Goodbye Russia: Rachmaninoff in Exile

by Fiona Maddocks

The moving story of Rachmaninoff's years in exile and the composition of his last great work, set against a cataclysmic backdrop of two world wars and personal tragedy.

In 1940, Sergei Rachmaninoff, living in exile in America, broke his creative silence and composed a swan song to his Russian homeland—his iconic “Symphonic Dances.” What happened in those final haunted years and how did he come to write his farewell masterpiece?

Rachmaninoff left Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) in 1917 during the throes of the Russian Revolution. He was forty-four years old, at the peak of his powers as composer-conductor-performer, moving in elite Tsarist circles, as well as running the family estate, his refuge and solace. He had already written the music which, today, has made him one of the most popular composers of all the second and third Piano Concertos and two symphonies. The story of his years in exile in America and Switzerland has only been told in passing. Reeling from the trauma of a life in upheaval, he wrote almost no music and quickly had to reinvent himself as a fêted virtuoso pianist, building up untold wealth and meeting the stars—from Walt Disney and Charlie Chaplin to his Russian contemporaries and polar opposites, Prokofiev and Stravinsky.

Yet the melancholy of leaving his homeland never lifted. Using a wide range of sources, including important newly translated texts, Fiona Maddocks’s immensely readable book conjures impressions of this enigmatic figure, his friends and the world he encountered. It explores his life as an emigré artist and how he clung to an Old Russia which no longer existed. That forging of past and present meets in his Symphonic Dances (1940), his last composition, written on Long Island shortly before his death in Beverly Hills, surrounded by a close-knit circle of exiles. Goodbye Russia is a moving and prismatic look at Rachmaninoff and his iconic final work.

Genres: Biography, Music, History, Russia, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir

384 pages, Hardcover

Published January 2, 2024

Reviews

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I give this biography three stars with both respect and reservation. I honestly do not have enough knowledge of music or taste for biographies of musical figures (composers, singers, musicians) to make any kind of comparative judgement. What I do know something about is the Russian emigration after the revolution and civil war and I do not think this book in any way captures the reality of what that experience meant. There are many major works on 'Russia Abroad' but I would recommend you read Michael Glenny and Norman Stone's excellent 'The Other Russia: The Experience of Exile' or the novel by Paul Russell 'The Unreal Life of Sergey Nabakov' to get a feel of what it meant for millions of people, very few of whom were titled nobility or had diamonds to live off.

As far as I know the story told by Ms. Maddock's is accurate but it is also somewhat lifeless - this probably because, as she admits, it was written during the COVID lock down so she was unable to visit any of the places he lived in or directly access archives, nor even visit the reconstructed Rachmaninoff estate Ivanovka were Putin proposed that a great marble mausoleum be built and the composer's remain repatriated to. The family, quite wisely I think, refused.

There is a lack of that personal insight that was needed to translate the facts and information of Rachmaninoff's years abroad into something really true and insightful. Maybe I was looking for a different book - something along the lines of Jean-Paul Kauffmann's 'The Dark Room at Longwood' (about Napoleon's exile on St. Helena) - but I couldn't help feeling disappointed with Ms. Maddock's book - the crushing of a creative spirit, the ennui of exile, are topics that need not facts alone but interpretive and imaginative understanding. It is possible under different circumstances that Ms. Maddock's might have written such a book - but this is not it.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful portrait of a great man, blessed with the gift of becoming a world-renowned virtuoso pianist. I fell in love with Sergei Rachmaninoff at nineteen years old, when the love of my life, Isaac, completely blew me away one spring afternoon while we were strolling across our university campus. He had told me a few times that he played piano, but I didn’t give much thought to it at first. Many people play piano as a hobby.

Yet he was definitely determined to impress me, and so he took me to the music department, managed to get a practice room key from an unknowing student, and then proceeded to treat me to a solo concert of the full three movements of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto #3 (all 48 minutes or so!).

I think it’s safe to say that that was the day I stopped looking at him as just a friend. Can you blame me?!

I feel a lot of people are a bit unnecessarily critical of this book (but hey, it’s fine, they’re entitled to their opinions) just because it doesn’t seem to get as in-depth about Rachmaninoff’s life as many had hoped. This is hardly the fault of the author, however, who gave it her best effort: rather, as a very conservative man who, after being exiled from his homeland during the Bolshevik Revolution, never to return home again during his life, Rachmaninoff was known to be intensely private and close-guarded.

But for his many musician friends, along with many other famous artists with a wide spectrum of talent, Rachmaninoff was incredibly warm, thoughtful, and generous. Even when he was going through his own financial hardships, he never hesitated to help a friend in need with whatever was worrying them.

He struggled for most of his life trying to write new pieces after leaving behind the main inspiration for these pieces (his motherland). He was definitely a perfectionist and was always fond of classical, romantic styles - which, unfortunately, earned him far too much criticism from music critics who seemingly just wanted something to complain about (they’d often note his “outdated style and refusal to embrace the new styles, immediately following comments about his impeccable performance, his hands never seeming to tire, never once striking a note too sharp or flat, and always managing to bring the massive audience to their feet at the encore).

