Sergei Rachmaninoff: Cross Rhythms of the Soul

Sergei Rachmaninoff experienced life-changing upheavals and competing inflection points of musical taste, traversing countries and continents as he pursued the triply-brilliant career of composer-conductor-virtuoso pianist. Born in tsarist Russia and raised as a nobleman in a well-educated musical family, Rachmaninoff led a bold lifestyle as a cutting-edge composer, admirer of the latest trends in art, and even aficionado of new developments in farm equipment for his beloved estate of Ivanovka. Wherever his concertizing took him, to glittering capitals all over the world, Rachmaninoff became a nexus for prominent musicians, writers, actors, and other personalities defining this era.

Valeria Z. Nollans biography of perhaps the finest pianist of the twentieth century plunges readers into Rachmaninoffs complex inner world. Sergei Rachmaninoff: Cross Rhythms of the Soul is the first biography of Rachmaninoff in English that presents him in the fullness of his Russian identity. As someone whose own life in Russian emigration ran in parallel ways to Rachmaninoffs ownand whose meetings with the composers grandson in Switzerland informed her workNollan brings important cultural insights into her observations of the activities of this generation of creative artists. She also traces the intricacies of Rachmaninoffs relations with the women closest to himwhose imprints are palpable in his compositionsand introduces a mystery woman whose existence challenges our established narrative of his life.