拉赫玛尼诺夫全集录音内页及翻译

Stockholm, January 1918. Along with his family, Sergej Rachmaninoff had fled to Scandinavia to escape from the October Revolution and the civil war that had torn apart his native Russia. Russian émigrés were scattered across the face of Europe, and among them were large numbers of that country's intellectual and artistic élite. Like Rachmaninoff. Vladimir Nabokov, Igor Stravinsky. Fyodor Shalyapin and Anna Pavlova had all left the country. In Russia, Rachmaninoff had been highly regarded as a composer, but now that he was living abroad he doubted whether he could make a name for himself by means of his own works.As a pianist, however, it was a different matter. After all, he was a fully trained pianist, even though he had concentrated until then on composition and conducting. Rachmaninoff weighed the possibilities: as a conductor, he had little experience of the non-Russian repertoire, whereas he was confident that as a pianist he could expand his admittedly equally limited repertoire swiftly and systematically. And so he decided early in 1918 that from then on he would no longer be a composer but a concert pianist: a travelling virtuoso. And for his concert platform he chose the United States of America, the country that, in his estimation, offered him the greatest potential.As a pianist, Rachmaninoff set about surmounting this new challenge purposefully and professionally. He would be able to demand $60O for two piano concertos an evening, $900 for a solo recital. He would play only on Steinway pianos and travel first class. In this way he staked out his market value and, as it turned out, he by no means overestimated his own marketability.He had been in New York for only ten days when he attended the début recital by his younger colleague, Sergej Prokofiev, and here he made an important discovery: audiences in the United States expected pianists not to perform their own works but to demonstrate their interpretative gifts and virtuoso abilities by playing classical mainstream repertoire. Prokofiev made the mistake of playing too many of his own highly demanding compositions, albeit leavened by a handful of well-known pieces by Rachmaninoff and Scriabin. The audience was overtaxed by the programme and reacted unenthusiastically. Rachmaninoff learned his lesson and in his own programmes preferred classical works interspersed with his own preludes and transcriptions. He began his first American concert in December 1918 with his own arrangement of the nationalistic Star-Spangled Banner and in this way everyone was pleased.Rachmaninoff's market value soon shot up. At a charity concert in April 1919 the encores played by the two soloists Ave Maria performed by Jascha Heifetz and the Prelude in C sharp Minor by Rachmaninoff were recorded on a wax cylinder and auctioned. Heifetz netted several hundred thousand dollars, while Rachmaninoff earned a million. This sum was paid by the American Piano Company, a firm that made player pianos. Rachmaninoff regularly recorded shorter pieces for the company between 1919 and 1929. By that time he had already signed his first recording contract with the Thomas Edison Company, and the earliest recordings in the present edition date from this period. They include such exotic works as Scarlatti's D Minor Sonata in an arrangement by Carl Tausig, as well as a movement from one of Mozart's sonatas and Rachmaninoff's own Polka de W.R. of 1911.If Rachmaninoff's interpretative style changed at this time, it may have been the result of his novel experience of working in the studio. Previously, his playing had been described as lyrical and cantabile, but these early recordings reveal a rather more sober, rhythmically rigid style of playing in which nothing is smudged by excessive use of the pedal. This is consistent with the image that Rachmaninoff consciously presented in public: an ascetic, angular Russian capable of great clarity and power."Even if his musical convictions may no longer be shared by everyone today, it is beyond doubt that he opened the doors to a more modern kind of piano playing. Recordings that he made of his own piano works show how reserved, almost timid, was his approach to these compositions, thereby giving the lie to the legend that as a piano virtuoso he was a titan.Alain Pâris, Classical Music in the Twentieth CenturyIn 1920 Rachmaninoff moved to the Victor Talking Machine Company, signing a five-year contract that guaranteed a $15,000 advance. Record sales and concert bookings were buoyant, and Rachmaninoff was soon one of the highest-paid musicians in the United States. Yet his attitude to gramophone recordings remained one of healthy distrust, as he was well aware of the pitfalls of the medium: "I get very nervous when I am making records, he confided in 1930. "When the test records are made, I know that I can hear them played back to me, and then everything is all right. But when the stage is set for the final recording and I realize that this will remain for good, I get nervous and my hands get tense.

