Rachmaninoff, Sergei (EN)

Rachmaninoff Sergei Vasilyevich, *1 April (20 March) 1873 Oneg (Semyonovo?), Novgorod Governorate, †28 March 1943 Beverly Hills (California), Russian composer, pianist and conductor. Rachmaninoff’s paternal grandfather was a pianist and composer, a student of J. Field; both parents played the piano. At the age of four, Rachmaninoff began to learn the piano with his mother and later continued under A. Ornatskaya and at the St. Petersburg Conservatory.  In 1885, he continued his piano studies at the Moscow Conservatory in N. Zverev’s class, and from 1888 under A. Siloti. Having lived with Zverev, he met many outstanding personalities in the Russian musical world, including An. Rubinstein, A. Arensky, S. Taneyev, V. Safonov and P. Tchaikovsky. In 1890, he began working on Piano Concerto No. 1; he spent the summer at Ivanovka near Tambov, a country estate of his father’s relatives, the Satins; in the coming years, most of Rachmaninoff’s subsequent works were written there. In 1891, he graduated from the piano class with distinction, and in 1892, from the composition studied at Moscow Conservatory with a great gold medal, presenting the opera Aleko as his diploma thesis. He gained fame from the Prelude in C-sharp minor from the composition piece Morceaux de fantaisie Op. 3, performed in the autumn of that year at the Moscow Electrical Exhibition. In 1895, he started to work on Symphony No. 1 in D minor Op. 13; its unfortunate premiere on 27 March 1897 in St. Petersburg, conducted by A. Glazunov, was brutally criticised by C. Cui. At that time, Rachmaninoff suffered from severe mental depression. He almost completely abandoned composition for three years (he composed String Quartet No. 2, 6 Moments musicaux Op. 16, Morceau de fantaisie in G minor, 12 Romances Op. 14 and 6 Choruses for female or children’s choir Op. 15), and began his conducting career at the Moscow Private Russian Opera, founded by a rich industrialist S. Mamontov. In the 1897–98 season, he conducted, among others, A Life for the Tsar by M. Glinka, Samson and Delilah by C. Saint-Saëns, Rusalka by A. Dargomyzhsky, Carmen by G. Bizet, Orfeo ed Euridice by Ch.W. Gluck. At Mamontov’s theatre, he became a close friend with F. Chaliapin. He debuted on 19 April 1899 at Queen’s Hall in London, conducting fantasy Utios Op. 7 for orchestra and performing Elegy and Prelude in C-sharp minor from Op. 3 on the piano. On 12 Mat 1902, he married N.A. Satina; their first daughter, Irina, was born in May 1903, and the second, Tatiana, in July 1907. In September 1904, Rachmaninoff was engaged as a conductor at the Bolshoi Theatre; he conducted, among others, premieres of Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades by Tchaikovsky, Pan Voyevoda by Rimsky-Korsakov, and two of his own operas: The Miserly Knight and Francesca da Rimini. In 1906–09, he stayed in Dresden for a few times with his family and met A. Nikisch at concerts at Gewandhaus during his visits to Leipzig. In May 1907, together with N. Rimsky-Korsakov and A. Scriabin, he went to Paris for Saison Russe, organised by S. Diaghilev. In March 1908, he conducted Symphony No. 2 in Warsaw, and later performed at the Royal Hall in London with S. Koussevitzky.

