Sergei Rachmaninoff

Rebecca Mitchell is Associate Professor of History at Middlebury College, Vermont, and author of Nietzsche’s Orphans: Music, Metaphysics and the Twilight of the Russian Empire (2015).

An admirably concise new biography. - Boston GlobeA new critical and scholarly study of Rachmaninoff has been long overdue, and Rebecca Mitchell's compact but well-researched book is an important step forwards. Drawing on a wealth of sources, she follows Rachmaninov's journey from his childhood in a broken family home to his death in his Beverly Hills house a few days before his 70th birthday. Along the way, she offers much-needed nuances to some of the hoariest myths associated with the composer. - GramophonePart of a series of fast-paced, illustrated biographies, Sergei Rachmaninoff focuses as much on Rakhmaninov’s posthumous reputation as on his life and music . . . As Mitchell declares at the end of her book, ‘By resituating Rakhmaninov’s career within a multilayered experience of uprootedness (rather than timelessly drifting outside of it), his stature as a genuinely modern figure becomes clear’. - Simon Morrison, Slavonic and East European ReviewThis is a vivid and original portrait of one of the 20th century’s most beloved composers. Rachmaninoff’s music ranks among the most popular of any classical composer, yet it has been snubbed by composers and musicologists alike as somehow out of step with its time. This biography should kick-start the long overdue process of a reassessment and rediscovery of Rachmaninoff’s career. - Pauline Fairclough, Professor of Music, University of Bristol, and author of 'Dmitry Shostakovich' (2019)"Modern, but not modernist" is how Rebecca Mitchell defines Sergei Rachmaninoff. Composer, conductor, virtuosic performer and celebrity, he was also a market-savvy manager of his own resources, as keen on cutting-edge recording technology as he was on fast cars. Nostalgic? Only when it suited him. To be modern, Mitchell cogently argues, is to take a stand in a world where tradition is forever dissolving. - Caryl Emerson, Princeton University