But Rachmaninoff first had to assimilate the repertoire for his recordings and concert seasons. Although it was a gradual process, his repertoire grew slowly but surely. He worked on it unsparingly and with enormous effort, so that by 1924 he was showing clear signs of exhaustion. New works of his own were not in demand, but he was able to express his creative urge by preparing piano arrangements of successful works by other composers: Kreisler's Liebesfreud, Bizet's L'arlésienne Suite, Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumble-Bee, Tchaikovsky's Lullaby and a number of Schubert lieder. In this, he continued the tradition of the great 19th-century virtuosos, beginning with Franz Liszt, all of whom demonstrated their digital dexterity by means of technically demanding piano transcriptions of popular works. Rachmaninoff also recorded transcriptions by other composers, including Anton Rubinstein's arrangement of Beethoven's Ruins of Athens, which he recorded in 1925, Liszt's piano paraphrases of Schubert lieder and Giovanni Sgambati's arrangement of the "Dance of the Blessed Spirits" from Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice.Of these paraphrases, the one that has made a place for itself in the concert hall is Rachmaninoff's own sympathetic set of variations on Paganini's Twenty-fourth Caprice. He completed the work (scored for piano and orchestra) in 1934 and it became one of the cornerstones of his repertoire during his later years as a pianist.The medium of piano and orchestra was one that he had last tackled in 1926 in his Fourth Piano Concerto. The Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini was to be his final work for the piano.In 1926 Rachmaninoff recorded a number of Russian folksongs with Nadezhda Plevitskaya a venture that was not without its dangers. Popular in émigré circles, the soprano was in fact an agent of the NKVD (Narodny Kommisariat Vnutrennikh Del), the predecessor of the KGB. She was supposed to infiltrate the Russian exile ommunity but was imprisoned in the 1930s.

Rachmaninoff's record company, Victor, was bought by RCA in 1929, with the result that his recordings were now even more widely distributed. The company's two most prestigious artists, Fritz Kreisler and Rachmaninoff, were brought together in the recording studio, but with mixed results. They were antithetical as artists: Rachmaninoff profoundly punctilious, Kreisler the more impulsive of the pair. They recorded violin sonatas by Beethoven and Schubert in New York, while Grieg's Third Violin Sonata was set down in Berlin."Rachmaninoff was a pianist after my heart. [...] He was the most fascinating pianist of them all since Busoni. He had the secret of the golden, living tone which comes from the heart and which is inimitable. In my strong opinion he was a greater pianist than a composer.Arthur Rubinstein, My Many YearsClouds were beginning to gather, at first scarcely threatening, but nonetheless noticeable. The famous Stock Exchange crash of 1929 left Rachmaninoff's fortune much reduced, and the ensuing economic slump meant that the Americans had less money to spend on records. In 1921 one hundred million records had been sold, but by 1931 this figure had fallen to barely five million. And the market, too, was shrinking, not least because another Russian pianist was beginning to conquer the country: Vladimir Horowitz, whose recording of Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto was proving hugely popular. Rachmaninoff seems to have felt that his career as a concert pianist on whom the highest demands were placed was slowly drawing to a close. During the 1930s Rachmaninoff turned sixty in 1933 giving concerts became increasingly difficult and less profitable as fewer and fewer Americans could afford to buy tickets. And European tours were no better. The Rachmaninoffs moved to Switzerland, where they had built themselves a house overlooking Lake Lucerne. Although Rachmaninoff was now composing more than ever, he was in a bad way: "My health has been wretched, he told a correspondent in 1935. "I'm breaking up rapidly!" He had to continue giving around sixty concerts a year, although the results were now somewhat mixed.In 1939, shortly before war broke out in Europe, Rachmaninoff returned to the United States to take part in a Rachmaninoff Festival organized by Eugene Ormandy. During his final years, the now almost seventy-year-old composer was not just regarded as a legend in his own lifetime. It is clear from his final recordings of his piano concertos and his arrangement of Bach's Partita No. 3 that he was also able to recapture the magic of his earlier pianism. He died in a clinic in Beverly Hills on March 28, 1943 as an American citizen: the Rachmaninoffs had received their naturalization papers on February 1.

