches in Paris, New York, and Los Angeles, gave charitable performances in many countries, including at Steinway Halls, and, of course he helped many musicians together with Vladimir Horowitz. Two different articles may eventually provide a more comprehensive coverage of Rachmaninoff as a multifaceted person, his complex life, his concert career, creativity and cultural impact. Steveshelokhonov 20:42, 15 March 2008 (UTC)
The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

[edit] Rachmaninov or Rachmaninoff?

Which one is "technically" correct? Why Rachmaninoff on Wikipedia and not Rachmaninov? ♥ Fredil 02:41, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

  • Rachmaninoff is the way he used to spell his name himself (and he spent about a half of his life in West). Goudzovski (talk) 09:14, 1 March 2008 (UTC)
Rachmaninov redirects to this page. Grover cleveland (talk) 21:38, 1 March 2008 (UTC)
And that settles it as far as we're concerned. However, it's an interesting question to consider. The Russian в is transliterated as "v", but transliterating a word letter for letter from one alphabet to another does not always reflect its proper pronunciation. The pronunciation of в varies. At the end of the last syllable in a word, it's devoiced and is pronounced "f". The spelling that Rachmaninoff preferred reflects this; he had to use a double f, because if he'd used a single f, most people would have seen "-of" and said " -ov" (because the word of is pronounced "ov"), thus defeating the purpose. -- JackofOz (talk) 23:42, 1 March 2008 (UTC)
Good answers. Thanks :) ♥ Fredil 02:33, 3 March 2008 (UTC)


[edit] a question

why does the brass sound so off on the recording of piano concerto number 2? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.5.7.130 (talk) 04:44, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Many things are off. However, we are fortunate that we have any recording of the piece since it is a huge endeavor, and if I was ever able to play it I would surely not license it as freely as Wikipedia requires. ALTON .ıl 05:18, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Sarcoma. or melanoma?

The article lists Rachmaninoff's cause of death as sarcoma? What are the references for this? I had read and heard previously that he died of melanoma. Thanks. Jonyungk (talk) 03:52, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

Interesting. I read that he died of lung cancer. ? —  $PЯINGεrαgђ  04:14 12 April 2008 (UTC) I will search around next time I'm online to try and figure out
Tough one. None of my books gives the exact cause, including either edition of Grove. Sources on the internet are rather mixed. Does anyone have the biographies by Bertensson/Leyda, Norris, or Martyn? (there's lots of others on the bibliography list in Grove, but those are the ones in English). Antandrus (talk) 04:27, 12 April 2008 (UTC)
Harrison says:

...further tests established that Rachmaninoff's illness was terminal. He had an uncommon form of cancer called melanoma, which had spread...

If that isn't sufficient, I'll consult BL and Norris tomorrow. And that whole part needs a massage, anyways. The doctors never told him, so it isn't right to say he was diagnosed with; it implies he knew. ALTON .ıl 08:12, 12 April 2008 (UTC)
I think Harrison is sufficient. Probably the only reason it's not in the Grove bibliography is that it was written before Harrison. Thanks for finding that, Antandrus (talk) 14:20, 12 April 2008 (UTC)