During World War I, he gave many charity concerts, among others, with S. Koussevitzky, who later conducted Rachmaninoff’s performance of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto in B-flat minor on 13 March 1917 in Moscow; he introduced Scriabin’s works to concert stages (Piano Concerto, Sonata No. 5, Satanic Poem, Vers la flamme). In January 1915, Rachmaninoff created his most outstanding choral composition All-Night Vigil Op. 37. After the outbreak of the revolution, his favourite estate in Ivanovka, inherited from his uncle, was razed to the ground; Rachmaninoff left Moscow together with his family. Initially, he lived in Stockholm, later in Copenhagen and eventually, in November 1918, he settled in New York, having received attractive offers from the United States. He signed a concert contract with the agent Ch. Ellis (40 concerts in four months) and a recording contract with Victor Talking Machine Company. In 1921, he bought a house in New York, furnishing it on a model of the Ivanovka estate. During numerous symphonic concerts in 1919–22, he mainly presented his two piano concertos (No. 2 and No. 3), and Piano Concerto in B-flat minor by Tchaikovsky; his programme of solo-chamber concerts included works by Mozart, Chopin, Mendelssohn and Liszt. From 1923, he frequently travelled to Europe (London, Dresden, Paris); he rented a villa for holiday stays in Claire Fontaine, France. In 1924, Rachmaninoff’s older daughter, Irina, married Prince P. Volkonsky and was widowed a few months later (after the prince’s death, their daughter, Sofia, was born); in 1925, Rachmaninoff founded the publishing company TAIR in Paris for his daughters (named after the initials of Tatiana and Irina). At the same time, he started composing again, working on Piano Concerto No. 4; its premiere in Philadelphia (18 March 1927) was criticised, which prompted Rachmaninoff to make numerous corrections before it was published by TAIR. On 12 March 1931, together with I. Ostromislensky and Count I. Tolstoy, he published a letter criticising the policy of the USSR in “The New York Times,” which resulted in a two-year ban on the performance of his music in his native country. In the same year, he wrote his last piano solo work, Variations on a Theme of Corelli, premiered on 12 October in Montreal. At the beginning of the 1930s, Rachmaninoff built a villa in Hertenstein, Switzerland, on the banks of Lake Lucerne; it was here that he completed Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini Op. 43 in 1934, and Symphony No. 3 Op. 44 in 1936. These were also years of very intensive concert activity in Europe. He started his tour in 1936 in Warsaw. At that time, he often included works by Chopin, Liszt, Bach, Beethoven and Schubert in his programmes.

He gave his last concert in Europe on 11 March 1939, performing Piano Concerto No. 1 by Beethoven and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini at a European Music Festival, moved from Salzburg to Lucerne due to the occupation of Austria by the Nazis. In the summer of 1939, he left Europe with his entire family and moved back to the United States. In 1940, he composed his last work, Symphonic Dances Op. 45, and revised Piano Concerto No. 4 in 1941. He settled in California in 1942 and toured the United States; he donated the proceeds from one of the concerts to aid the Red Army. During the tour, he fell ill in January 1943 and was diagnosed with lung cancer after returning to Beverly Hills. He was buried in the cemetery in Kensico (currently Valhalla) near New York.

Rachmaninoff’s work was not related to radical and anti-romantic aesthetic tendencies of the avant-garde composers from the 1^st half of the 20^th century, similarly to the late work of R. Strauss. It grew out of late Romanticism and was its continuation but, at the same time, also its original and modernist development. It was unfairly charged with epigonism and eclecticism and its individual character and artistic value were not appreciated. It was not until the last decade of the 20^th century that recordings of Rachmaninoff’s symphonies and symphonic poems were released; however, it was rare to record his concert repertoire. The lack or unavailability of monographic syntheses of Rachmaninoff’s life and work is still painfully felt today. Because of that, it is impossible not to appreciate the concise synthesis of his work given in Polish literature by Z. Lissa in her Historia muzyki rosyjskiej (1955). Starting from the 1970s, the first scientific monographs began to appear (J. Kiełdysz, V. Briantseva, G. Norris – author of the entry in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians 2001, B. Martyn, M. Biesold, B.S. Nikitin).