It was interesting to learn his opinion on child prodigies and how it aligned completely with Isaac’s own view on the subject (huh, wonder where he got that opinion from now…). Yes, it is a shame that the historical record doesn’t give us more information on this extraordinary man, whose music touched the lives and minds of so many back then, now, and will continue to be revered by generations to come. But I am grateful for what is revealed in this very readable biography.

Recommended for those who love beautiful art, like timeless piano concertos… and any person can read and understand the material; you don’t need to have knowledge in music theory to appreciate Fiona Maddocks’s work.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cursory review of Sergei Rachmaninoff's pre-Revolution life, and, although he left in 1917 and missed the vibrant arts scene of the early twenties (or its violent end in the hands of Stalin). It's useful for explaining Rachmaninoff's long compositional silences, explained by the exhaustion of his touring schedule and the long practices it demands. The book details his relationship, sometimes icy, with the great exiles of his era, particularly Nabokov, Stravinsky, Horowitz, Koussevitzky, Schoenberg, and particularly his testy dealings with Prokofiev (who eventually returned to Russia). Most touching is his generosity to fellow exiles.

It broadened my understanding of Rachmaninoff without deepening it, but it didn't convince me that there were extraordinary depths to explore. But it reminded of his undeniable brilliance.

[Pirate]

Mea culpa biographies would not be my tasse du the but I am delighted I made an exception in this case. It is an engrossing account of the maestro Rachmaninoff and his years spent in permanent exile from his beloved Mother Russia, his adored country estate Ivanovka and would go on to live in France, Switzerland and predominantly the United States. Unlike Prokofiev he never returned once he bade a sad farewell in 1917.
Devoted to music and family he minted it with concert after concert but his own compositions were a rarity in comparison to his creativity when he was in Russia. Reserved in general, apart from with his closest friends such as Fyodor Chaliapin, he was generous to those who were down on their luck amongst whom was Alexander Glazunov, who impoverished in Paris benefitted from VR's largesse and died without repaying him.
There is a wonderful account throughout of Prokofiev and VR's relationship, tense would be a polite phrase..and the former's waspish remarks are sublime as in when he describes Rachmaninoff's progressing to the piano at a concert. "The way he walks onto the stage is incredible: a sort of sidelong, hesitating shuffle that makes you wonder if he is ever going to make it to the piano.." catty...but he does add he finds him a "formidably interesting personality".
The authoress does a wonderful job in bringing VR's dry humour into the equation -- "My wife is already saying, when she looks at me, that I look like Gandhi. This is unfortunate because an uglier face than his would be hard to find." --his love of fast cars, speedboats and his business acumen in investing Sikorsky Aero Engineering Corporation set up by another Russian emigre.
He may not have been to everyone's taste, artist Leonid Pasternak, father of Boris who also was no fan, remarked his manner was dull and he might as well have been sat in front of a bowl of soup when he attended a VR concert. Others saw it differently one commenting: "Rachmaninoff's hands are so expressive that a deaf man might well swear that he was hearing the music."
As for the criticism he did not progress, or rather adapt to modern music he was admirably honest, describing himself as "a ghost wandering in a world made alien...unlike Madame Butterfly, with her quick religious conversion, I cannot cast out my musical gods in a moment and bend the knees to new ones."
Putin tried in vain to have his body disinterred -- he is buried on a plot with his wife Natalia and one of his two daughters Irina, Princess Volkonsky -- and brought to Russia..."To dig up and move his body would be an immense violation of the privacy he so prized," responded his great great grand daughter Susan Volkonsky Rachmaninoff Wanamaker.
In spite of Prokofiev's difficult relations with VR he co-authored a telegram, put together by other Soviet Union-based music luminaries, for his 70th birthday: "We greet you as a composer of whom Russian musical culture is proud, the greatest pianist of our time..." sadly he was to die prior to his birthday and never got to read it...it would probably have made the man once described as having the face of a hangman smile....
Fabulous and moving book.

[Stuart Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sympathetic and illuminating account of Rachmaninoff's life after he fled the Bolshevik revolution. It is filled with amusing vignettes and anecdotes. I lived and breathed the music of this composer in my late teens. His output remains unfashionably conservative, but for anyone who listens with their heart rather than their head, this book is indispensable. I also discovered a late piece of his, which, completist though I am, managed to pass me by till now; Trois Danses Russe.
Recommended for lovers of Russian music.

[Trish · Rating 5 out of 5]

For me this book has been a revelation about Rachmaninoff and the place of Russian artistic exiles in the US and their significant contribution to American life and culture. I have always loved Rachmaninoff’s music and feel the poignancy of it. The author brings to light the argument of the “ modern “ in relation to his music compared with Stravinsky for example. Modern is meant to a degree by not so memorable heartfelt melodies and compositions and goes alongside the art forms of the times too and being more reflections of the disruptive state of the world and the old order being turned in it’s head. An evolution of letting go is definitely felt through Rachmaninoff’s music but for more I feel a very definite form of modernism emerging but then I am looking through the ear of the the last 80 to 90 years of music evolution. I didn’t know how successful he was at managing himself, his family life, friends and finances. A polymath in my opinion. Many famous people can’t lay claim to that balance. He made a lot of money but by the same token was very generous in his support of the plight Russians at home. He seemed to be well loved. Certainly there are references from other reviewers about the life of other Russian exiles and their plight which would be of interest to read too.

