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One school points out that Sergei was depressed because of the loss of his Russian homeland. Like so many, he thought that Leninism was just a passing phase, but now his exile was apparently going to be permanent. He had said nothing negative about the Communist government lest they withhold the royalties for performances of his music. Sergei was always looking at the bottom line.
But there was comfort at home. Sergei, Natalia and the daughters Irina and Tatiana moved into a mansion in Locustwood, New Jersey. There Natalia recreated the atmosphere of the Rachmaninov estate that Lenin had confiscated. When he was composing, Natalia made sure there was peace and quiet at home, and everyone spoke Russian. When he built his summer villa on Lake Lucerne in Switzerland, life became more bearable.
I was exposed to the second school of thought at a FReeper Meet in 2000 where I met a woman who had studied under a teacher who had herself studied under Rachmaninov. According to her, Sergei was raking in so much money on the concert circuit that he had no need to compose, and he was becoming lazy.
Sergei had no interest in the “modern” classical music that was starting to play in the concert halls of New York. He had no interest in American composer Charles Ives, and Ives returned the favor by referring to Rachmaninov as Rach-not-man-enough. Ives believed it was unmanly to write music with tunes you could hum, preferring a more masculine dissonance.
As an opera composer and conductor, Sergei enjoyed an occasional Broadway show. Irving Berlin, Richard Rodgers, Jerome Kern and Cole Porter were making an impact on the musical theater, but the man who really caught his ear was George Gershwin. Sergei knew that the family name had originally been Gershwitz, and George’s parents had come out of the shtetl. In Russia, the Rachmaninovs and Gershwitzes would not even have spoken to each other, but Sergei liked the fact that in America this grandson of Russia could make a fortune, and social position meant nothing.
According to one story, at a party in New York, Sergei and George met and conversed at length. Versions of this story have been set in New York or Paris. Gershwin’s partner in conversation has been stated as Rachmaninov, Maurice Ravel, or even Igor Stravinsky. The whole story may be apocryphal. As the story goes, the two men talked shop about music. Each was impressed with the other’s work. Gershwin asked if he could take composition lessons with Rachmaninov.
”How much do you make a year/” asked Sergei.
Gershwin named a sum well into six figures.
Rachmaninov thought a bit and said, “No, you teach me.”
In February 1924, Gershwin premiered his new piece, “Rhapsody in Blue”, at a concert given by Paul Whiteman and his band at Aeolian Hall in Manhattan. The purpose of the piece was to move jazz away from a strict four-to-the-bar and loosen the rhythm. It was an interminable concert with two intermissions, but Sergei stayed to the bitter end when Gershwin and Whiteman made musical history with the piece. The version Rachmaninov heard was the jazz band version; the full-orchestra piano concerto version didn’t come until three years later.
It took a few years, but Gershwin’s way of working with rhythm at the piano began to seep into Rachmaninov’s music.
In 1926, at age 53, Sergei premiered his Fourth Piano Concerto – and it bombed. He revised it in 1941, and it got a better reception, but it never caught on the way his three previous concerti had. It’s still worth a listen. I’m rather fond of it.
Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto #4 in G minor, Op. 40 (Rachmaninov on piano with Eugene Ormandy conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra via RCA Victor recording, 1941)