Sergei and Me: A relationship in four works, Introduction (and a few other updates)

Dispatches from the Forgotten Stars, #14

If you’ve been following me on my official site (and you absolutely should be!) for any length of time, you know that the music of Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff is one of my biggest passions. This month marks Rachmaninoff’s sesquicentennial: he was born April 1, 1873. I will be spending much of this month writing in celebration Rachmaninoff and his music, both here and on my site. The posts here will concentrate on four specific works by Rachmaninoff, the ones that I know the best and are nearest to my heart. That first post should run later this week.

I discovered Rachmaninoff late in high school. I don’t recall exactly when, but it was either my junior or senior year, and I came to him via a newly-discovered appreciation at the time for Russian composers in general. Of course there was Tchaikovsky, because there’s always Tchaikovsky, but at the other end of that particular spectrum was Shostakovich, whose music was a particular specialty of the Buffalo Philharmonic’s music director at the time, Semyon Bychkov. I was even playing Russian music, as a trumpet player, in particular a concerto by Aleksandra Pakhmutova (whom I’m just now learned is still alive, at 93). I was in an All-County Band that played a transcription of a movement from the Symphony No. 1 by Vasili Kalinnikov, and a few years earlier I’d discovered the astonishing work of musical fantasy that is Scheherazade by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. So, I was already primed for what I would find in Rachmaninoff, when I got there.

But what I found was something next-level. I love a great deal of music, but there are only a handful of composers—maybe less than a handful—with whose work I have formed a connection that’s almost personal. That pantheon includes Hector Berlioz, Mozart, and Beethoven; and from the world of film, John Williams and Joe Hisaishi. To that personal pantheon I added Rachmaninoff, when I was 16 or so. It’s that personal relationship I’ll be exploring in these essays. As noted, I’ve already started exploring Rachmaninoff on my main site, with the intent of turning the month into a celebration of the man and his work. I’m really excited about this project, and I hope you’ll join along!

Meanwhile, here are some other updates and maybe some things you’ve missed:

:: My current book project is a collection of essays about Star Wars, and that’s proceeding well, although it’s taking longer than I honestly expected. The idea was to repackage a collection of posts from my blog over the twenty-plus years I’ve been writing about Star Wars off and on, but as I dig out those old posts I find I can’t resist the urge to basically re-write them. So the book is turning out to not quite be as much as cut-and-paste job as I had originally thought it might be…but that’s fine, since it will be better for the extra work, and it will be more reflective of where I am now with respect to Star Wars than a collection of writings over years that reflect two decades of shifting attitudes.

:: Why I dislike the phrase “common sense”.

:: A Night Amongst the Blossoms. We attended a special event one night at the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens. It was an orchid show, and I found the atmosphere at the Gardens at night utterly magical.

:: Thoughts on The Smallest Lights in the Universe. This was a repost, but I always like to shine a light on a good book, and Sara Seager’s memoir is outstanding.

:: I cast aspersions on bay leaf. Hilarity ensued.

:: On seeing Paul Reiser, and incorporating overalls into my St. Paddy’s Day attire.

:: And, linking it one more time: the start of my celebration of Sergei Rachmaninoff over the entire month of April. In addition to being a kick-off, this post is also a feature of one of Rachmaninoff’s most famous works—a work so famous, in fact, that it vexed him for all his performing days—his Prelude in C-sharp minor for piano.

That’s about all for now! Stay tuned for the first post in Sergei and Me later this week, and keep an eye on my Official Site for lots of other content! It won’t just be all-Rachmaninoff all the time; after all, April is also National Poetry Month, and we have a vacation scheduled later this month, too.

Thanks for checking in, folks!

Exeunt,
-K.