Sergei Rachmaninoff

Cross Rhythms of the Soul

Valeria Z. Nollan

• Publisher: Lexington Books
• Year: 2022
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781978773059
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Art General

What if everything you thought you knew about Rachmaninoff was only half the story?

He was widely considered the greatest pianist of the twentieth century. His Piano Concerto No. 2 has moved millions to tears. His All-Night Vigil is one of the most transcendent works of Orthodox sacred music ever written. And yet, for decades, biographies of Rachmaninoff have told only part of his story - the part that could be understood without fully knowing Russia, the Orthodox faith, or the world of the Russian emigrant.

Cross Rhythms of the Soul is different. It is the first biography of Rachmaninoff in English written by someone who lived his world from the inside.

Valeria Z. Nollan - herself a Russian emigrant, highly trained amateur pianist, and scholar of Orthodox Christianity - brings to this biography what no other biographer has achieved: the cultural fluency, the spiritual understanding, and the personal parallel of a life also shaped by emigration, faith, and the Russian soul. Her meetings with Rachmaninoff's grandson in Switzerland opened doors into his private world. Her decades of research across Russia, Europe, and the United States uncovered details no previous biography had reached.

Inside these pages you will discover:

The Russian Orthodox faith that shaped Rachmaninoff's greatest compositions - including the spiritual world behind the All-Night Vigil, finally explained by someone who understands it from within

The extraordinary women in his life - their talents, their influence, and the imprints of their relationships that are palpable in his music

A mystery woman whose existence challenges everything the established narrative has told us about his personal life - a discovery unique to this biography

The anguish of exile and the creative fire that burned through it - told by a scholar who has lived the parallel experience of Russian emigration

Rachmaninoff's humanitarian work, his love of jazz, his connection to Hollywood, and the full, rich texture of a life too long reduced to concert programs and discographies

Praised by scholars as "a must read for any serious music lover," "gracefully written and fully accessible to non-specialists," and "a major work" that presents "a more authentic understanding of Rachmaninoff than we have had before," Cross Rhythms of the Soul is both a landmark of Rachmaninoff scholarship and a deeply human portrait of one of music's most beloved composers.

Barrie Martyn, author of Rachmaninoff: Composer, Pianist, Conductor (1990) notes:
"I write to salute you for your revelatory study of Rachmaninoff, self-evidently an essential resource both for scholars and for amateur enthusiasts . . . Hearty congratulations and many, many thanks for your outstanding achievement."

If you have ever been moved by his music and wondered what lay beneath it - this is the book you have been waiting for.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Rachmaninoff’s Origins: (1873–1884)
• Chapter 2: Early Education: (1885–1892)
• Chapter 3: Birth of a Composer-Pianist: (1885–1892)
• Chapter 4: Birth of a Conductor: (1893–1910)
• Chapter 5: The Muses: (1890–1917)
• Chapter 6: Mystery of an Immortal Beloved: (1897–1902)
• Chapter 7: Marriage to Natalia Satina: (1898–1910)
• Chapter 8: Rachmaninoff’s Aesthetics: (1906–1918)
• Chapter 9: Rachmaninoff’s Religiosity: (1873–1943)
• Chapter 10: Transitions: (1914–1923)
• Chapter 11: The Legendary Virtuoso Pianist: (1912–1943)
• Chapter 12: Rachmaninoff as Humanitarian: (1914–1943)
• Chapter 13: Paradise Regained: The Villa Senar (1920–1939)
• Chapter 14: The Last Bow: Rachmaninoff and America (1920–1943)
• Afterword
• Appendix I
• Appendix II
• Selected Discography
• Selected Bibliography
• Further Reading
• Index
• About the Author and Principal Research Colleagues