PRINCE ROSTISLAV

[TerraEpon]

That's interesting.  On my copy they are sung in Russian!  Are you sure? I was not aware that there was a version in English.

I'd have to check again, but I seem to remember I went and bought another disc just to have the Russian version. Maybe I was mishearing?

[Amphissa]

I don't consider any of these unsung, but am delighted to talk about Rachmaninoff at any time.

Rachmaninoff did prepare an English version of The Bells for debut in England. However, the changes involved more than just the translation of text. Rachmaninoff was also asked to tone down the 3rd choral movement, as it was deemed too violent and frightening for English audiences. Which he did. If you listen to the two versions, you will immediately note the changes made in this movement.

Ormandy recorded both versions of The Bells as well, and his recording of the English language version is superior to any others IMO.

To my knowledge, I have every recording ever released of The Bells. This was Rachmaninoff's favorite of his symphonies, but it has never really caught on like the 2nd. I think that is probably because the final movement ends in the serenity of acceptance of mortality rather than exciting and uplifting spirits. In this way, it has a kinship to Myaskovsky's 6th, which I've always liked also.

My own favorite is his 1st symphony. It is sad to me that he never heard a proper performance of the 1st. The premier performance with an unrehearsed orchestra led by that drunkard Glazunov was surely a disaster. It's a hard symphony to play properly even today. It was never performed again in his lifetime and the original score was lost or destroyed. Luckily, most of the parts were found in Moscow after his death and pieced back together. To me, this is a true masterpiece of classical music. One can only imagine what might have followed, had the premier been a success.

Of course, as it was, things didn't turn out too shabby. His music was reviled by the modernists, yet audiences have never acquiesced. Rachmaninoff deserves his place in the pantheon of great Romantic era composers. He was not prolific, but the quality to quantity ratio is certainly impressive.

[X. Trapnel]

I seem to recall that Vladimir Nabokov had a hand in one or another English translation of Balmont's version of The Bells. Anyone know anything about it? I suppose it's the expense of performance that keeps The Bells in the shadows. Although Rachmaninoff is [one of] my favorite composer, I've always found the two mature operas disappointing and that The Bells gives an idea of what a great Rachmaninoff opera ought to sound like.

[Amphissa]

It is strange. He was very close friends with the great bass Feodor Chaliapin, and even gave him counsel regarding performance technique, but was just not adept writing opera.

[X. Trapnel]

It is a mystery particularly in view of his magnificent vocal music. Rachmaninoff and Chekhov had discussed collaborating on an opera version of the latter's story The Black Monk, but according to Rachmaninoff Chekhov had little feeling for the operatic. Well... Perhaps in the world to come we'll have that and the Brahms-Turgenev opera that never got past the talking stage. In the meantime we still don't have a decent modern biography of Rachmaninoff, but that is another matter...

[chill319]

FWIW, I recall seeing a few changes in the choral writing of the English version of The Bells, and if IIRC they were not rhythmic changes accommodating the translation but were rather SR's response to differences between British choirs of the 1920s or 30s and Russian ones of the 1910s.

[mbhaub]

In the meantime we still don't have a decent modern biography of Rachmaninoff, but that is another matter...

And it's a very annoying matter, too. Given the man's popularity, his amazing life story, and the continuing interest in recording his complete output, that someone would put together a comprehensive bio. I wouldn't expect (nor want) anything like de La Grange's monumental Mahler bio, but something like Kennedy's Elgar would sure be nice. Of course, there are a lot of composer bios that I'd like to see done in a first-class manner: Prokofieff, Shostakovich, Rimsky-Korsakov, Raff, Stanford...and for conductors Ormandy, Bohm, Paray.

[X. Trapnel]

Fond as I am of Kennedy's Elgar (all of Kennedy's books in fact) I think Rachmaninoff merits something on the scale of Jerrold Northrup Moore's Elgar. Prokofiev is already and very capably getting the multi-volume treatment from David Nice and I'll bet there's something even larger on Shostakovich in the works (so much Soviet-era mythology to straighten out plus the feeling of Richard Taruskin breathing down your neck). I never thought much of Faubion Bowers' Scriabin bio.

[sdtom]

Many Vox recordings do sound bad.

This set isn't one of them, though.

I just can't agree with that at least on my system.
Tom