In 1937, one of the world’s greatest musicians came to North Dakota. Sergei Rachmaninoff quietly arrived in Grand Forks and Fargo, and presented his recitals at the piano in each city before sweeping off quietly to his next far-off performances.
During the short time Rachmaninoff was in the state, the power of this “tall, gaunt virtuoso” was impressed on those fortunate few who attended his performances.
Sergei Rachmaninoff was born in Russia at Oneg, near Novgorod, into the “upper land-holding class,” which instilled in him an immense love of the soil. He came to revere his native land. Sometime later, Rachmaninoff would discover his musical talent and would receive piano lessons from the best piano instructors in Russia, with the famous Peter Tchaikovsky as his mentor.
Rachmaninoff wrote music and performed internationally, visiting to America in 1909. Several years later, the Bolshevik Revolution forced him to flee his homeland after the communists confiscated his large estates in 1917. He became a permanent resident of the U.S. in 1918 and thereafter made his living as a composer and concert performer.
On November 8, 1937, Rachmaninoff appeared in concert at Festival Hall on the NDSU college campus. This “greatest living composer and pianist,” who had become a “keyboard virtuoso,” brought another of his “brilliant performances” to North Dakota concert-goers.
Rachmaninoff was exceptional. He played “an artistically and technically perfect program” that was “individual in interpretations and ingenious in performance.” That evening, he performed a sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven and his interpretation of J.S. Bach’s “Italian Concerto,” along with some of his own compositions.
Because Rachmaninoff had performed in both Grand Forks and Fargo that November, he saw the “black soil” of the Red River Valley as he traveled from one city to the next. He compared the land in those “plowed fields” to that of his homeland, saying, “It is almost as black as the soil at my childhood home in Russia.”
Clearly, the sight “brought pangs of homesickness to the heart” of this Russian exile during his short time in North Dakota. Rachmaninoff died in California in 1943, leaving a legacy as a powerful musician with “wrists and fingers of steel,” who shared his gifts with music lovers worldwide.
Dakota Datebook by Steve Hoffbeck, retired MSUM History Professor
Sources:
- “Lyceum Offers Rachmaninoff, Russian Pianist,” Spectrum [NDSU, Fargo, ND], November 5, 1937, p. 1.
- “Soil,” Hillsboro Banner, November 26, 1937, p. 2.
- George Putz, “Rachmaninoff Plays,” Spectrum [NDSU, Fargo, ND], November 12, 1937, p. 4.
- “27th Annual Lyceum Series at Festival Hall,” Spectrum, October 1, 1937, p. 2.
- “A Romantic Passes,” New York Times, April 4, 1943, p. X7.
- “Rachmaninoff, Pianist, Dies In California,” Chicago Tribune, March 29, 1943, p. 3.
- “Noted Russian Pianist Dies Here At 69,” Los Angeles Times, March 29, 1943, p. 1.
- Joseph Horowitz, “A Master Interprets Himself,” Wall Street Journal, September 18, 2018, p. A15.
- John K. Sherman, “Rachmaninoff in Recital,” Minneapolis Star, October 27, 1937, p. 3.
- “Rachmaninoff Dies In California,” New York Times, March 29, 1943, p. 1, 11.
- Richard Anthony Leonard, “Sergei Rachmaninoff,” in Rupert Hughes, Music Lovers’ Encyclopedia (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1954), p. 511.
- “Rachmaninoff, Sergei,” World Book Encyclopedia, Vol. 16, Q-R, (Chicago: Field Enterprises, 1968), p. 61.
