Sergej Vasiljevič Rachmaninov (Russian Сергей Васильевич Рахманинов, 1st April 1873 Semjonovo, Russia  – 28th March 1943 Beverly Hills, California, US (from Wikipedia)

Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninov was a famous Russian composer of the late Romantic period. We owe his much-admired work to his father and grandfather, officers of the Imperial Guard who were also gifted pianists. The sensitive Rachmaninoff inherited this talent. And thanks to the uncertain and restless childhood that his father prepared for him, he decided not to enter the career of a professional soldier, but to dedicate his life to music.

His father, military officer Vasil Rachmaninov, acquired five country estates by marrying the daughter of a wealthy general. However, he destroyed the family's happiness with his disorderly lifestyle, playing cards and affairs with women. He retired from the army and decided to lead the life of a wealthy landowner. But that was the beginning of his end. Gradually, the estates were sold off so that the father could pay off his gambling debts and pay for expensive mistresses.

When the boy Sergei was nine years old, the family had only one estate left, but the family also lost that and was forced to move to an apartment in the capital, St. Petersburg. Under the weight of family problems, the parents' marriage also began to fall apart. However, for political and religious reasons, divorce was out of the question, so the father left the family, left the apartment to his wife, and the mother was left alone with her six children.

As young music student Sergei met Natalia  for the first time  during Easter in 1888. Given their shared interest in music and closeness to each other, it was not surprising that romance blossomed. The news of their engagement exploded like a bombshell ! As you probably know, the church has had a problem with consanguineous marriages. First of all, Sergei was not a regular visitor to the church and did not go to confession and communion, and no priest would meet them without confirming that they had fulfilled both of these obligations. Nevertheless, Sergej refused to testify. He was thus not allowed to marry his beloved Natalya, and the result was a deep depression for many years, when he did not compose music at all.

Through family connections, it was finally agreed that the couple were to marry secretly in the military barracks, and the barracks priests would not report the marriage to the Most Holy Governing Synod, but only to the generals.

However, there was one final hurdle to overcome, and that was to get permission from the Tsar for the marriage of blood relatives. It was difficult to resolve this question, as the petition had to be sent during the ceremony itself, because if the Tsar refused, no priest would agree to perform the marriage. After a delay of several months, on April 29, 1902, Sergei Rachmaninoff married Natalia Satinova in an army chapel on the outskirts of Moscow. Natalia Satina was born in1877, the second of four children of Alexander Alexandrovich Satina and the composer's father's sister, Varvara Arkadiyevna Rachmaninov. So she was his direct cousin. She studied piano at the Moscow Conservatory, had a great understanding of her husband's composing activities and supported him to the best of her abilities.

The marriage of these blood relatives was happy and the couple had two perfectly healthy daughters.

Rachmaninoff possessed extremely large hands,with which he could easily maneuver through the most complex chordal configurations. His left hand technique was unusually powerful. He had a gigantic finger stretch and according to some investigation about his body disposition he might have Marfan syndrome - a hereditary disorder of the connective tissue (similar as famous violinist Paganini).

Sergei Rachmaninoff was one of the last Russian romantic composers, and because he lived at the turn of the century, he was influenced by both old and new creative styles, which made it difficult for him. When playing piano he always gave priority to live concert performances and  rejected radio broadcasts because of their poor sound quality. Thanks to the few audio recordings, however, we can still admire his distinctive style, which was described as completely original and avant-garde in its time. His entire work testifies to Rachmaninoff's virtuoso talent and the tremendous power and greatness of his personality.

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                                         Margaret