斯德哥尔摩，1918年1月。谢尔盖-拉赫玛尼诺夫和他的家人一起逃到斯堪的纳维亚半岛，以逃避十月革命和撕裂了他的祖国俄罗斯的内战。俄罗斯移民散布在欧洲各地，其中有大量该国的知识和艺术精英。比如拉赫玛尼诺夫。弗拉基米尔-纳博科夫，伊戈尔-斯特拉文斯基。费奥多尔-沙利亚平和安娜-帕夫洛娃都已经离开了这个国家。在俄罗斯，拉赫玛尼诺夫作为一个作曲家一直受到高度重视，但现在他生活在国外，他怀疑他是否能通过自己的作品为自己赢得声誉。毕竟，他是一个受过充分训练的钢琴家，尽管在此之前他一直专注于作曲和指挥。拉赫玛尼诺夫权衡了各种可能性：作为一个指挥家，他对非俄罗斯的曲目没有什么经验，而作为一个钢琴家，他有信心迅速和系统地扩大他公认的同样有限的曲目。因此，他在1918年初决定，从那时起，他将不再是一个作曲家，而是一个音乐会钢琴家：一个巡回演奏家。作为一名钢琴家，拉赫玛尼诺夫开始有目的地、专业地克服这个新的挑战。作为钢琴家，拉赫玛尼诺夫开始有目的地、专业地应对这个新的挑战。他可以要求一晚两首钢琴协奏曲的演出费为600美元，一场独奏会的演出费为900美元。他将只在施坦威钢琴上演奏，并乘坐头等舱。通过这种方式，他确定了自己的市场价值，事实证明，他绝没有高估自己的市场价值。他在纽约只呆了十天，就参加了他的年轻同事谢尔盖-普罗科菲耶夫的首次独奏会，在这里他有了一个重要发现：美国的观众希望钢琴家不要演奏自己的作品，而是通过演奏经典的主流曲目来展示他们的诠释天赋和演奏能力。普罗科菲耶夫犯了一个错误，那就是演奏了太多他自己的高难度作品，尽管有少数拉赫玛尼诺夫和斯克里亚宾的知名作品作补充。观众们被这个节目压得喘不过气来，反应很不热烈。拉赫玛尼诺夫吸取了教训，在他自己的节目中更喜欢古典作品与他自己的前奏曲和转录曲穿插进行。1918年12月，他以自己改编的民族主义的《星条旗》开始了他的第一场美国音乐会，这样一来，大家都很高兴。拉赫玛尼诺夫的市场价值很快就上升了。在1919年4月的一场慈善音乐会上，由亚沙-海费茨演奏的《圣母颂》和拉赫玛尼诺夫的《C小调前奏曲》这两首独奏曲的安可曲被录制在一个蜡筒里并进行拍卖。海菲兹获得了几十万美元的收入，而拉赫玛尼诺夫则获得了一百万美元。这笔钱是由美国钢琴公司支付的，这是一家生产演奏钢琴的公司。拉赫玛尼诺夫在1919年至1929年间经常为该公司录制较短的作品。那时，他已经与托马斯-爱迪生公司签订了他的第一份录音合同，本版中最早的录音是在这个时期。其中包括斯卡拉蒂的D小调奏鸣曲等由卡尔-陶西格编曲的异国作品，以及莫扎特奏鸣曲中的一个乐章和拉赫玛尼诺夫自己在1911年创作的波尔卡-德-R.。如果拉赫玛尼诺夫的演绎风格在这个时候发生了变化，这可能是他在录音室工作的新体验的结果。在此之前，他的演奏被描述为抒情和颂歌，但这些早期的录音显示出一种相当清醒的、节奏严谨的演奏风格，其中没有任何东西被过度使用踏板所玷污。这与拉赫玛尼诺夫有意识地在公众面前展示的形象是一致的：一个禁欲主义的、有棱有角的俄罗斯人，能够有很强的清晰度和力量。"即使他的音乐信念今天可能不再被所有人认同，但毫无疑问，他为一种更现代的钢琴演奏打开了大门。他为自己的钢琴作品录制的唱片显示了他对这些作品的态度是多么的拘谨，几乎是胆怯，从而掩盖了他作为钢琴演奏家是一个巨人的传说。1920年，拉赫玛尼诺夫转投维克多录音机公司，签署了一份为期五年的合同，保证了15000美元的预付款。唱片的销售和音乐会的预订都很旺盛，拉赫玛尼诺夫很快成为美国收入最高的音乐家之一。然而，他对留声机唱片的态度仍然是一种健康的不信任，因为他很清楚这种媒介的陷阱："当我制作唱片时，我非常紧张，他在1930年坦言。"当制作测试唱片时，我知道我可以听到它们回放给我听，然后一切就都好了。但是，当舞台上有了最后的录音，我意识到这将永远保持下去时，我就会紧张，我的手也会紧张起来。