Rachmaninoff’s significance in the history of music at the end of the 19^th century and the first half of the 20^th century has been wrongly reduced to his virtuoso work and a few of the most popular pieces from his rich piano oeuvre. Rachmaninoff was also an outstanding symphonist. Twelve years passed between the early Symphony No. 1 in D minor Op. 13 from 1895 (Youthful Symphony in D minor without an opus number, composed in 1891, was not completed) and the fully mature Symphony No. 2. The former is still heterogeneous in style, form and sound technique, containing, on the one hand, a conventionally classical orchestral texture and academic fugatos, and on the other – a romantic melodic and harmonic narrative, but at the same time revealing an extraordinary flair, thematic inventiveness and orchestral imagination. In Symphony No. 2, Rachmaninoff already expresses himself as a composer with a fully formed individual style. Symphony No. 3 was written 30 years after No. 2 (the reasons for such long breaks undoubtedly lay in Rachmaninoff’s extremely intensive virtuoso activity, but also in his mental crises related to the critical assessments of his music). The classical, late-Beethovenian cyclical arrangement of symphonies (sonata allegro preceded by a slow introduction, scherzo, song-like larghetto or adagio, monumental finale in a free sonata form) is given in his symphonies – like in Tchaikovsky’s – a coherent, internal dramatic meaning through the leitmotif of the entire work, as well as the affinity between the themes of the individual movements (most visible in Symphony No. 2), which thus become chapters of one overall musical narrative. Rachmaninoff slightly modifies this arrangement in the three-movement Symphony No. 3, in which the middle movement is a cantilena Adagio with a scherzo central episode. The theme-motto contained in the introduction of each symphony, close in its dark expression and musical symbolism to the themes of fate from Tchaikovsky’s last symphonies, usually runs through the subsequent movements, both as the basis or motivic material for other themes, and as a ‘recurring’ motif.

All symphonies were composed in minor keys, which were related in terms of expression: D minor, E minor and A minor, respectively. In these works, Rachmaninoff continues the direction of a lyrical-dramatic symphony, with an even stronger emphasis on melodious lyricism, with intensive, internal play and progressions of small motivic structures contained in intervals of a semitone, a second or a third, with strongly chromatic harmony and polyphonic texture. The specific national colour was achieved through motivic and thematic-harmonic ‘intonations’ inspired by folk or church music. The creation of the symphony was influenced by the novel Anna Karenina by L. Tolstoy (Symphony No. 1 in D minor Op. 13), the works of A. Pushkin –Demons, Winter Road and A. Blok – On Kulikovo Field (Symphony No. 2), as well as the poetry of I. Bunin – In Steppes and Chekhov’s stories – Steppe (Symphony No. 3).

Literary inspirations, which come to the fore in symphonic poems and give them a specific poetic atmosphere, place Rachmaninoff in the circle of late romanticism, with visible influences of impressionism and symbolism. Rachmaninoff’s most outstanding achievement in this genre is the musical image of the crossing to death – the poem Isle of the Dead, inspired by the famous painting by the German symbolist A. Böcklin. The poem is presented in a symmetrical three-part form; the first section is a dark and melancholic image of the deadness of sea silence, with an ostinato figure of ‘rocking waves’ (metre), chorale structures, and colours of the lowest register of the orchestra; the middle section is dominated by a cantilena, strongly chromatic melodic line, developing through the aforementioned progressions of motivic microstructures, with an intensity of expression equal to the raptures of the main characters in Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde; at the culmination of its persistent, constantly renewed upward journey, the ominous Dies irae motif emerges; the final section returns to the original image of death as calm and quiet. In the suggestiveness of the sound imagination, emotional intensity, richness of the late Romantic orchestral instrumentation, and harmonic complications, Rachmaninoff’s symphonic poems stand in comparison with the contemporary works of R. Strauss, and their climate corresponds in a special way with the symphonic poems of Karłowicz.

Rachmaninoff’s most outstanding vocal-instrumental work, The Bells – a poem for symphony orchestra, choir and solo voices (soprano, tenor, baritone) – also belongs more to the genre of a programme symphony than a cantata. Rachmaninoff used as literary material E.A. Poe’s poem translated by the Russian symbolist K. Balmont, with its metaphor of bells of different colours accompanying the various stages of human existence: the silver bells of a sleigh ride in childhood, the golden bells of marriage and love, the bronze bells of fear and terror, the iron bells of death and mourning. The structure of the cycle, motivated by the poem, consists of 4 parts: 1. Allegro, ma non tanto (a 3-part reprise form with a static, impressionistic-lyrical central episode), 2. Lento (a cross between the reprise form and the rondo), 3. Presto (a form that grew out of the ‘sonata’ idea of ​​contrast and processing of two basic themes: Presto – Meno mosso), 4. Lento lugubre (a form of variation on a funeral march). As in the symphonies, the dramatic integrity of the cycle is reinforced by the leading motif, referring to the symbolism of bells with intervals falling from the central sound, with an expanding ambitus, from the second to the fifth.