[John Reis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sergei Rachmaninoff escaped from Russia shortly after the November Revolution. He left behind his beloved estate Ivanovka, and all of his belongings.

He gave some concerts in Norway and Sweden and realized that he would need to find a way to make a living. He received invitations to perform in the US. For twenty-five years, Rachmaninoff kept a heavy concert schedule. This made him a wealthy man.

He bought fast cars, built a summer home in Lucerne, Switzerland and gave a great deal of money to his friends and to various charities to help Russian refugees.

His output of compositions in this time was limited: Variations on a Theme from Paganini, the Third Symphony, Symphonic Dances, Variations on a Theme of Corelli and the Fourth Piano Concerto. Most of these works received poor reviews from music critics. After all, modernism was in full sway.

He spent twenty-five years of his life in the West. But in the last two months of his life, when he became ill and cancelled many concerts, he wanted to be seen by a Russian doctor and to go home.

Reading a biography of a man from the time he is forty-five until his death is an odd thing. Maddocks does a good job.

[Dominic H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fiona Maddocks is one of the best classical music critics writing for a national newspaper in the UK. I was intrigued therefore to find out that she has written a book about Rachmaninoff’s exile in the United States, a particularly interesting area of study because Rachmaninoff had written many of his most famous compositions before his move and as Maddocks says more or less reinvented himself as a star performer before finally returning to composition with the Symphonic Dances at the end of his life.
The resulting book does have interest of course - with a writer of Maddocks’ skill it could hardly not do - but at times it does feel more like an expanded chronology of the last third of Rachmaninoff’s life with one fact and occurrence following remorselessly on from the next. I suppose I am saying that it less reflective and insightful than I might have expected. Still, anyone who is interested in Rachmaninoff and Russian music generally will enjoy this I think and Maddocks wears her learning refreshingly lightly.

[David Tavernier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maddocks detailed story of Rachmaninoff's life in America is filled with details about his relationships with other exiled Russian composers, how they shared opinions and thoughts about the motherland (he was one of the last to emmigrate following the 1917 Bolshevik revolution), and their critiques of one another's compositions. She rightly depicts Rachmaninoff as a complex man with a generous heart, sometimes to his detriment. His concert schedule in the U.S. and Europe made him much in demand, and wealthy. He was more of a performer than composer after this arrival in the U.S., as most of his beloved compositions were composed before his departure from Russia. For anyone who is a lover of Rachmaninov's music, and wants to know more about his American life, the book is well worth the read.

[Patrick Macke · Rating 3 out of 5]

I dig Rachmaninoff's music and admire his piano brilliance, so I gave this a try … For a book called “Rachmaninoff in Exile” there’s virtually no substance about why Rachmaninoff left Russia, the reader is left to guess, seems silly … The book is at once all over the place and nowhere, never seeming to complete a thought … It is true that Rachmaninoff is high maintenance, but he doesn't deserve the torrent of negativity brought on by his jealous contemporaries ... Some interesting bits here about Sikorsky and Steinway … Alas, effort to understand the man will not be rewarded here; listen to him, don’t read about him

[Jean Mehochko · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book and, at times, didn't want to put it down. The life and music of Sergei Rachmaninoff told in varied vignettes, a very interesting and educational writing style. I am no expert in music of any kind, but have been inspired to listen to recordings of Rachmaninoff's music as a way to continue learning about this talented, sad man. Highly recommend!

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book reads well, and I trust the author‘s voice. The reason for the relatively low rating is that it assumes a lot of preexisting knowledge of the Russian figures of this era. The many Russian names are confusing. Nonetheless it effectively portrayed the close knit circle of Russian emigrants in the first half of the 20th century.

[Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

A compete waste of time. Either Rachmaninov lacks complexity or this book fails to uncover anything interesting about the musician. It offers instead a bewildering litany of obscure encounters with other musicians, mostly Russians, without revealing how any of these musicians affected Rachmaninov. The book entitled “Missing Russia” shows only that.

[Amelia Steadman McGowan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a profound and touching glimpse into Rachmaninoff’s experience as a refugee, which played a major role in his work and life. As a huge Rachmaninoff fan and asylum advocate, I particularly enjoyed it.

[Matthew Warner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slow. Learning about the Russian Revolution was interesting. Musicians/composers come across as contemptible individuals, which might be accurate of "creative individuals" who are driving to realize a "vision." Still, I would not want to spend any more time with any of the mentioned artists.

[Bernie Buescher · Rating 5 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed this biography. Rachmaninoff is elusive, contradictory. Maddocks doesn't ttry to do too much; rich in anecdotes.