Rachmaninoff's Nostalgia—The Russian Soul
At the end of my USC PhD open day visit, I went to Frank Lévy’s concert “An Hour With Rachmaninoff” at Dinkelspiel Auditorium, Stanford. Professor Lévy commented on Rachmaninoff’s nostalgia. Rachmaninoff’s deep nostalgia was largely due to his forced exile from Russia after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. Before the revolution, Rachmaninoff was already a major composer, pianist, and conductor in Russia. He had a beautiful estate called Ivanovka, where he composed much of his early music, surrounded by the rolling Russian countryside that he loved....