The culmination of Rachmaninoff’s creative path, Symphonic Dances from 1940, with their antitheses of the spontaneity of motor dance rhythms and lyricism, joy of life and melancholy, Orthodox chants, the sound of bells and the obsessive recurrence of the Dies irae theme in Rachmaninoff’s music (previously present in Symphony No. 1, Symphony No. 2, Isle of the Dead, in a shortened version also in Symphony No. 3, and in allusive form in most of his works), is a kind of summary of the composer’s entire oeuvre in the field of orchestral music. They refer both to earlier works and undertake a kind of dialogue between the ‘flesh-and-blood’ romantic and the modernist tendencies of the music of the first half of the 20^th century in its trends: vitalist, neoclassical, impressionist-symbolic, and especially with the music of Prokofiev, Stravinsky, and Ravel. In addition to the symphony-cantata The Bells, a significant work in the field of vocal-instrumental music is the cantata Spring Op. 20 for baritone, mixed choir and orchestra to N. Nekrasov’s poem Green Noise. Written immediately after Piano Concerto No. 2, it represents Rachmaninoff’s fully formed, mature style. The structure of the text suggests a three-part reprise form; the text is divided between the choral parts in the outer sections and the narration of the solo baritone in the middle part (joined in the dramatic climax by the choir’s mormorando) and in the coda conclusion. The literary and musical meaning of the work goes far beyond the common connotations associated with nature coming to life, or purely illustrative intentions. The narrator’s declamatory-balladlike solo, telling of the bitterness of heartbreak, wounded pride and the desire for revenge, takes on a strongly expressive, dramatic or even tragic character. The symbolism of spring is initially tinged with a mysterious and disturbing, irrational force of drive and vitality rather than vital optimism (the leading motif of the call of nature, the dark colouring of the orchestra’s introduction, modelled on the introduction in symphonies) and only in the finale does it express the apotheosis of nature and rebirth, and in the final tone – reconciliation with fate.

A separate and important place in Rachmaninoff’s cantata output is occupied by two religious choral works: Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom for mixed and boys’ choir and the All-Night Vigil, a type of vespers, consisting of 15 songs based mostly on original church melodies; Rachmaninoff drew them from neumatic manuscript records, kept in the Cathedral of the Archangel in Moscow. Inspirations from old church music, its melodics and austere harmony also come to the fore in other works, including symphonies, Symphonic Dances, symphony-cantata The Bells; here they express themselves directly in the idea of ​​synthesis of archaism and modern harmony. It is significant that it was studies of Orthodox music, modality and the harmony of parallelisms that led Rachmaninoff in religious works to develop his own idiom of tonal harmony, breaking away from major-minor tonality, based on modal scales, parallel shifting of consonances and their arrangements, as well as local chord centres. In this way, Rachmaninoff not only enters into dialogue with the radical tendencies of the avant-garde of the first half of the 20^th century but also anticipates the neo-stylistic syntheses of the interwar period: some fragments of this music bring to mind Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms or Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater.

Rachmaninoff also tried his hand at opera, although he limited himself to the form of a one-act opera. In Aleko, he used the libretto based on A. Pushkin’s poem The Gypsies to make an opera composed of separate numbers of a song, ballad, choral or ballet nature (condensed introduction, Gypsy choirs, the ballad of the Old Gypsy, the duet of the Young Gypsy and Zemfira, Zemfira’s song, Aleko’s cavatina, the women’s dance, the men’s dance). The concept of the opera and its sound language reveal Tchaikovsky’s musical fascination, but also his outstanding compositional talent. In subsequent operas (The Miserly Knight after A. Pushkin and Francesco da Rimini after Dante), Rachmaninoff leans more towards verism, and at the same time greatly increases the role of the orchestra, which leads – similarly to cantata forms – to the symphonisation of the opera. In The Miserly Knight, the dominant feature is the strongly dramatised declamatory melody.