但拉赫玛尼诺夫首先要为他的录音和音乐会季吸收曲目。虽然这是一个循序渐进的过程，但他的曲目却在缓慢而稳定地增长。他不遗余力地工作，付出了巨大的努力，所以到1924年，他已经显示出明显的疲惫迹象。他自己的新作品并不受欢迎，但他可以通过准备其他作曲家成功作品的钢琴改编来表达他的创作冲动。克莱斯勒的《Liebesfreud》、比才的《L'arlésienne Suite》、里姆斯基-科萨科夫的《大黄蜂的飞行》、柴可夫斯基的《摇篮曲》和一些舒伯特的抒情曲。在这一点上，他继承了19世纪伟大的演奏家的传统，从李斯特开始，所有这些人都通过对流行作品进行技术要求高的钢琴转录来展示他们的数字灵活性。拉赫玛尼诺夫还录制了其他作曲家的转录作品，包括他在1925年录制的安东-鲁宾斯坦对贝多芬《雅典废墟》的改编，李斯特对舒伯特抒情诗的钢琴改编，以及乔瓦尼-斯甘巴蒂对格鲁克《奥菲欧与欧里狄斯》中 "福灵之舞 "的改编。 在这些改编曲中，在音乐厅中占有一席之地的是拉赫玛尼诺夫自己对帕格尼尼的《第二十四首随想曲》进行的同情性变奏集。他于1934年完成了这部作品（为钢琴和管弦乐队谱曲），在他作为钢琴家的晚年，这部作品成为他曲目的基石之一。1926年，拉赫玛尼诺夫与娜杰日达-普列维茨卡娅一起录制了一些俄罗斯民歌，这一尝试并非没有危险。在移民圈子里很受欢迎，这位女高音实际上是NKVD（Narodny Kommisariat Vnutrennikh Del）的一名特工，即克格勃的前身。她本应渗透到俄罗斯流亡群体中，但在1930年代被监禁。

拉赫玛尼诺夫的唱片公司维克多在1929年被RCA收购，结果他的唱片现在被更广泛地传播。该公司最负盛名的两位艺术家，弗里茨-克莱斯勒和拉赫玛尼诺夫，在录音室里走到了一起，但结果却不尽相同。作为艺术家，他们是相互对立的。拉赫玛尼诺夫深沉而严谨，而克莱斯勒则是这两人中比较冲动的。他们在纽约录制了贝多芬和舒伯特的小提琴奏鸣曲，而格里格的第三小提琴奏鸣曲则是在柏林录制的。"拉赫玛尼诺夫是我心中的钢琴家。[他是自布索尼以来最迷人的钢琴家。他有一个秘密，那就是金色的、活生生的、发自内心的、不可模仿的音色。在我看来，他是一个比作曲家更伟大的钢琴家。阿瑟-鲁宾斯坦，《我的许多年》乌云开始聚集，起初几乎没有威胁，但还是很明显。1929年著名的证券交易所崩溃使拉赫玛尼诺夫的财富大为减少，随之而来的经济不景气意味着美国人在唱片上花的钱少了。1921年，有一亿张唱片被售出，但到1931年，这个数字已经下降到仅有500万张。而市场也在萎缩，特别是由于另一位俄罗斯钢琴家开始征服这个国家。弗拉基米尔-霍洛维茨，他录制的拉赫玛尼诺夫第三钢琴协奏曲被证明是大受欢迎的。拉赫玛尼诺夫似乎感觉到，他作为一个对自己有最高要求的音乐会钢琴家的职业生涯正在慢慢接近尾声。在20世纪30年代，拉赫玛尼诺夫在1933年年满60岁，举办音乐会变得越来越困难，利润也越来越低，因为越来越多的美国人买得起票。而欧洲巡演的情况也没有好转。拉赫玛尼诺夫夫妇搬到了瑞士，在那里他们为自己建造了一座俯瞰卢塞恩湖的房子。尽管拉赫玛尼诺夫现在的作曲比以往任何时候都多，但他的情况却很糟糕。1935年，他对一位记者说："我的健康状况一直很糟糕。"我正在迅速崩溃！" 1939年，在欧洲战争爆发前不久，拉赫玛尼诺夫回到美国，参加了由尤金-奥曼迪组织的拉赫玛尼诺夫音乐节，他不得不继续每年举办约60场音乐会，尽管现在的结果有些喜忧参半。在他最后的岁月里，这位现年近七十岁的作曲家不仅仅在他自己的一生中被视为一个传奇。从他最后录制的钢琴协奏曲和他对巴赫第三号帕蒂塔的改编中可以看出，他也能够重新获得他早期钢琴演奏的魅力。1943年3月28日，他在比佛利山庄的一家诊所去世，成为美国公民：拉赫玛尼诺夫夫妇在2月1日收到了他们的入籍文件。