Sergei VasiIyevich Rachmaninov was born on 2O March 1873 old StyIe ( 1 ApriI New StyIe) at the Semyon­ova estate in the Novgorod district. As is common when transcribing SIavic names from Cyrillic, the s pellling of his name varies and is also written, for example, as Rachmaninov. He himself transcribed his name as Rachmaninov, which is why it is written this way in the following. Today in this country he is known most of all as a great pianist and composer of piano works. His piano concertos, especially the second, and his Paganini Variations are among the most popular works in their respective genres. Orchestral works, too, such as the Second Symphony, the symphonic poem Isle of the Dead or the Symphonic Dances are still frequently heard in concerts and on recordings. Less well known is that Rachmaninov also com posed operas, songs and sacred vocal works, even if some specialists are well aware of this. Although the OpernfUhrer (opera guide) by AttiIa Csampai and Dietmar Holland (new edition 2006) only listed him in the appendix with three completed operas, Aleko, Francesca da Rimini and The Miserly Knight, at least this is something. Reclam's multi-volume Lexikon der Opernwelt (1998) devotes all of seven lines to Aleko, about three to Francesca, and not one line to The Miserly Knight. The Harenberg Opera Guide (2000) has one page devoted to the composer and Francesca respec­tively. PopuIarity Iooks quite different from this. Perhaps the Russian Ianguage was an obstacle to gaining a wider audience, but at Ieast Rachmaninoff is no longer ignored as an opera composer. The popularity of the operas by his fellow countrymen Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881, see also ProfiI Edition Gunter Hanssler PH21002), Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1910, PH19010) or Peter Tchaikovsky (1840 -1893, PH17053) was never and will probably never be achieved by Rachmaninoff's works for the lyric stage. Nor will the other composers from the country of his birth - see the overview of Russian operas in PH19 040.

Artists

Alexander Ognivtsev, Ivan Petrov, Anatoli Orfyonov, Nina Pokrovskaya, Bronislava Zlatogorova, Mark Reizen, Vladislav Radziyevsky, Oleg Daletsky, Nikolay Zakharov, Vladimir Zakharov, Vadim Ruslanov, Vitaly Vlasov, Yuriy Dementjev, Dina Dyan, Andrej Sokolov, Viktor Nechipailo, Alexander Pirogov, Boris Yurtaikin, Ivan Kozlovsky, Sergei Lemeshev, Vera Firsova, Sergei Shaposhnikov, Evgeny Lebedev, Pavel Lisitsian, Andrei Mytnik, Evgenya Mazurkevich, M. Kondrashyova, Vera Borisenko, Nikolay Korolkov, Daniil Demyanov, Alexander Dedyukhin, Naum Walter, Berta Kozel, Zara Dolukhanova, Galina Vishnevskaya (soprano), Nadezhda Obukhova, Matvey Sakharov, Andrey Ivanov, Alexei Zybtsev, Georgi Orentlikher, Abram Makarov, Olga Tomina, Vladimir Politkovsky, Pyotr Nikitin, Leokadia Maslennikova, Faina Moznaim, Borys Hmyrya, Lev Ostrin, Elena Katulskaya, Nina Dorliak, Sviatoslav Richter (piano), Natalia Spiller, Lev Oborin (piano), Panteleimon Nortsov, Georgi Nelepp, N. Murzakova, Georgy Vinogradov, Alexander Goldenweiser, Solomon Khromchenko, Vitaliy Kilchevsky, Alexander Welitsch, Christoff Altmüller, Nataliya Rozhdestvenskaya, D. Galkin, Maxim Mikhailov, Sergey Rachmaninov (piano), Nadezhda Plevitskaya, Vadim Borisovsky, Jussi Björling (tenor), Nina Isakova, Yevgeni Svetlanov, Sergey Migay, Yevgeny Kibkalo, Alexander Khosson, Aleksey Koroliov, Michail Dovenman, Yelizaveta Shumskaya, Alexei Bolshakov, Victor Merzhanov, USSR TV and Radio Large Symphony Orchestra and Kurt Sanderling, Emil Gilels (piano), Yakov Zak, Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre, Chorus of the Bolshoi Theatre, St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, USSR State Symphony Orchestra, Osipov State Russian Folk Orchestra, Stockholm Concert Association Orchestra, Moscow Patriarchal Choir, USSR State Academic Russian Choir, Russian Yurlov Capella Choir, USSR TV and Radio Large Symphony Orchestra, Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, Paris Conservatoire Orchestra, Nikolai Golovanov, Nikolai Rabinovich, Vasili Nebolsin, Alexander Melik-Pashayev, Israel Gusman, Boris Khaikin, Samuil Samosud, Vitaly Gnutov, Nils Grevillius, Viktor Komarov, Alexander Gauk, Aleksandr Stepanov, Konstantin Simeonov, Alexander Yurlov, Kirill Kondrashin, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Eugene Ormandy, Kurt Sanderling, André Cluytens