Rachmaninoff composed over 80 songs, 71 of which he arranged in seven opus cycles. They represent the main genre of Russian romance with a stanza-variation or recomposed form, a broadly developed melody, but often revolving around one or several selected notes, harmony exposing third degrees, phrases taken from modal scales, and the function of the subdominant. The earlier songs strike a sentimental and elegiac or pathetic tone, which deepens over time to the moods of sadness, hopelessness, despair and rebellion (Fate, By a Fresh Grave, Before the Icon Op. 21; Night Is Sorrowful, We Shall Rest, All Passes Op. 26). Love lyrics, songs related to contemplation and the apotheosis of nature are characterised by a brighter, more optimistic character (Spring Torrents Op. 14), some have a touch of subtle impressionism (Lilacs Op. 21). In accordance with this evolution, the role of the declamatory element in the vocal part increases, the role of the piano becomes enriched and increasingly independent, its developed figurations are sometimes saturated with enormous rhythmic energy, sometimes permeated with counterpoint motifs (so-called undervoices) or melodic lines dominating the voice altogether. In later cycles (Op. 26, 34, 38), philosophical-religious and aesthetic themes come to the fore, sophisticated texts of symbolists (K. Balmont, A. Blok, W. Bryusov, F. Sologub), which entails a toning down of emotions, a mood of seriousness or a refinement of style, taking on features of impressionism or condensed expressionism.

After leaving his homeland in 1917, Rachmaninoff devoted himself almost entirely to piano work. Of the 45 opus numbers, 39 were written in 1890–1917, and only six – undoubtedly important – in emigration: Piano Concerto No. 4, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and Variations on a Theme of Corelli, Symphony No. 3, Symphonic Dances and Three Russian Songs for choir and orchestra. In the “Russian” period, he worked mainly as a composer and conductor, to the world he became exclusively a virtuoso. In Rachmaninoff’s piano concertos, created in parallel with the concertos of the neoclassical trend (Bartók, Prokofiev, Stravinsky), which significance mainly consisted of the renewal of the harmonic language and sound-instrumental experiments, there was a development to the extreme possibilities of the massive, multi-layered texture in the Romantic style, and, at the same time, newer tendencies appeared (sharp sound and harmony, spontaneity and rhythmic motorics in the concert finales or, for example, Prokofiev’s lightness and grotesqueness, and on the other hand, a specific demonism and barbarism of the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, explosive, expressionistic narration in Concerto No. 4).

In the immensely rich piano texture, Rachmaninoff masterfully synthesises a vast melodic line, chordal play and varied figuration; already from Concerto No. 1, which still shows certain thematic and ideological connections with Schumann’s and Grieg’s concertos, three-plane structure in various configurations becomes the rule (plan of the melody often led in chords or in octave doublings, often located in the middle register, plan of chordal and figurative filling, plan of the harmonic base). In powerful climaxes, Rachmaninoff’s favourite device is the homorhythmic melodic and chordal play of both hands (massive eight-notes). The distinguishing feature of Rachmaninoff’s piano concertos is also their lyricism and pathos, themes of national provenance, extensive melodic arcs and development work. Unlike Brahms’s concertos – with an equally monumental, symphonic concept of form – they do not impose the role of a ‘second orchestra’ on the piano part but expose the specific expressive, sound and technical possibilities of the piano.

Rachmaninoff also composed piano sonatas, cycles of variations and miniatures: preludes, ‘musical moments’ or etudes, which he called ‘images.’ Of the two sonatas (in D minor and B-flat minor), the first was inspired by Goethe’s Faust, repeating the idea of ​​Liszt’s “Faust” Symphony, and the second seems to contain more virtuoso content than emotional and expressive content. The late Variations on a Theme of Corelli Op. 42, like the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and the Symphonic Dances – show a more modern face of Rachmaninoff, even surprising in their harmonic associations. The miniatures combine, with varying degrees of success, romantic, lyrical-songlike or pathetic-heroic poetic inspiration with purely virtuoso pianistic display. Some of them, such as the Prelude in G-sharp minor Op. 32, were made famous by interpretations by Rachmaninoff himself and the greatest pianists of the 20^th century, e.g. V. Horowitz, S. Richter.

