It is tempting to explain Sergey Vasil'yevich Rachmaninov's lifelong outward stoicism, the icy demeanor he always exhibited when performing, as a protective mechanism acquired slowly and painfully in his youth, when one difficulty after another presented itself to a sensitive, naturally withdrawn young man who was nevertheless determined to make his way in the world as a musician. He had little help from his parents. His father squandered the famiIy fortune so quickly that Sergey was only nine years old when he saw the estate at Novgorod where they had lived, the last of their property, auctioned off to pay debts.
The family moved to St. Petersburg and Rachmaninov continued his piano studies at the Conservatory. But soon, when a diphtheria epidemic swept the city, his sister Sofiya died. Not long after that his parents separated. Young Sergey reacted by failing all his final examinations at school (he was then twelve). As a consequence the promising pianist was shipped off to Moscow, where he would live and study with the strict disciplinarian Nikolay Zverev. Life with Zverev was no picnic: the day began at 6:00 a.m. and included a stiff regimen of communal practice, group and private instruction and attendance at various concerts in the city. In a while, Rachmaninov was able to transfer to the senior division of the Moscow Conservatory, taking more of his classes outside the Zverev household. But when, in order to compose without the constant distraction of his housemates' practice, he asked for a private room, Zverev obliged by kicking him out. They did not exchange words for three years.
By that time Rachmaninov was studying piano with his cousin Alexander Ziloti and composing prolifically. He would endure further hardships, but at least his genius was also being recognized, and he began to gather champions to his cause. An early convert was the older composer Peter Tchaikovsky, who attended the performance of his graduation piece, the opera Aleko. Tchaikovsky was to have conducted another early Rachmaninov work, the symphonic fantasy The Rock, but he died before being able to do so (Rachmaninov responded by writing an Elegiac Trio in his memory). Another ambitious early work. the Symphony No 1 in D minor, suffered a worse fate. It was premiered during the 1896 Russian Symphony Concert season but the conductor (Alexander Glazunov) was drunk and delivered an incoherent, unfeeling performance. The reviews were uniformly bad. Rachmaninov went into a deep depression and composed almost nothing for another three years.
In the end, the young composer consulted everyone from Leo Tolstoy to a medical hypnotist. The hypnotist proved most successful. After several weeks treatment, Rachmaninov rejoined the community of active creators. Along with his happy marriage to a cousin, Natalya Satina, and the eventual birth of two children, Sergey Rachmaninov began to enjoy international acclaim as a pianist, conductor, and composer. His most popular piano concerto, the Second, was written in 1900 and 1901. The Second Symphony, the symphonic poem The Isle of the Dead, and a number ot other important works followed in the next several years
New York City Opera Biography