In the small oeuvre of chamber music, two pieces stand out: the Elegy Trio in D minor Op. 9 for piano, violin and cello, dedicated to the memory of P. Tchaikovsky (this piece should not be confused with the one-part Elegy Trio in G minor, without the Op. number, from just one year earlier) and the later, contemporary to the Piano Concerto No. 2 – the Sonata in G minor Op. 19 for piano and cello. The trio refers in its concept to Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio in A minor; it consists of a three-thematic sonata allegro, extended variations on a theme that is a quoted reminiscence of Tchaikovsky’s variation theme, and a stormy finale, gradually dying down to pianissimo. As with Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff’s references to church harmonics are present. The four-movement Sonata (with the predatory, demonic Allegro scherzando in the 2^nd position) combines in its wonderfully extended piano part the sweep, the intensity of emotional waves, and pathetic climaxes. In the cello part, the melodic possibilities of this instrument have been used to the maximum.

The preserved recordings of Rachmaninoff – especially Concerto No. 2 and the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini – show the pianist easily overcoming the greatest technical difficulties, while at the same time having the ability to create a variety of expressions. Intellectual discipline, precision of the sound image, dynamism and downright virtuoso rapacity of the playing, sharply outlined contrasts, rapidity and ‘nerve’ of the narrative, logic of the approach to form, in the interpretation of expressive content rather subtlety, restraint and noble sublimity than exaggerated pathos and exaltation – indicate tendencies continued by S. Richter and, on the other hand, by the American school of piano. Critics’ reports (B. Asafyev, G. Prokofiev, J. Sachnowski) emphasise the unsurpassed power, fullness and melodiousness of the sound, plasticity and flawless precision of the sound image (e.g. in Scriabin’s late music), dramatic playing, iron rhythmic discipline, temperament, expressiveness and pictorial-evocative suggestiveness of the interpretation of romantic pieces (Schubert’s Moments musicaux, Schumann’s Carnaval, Chopin’s Sonata in B minor, Liszt’s Gnomenreigen). These features were also noted in Rachmaninoff’s conducting creations as an unparalleled interpreter of Russian music (Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff’s own symphonies) and Western European music (the famous performance of Mozart’s Symphony in G minor KV 550, Grieg’s Peer Gynt suite).

The perspective of time, which objectifies the sharp aesthetic oppositions between the first musical avant-garde of the 20^th century and the trends stemming from Romanticism, allows us to appreciate Rachmaninoff as one of the most versatile musicians of the 20^th century, an equally outstanding performer and creator of music.

Literature:

Documentation: R. Threlfall, G. Norris A Catalogue of the Compositions of S. Rachmaninoff, London 1982; J. Bortnikova Awtografy S.W. Rachmaninow w fondach Gosudarstwiennogo Centralnogo Muzieja Muzykalnoj Kultury im. M.I. Glinki. Katalog-sprawocznik, Moscow 1955, extended 2^nd ed. 1980; S.W. Rachmaninow. Pis’ma, ed. Z. Apietian, Moscow 1955; N.K. Mietnier. Pis’ma, ed. Z. Apietian, Moscow 1973 (includes Rachmaninoff’s letters to N. Medtner); S. Rachmaninow. Litieraturnoje nasledije, ed. Z. Apietian, 2 volumes, Moscow 1978, 1980; S. Rachmaninoff. Some Critical Moments in my Career, “The Musical Times” LXXI, 1930; Rachmaninoff’s Recollections told to O. von Riesemann, ed. O. von Riesemann, New York 1934, Russian ed. Moscow 1992; A.J. and K. Swan Rachmaninoff. Personal Reminiscences, “The Musical Quarterly” XXX, 1935; Pamiati Rachmaninowa, ed. M.V. Dobuzhinsky, New York 1946; Wospominanija o Rachmaninowie, 2 volumes, ed. Z. Apietian, Moscow 1957, 5^th ed. 1988; R. Palmieri S.W. Rachmaninoff. A Guide to Research, New York 1985.

Biographies and monographs of life and work: A. Belyaev S. Rachmaninow, Moscow 1924; B. Asafyev S.W. Rachmaninow, Moscow 1945; W. Lyle Rachmaninoff. A Biography, London 1938; A. Solovcov S.W. Rachmaninow, Moscow 1947, 2^nd ed. 1969; J. Culshaw S. Rachmaninoff, London 1949; A. Alexeieff S.W. Rachmaninow. Żyzń i tworczeskaja diejatielnost’, Moscow 1954; S. Bertensson, J. Leyda S. Rachmaninoff. A Lifetime in Music, New York 1956, 2^nd ed. 1965; M. Bazhanov Rachmaninow, transl. A. Szymański, Warsaw 1972 (original revised and extended ed. Moscow 21966); J. Kiełdysz Rachmaninow i jego wriemia, Moscow 1973; W. Briancewa S.W. Rachmaninow, Moscow 1976; G. Norris Rachmaninoff, London 1976, 2^nd ed. 1993; S.W. Rachmaninow, ed. A. Kandinsky, Moscow 1982, 2^nd ed. 1988; B. Martyn Rachmaninoff. Composer, Pianist, Conductor, Aldershot–Vermont 1990; M. Biesold S. Rachmaninow, Berlin 1991; B. Nikitin S. Rachmaninow. Dwie żyzni, Moscow 1993; Z. Apetian Rachmaninow. Pisma, Moscow 1955; Z. Apetian Vospominania o Rachmaninowie, Moscow 1988; W. Briancewa Diectwo i unost Siergieja Rachmaninowa. Moscow 1970; V. Ponizovkin Rachmaninow pianist, interpretator sobstvennyh proizvedenij, Moscow 1965; P. Piggott Rachmaninov, London 1978; Gran vekov: Rahmaninov i ego sovremenniki. Sbornik statej, ed. T.A. Hoprova, L.A. Skaftymova, St. Petersburg 2003; M. Mokrus Ilustracjonizm i symbolizm Etudes-Tableaux Sergiusza Rachmaninowa, Katowice 2021; I. Świdnicka Rachmaninow – symfonik nieznany. Związki intertekstualne w twórczości symfonicznej Sergiusza Rachmaninowa, Warsaw 2016.

Analytical studies and dissertations: G. Kogan Rachmaninow – pianist, K. Kuznetsov Tworczeskaja żyzń S.W. Rachmaninowa and D. Żytomirski Fortiepiannoje tworczestwo Rachmaninowa, in: Sowietskaja Muzyka, vol. 4, Moscow 1945; S.W. Rachmaninow i russkaja opiera, ed. I. Bełza, Moscow 1947; S.W. Rachmaninow. Sbomik statiej i matieriałow, ed. T. Cytowicz, Moscow 1947; Mołodyje gody S.W. Rachmaninowa, ed. W. Bogdanow-Bieriezowski, Leningrad 1949; L. Polakowa „Aleko” S.W. Rachmaninowa, Moscow 1949; A. Solovcov Fortiepiannyje koncerty Rachmaninowa, Moscow 1951, 2^nd ed. 1961; A. Kandinsky Opiery S.W. Rachmaninowa, Moscow 1956, 3^rd ed. 1979; O. Sokolova Symfoniczeskije proizwiedienija S.W. Rachmaninowa, Moscow 1957; O. Sokolova Chorowyje i wokalnosimfoniczeskije proizwiedienija Rachmaninowa, Moscow 1963; M. Aranowski Etiudy-kartiny Rachmaninowa, Moscow 1963; W. Briancewa Dietstwo i junost’ S. Rachmaninowa, Moscow 1970, 2^nd ed. 1973; N. Jemieljanova S.W. Rachmaninow w Iwanowkie, Voronezh 1971; R. Threlfall Rachmaninoff’s Revisions and an Unknown Version of his Fourth Concerto, “Musical Opinion” XCVI, 1972–73; J. Kiełdysz Tworczeskij put’ wielikogo muzykanta, “Sowietskaja Muzyka” 1973 No. 4; G. Norris Rachmaninoff’s Second Thoughts, “The Musical Times” CXIV, 1973; G. Norris Rachmaninoff’s Student Opera, “The Musical Quarterly” LIX, 1973; P. Piggott Rachmaninoff’s Orchestral Music, London 1974; N. Jemieljanova Muzykalnyje wieczera. Kronika muzykalnoj żyzni tambowskogo kraja za 100 let, Voronezh 1977; F. Butzbach Studien zum Klavierkonzert nr 1, fis-moll op. 1, Regensburg 1979; N. Jemieljanova Iwanowka w żyzni i tworczestwie Rachmaninowa, Voronezh 1984; T. Malecka „Nie poj, krasawica” Puszkina w pieśniach Glinki, Bałakiriewa, Rimskiego-Korsakowa i Rachmaninowa, in: Wiersz – i jego pieśniowe interpretacje, «Muzyka i Liryka» book 3, ed. M. Tomaszewski, Kraków 1991; D.F.B. Cannata Rachmaninoff’s Changing View of Symphonic Structure, dissertation New York University, 1993; J. Dimitrievska, N. Dimitrievski Rachmaninow w Moskwie, Moscow 1993; G. Norris Rachmaninoff in London, “The Musical Times” CXXXIV, 1993; International Rachmaninoff Symposium, London 1993; A. Kandinsky S.W. Rachmaninow. K 120-letiu do dnia rożdienija, Moscow 1995; International Rachmaninoff Festival-Conference, Maryland 1998; R. Romaniuk Rachmaninow i o Rachmaninowie, “Nowe Książki: przegląd nowości wydawniczych” No. 6, Toruń 2007; A. Zagajewski Rachmaninow, “Ruch Muzyczny”, Kraków 2014; A. Solovcov Vtoroj i trietij fortepiannye koncerty Rahmaninova. Poasnenie, Moscow 1950; L. Kowalewa-Ogorodnowa Rachmaninow w Sankt-Petersburge, St. Petersburg 1997; G. Abraham Russian masters 2: Rimsky-Korsakov, Skryabin, Rakhmaninov, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, London 1986; A. Osiński Zbłąkany pątnik o nieskazitelnej duszy: rzecz o Sergiuszu Rachmaninowie, “Przegląd Powszechny” R. 127, No. 6, Warsaw 2010; P. Lachert Sergiej Rachmaninow, “Ruch Muzyczny” No. 6 (2002), Kraków 2002; L. Rudenko Sergiusz Rachmaninow – genialny wykonawca, Prace Zakładu Pedagogiki Muzycznej Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, Łódź 2001; S. Rieger Serce Rachmaninowa, “Tygodnik Powszechny” No. 12, Kraków 2000; W. Wołosiuk Sergiusz Rachmaninow i jego „Całonocen czuwanie”, “Rocznik Teologiczny” book 1, 2003; I. Świdnicka Recepcja II Symfonii e-moll op. 27 Sergieja Rachmaninowa, in: Dzieło muzyczne, dzieło sztuki, ed. A. Gronau-Osińska, Warsaw 2007; I. Świdnicka Dzieło w perspektywie analizy integralnej na podstawie poematu „Wyspa umarłych” Sergieja Rachmaninowa, in: Dzieło muzyczne, dzieło sztuki, ed. A. Gronau-Osińska, Warsaw 2007; I. Świdnicka Integracja tematyczna cyklu w I Symfonii d-moll op. 13 Siergieja Rachmaninowa, in: Rozumienie dzieła w wymiarze integralności i duchowości oraz w perspektywie znaczeń, interpretacji i hermeneutyki, ed. A. Gronau-Osińska, Warsaw 2006.