Goodbye Russia
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I n 1940 Sergei Rachmaninoff, living in exile in America, broke his creative silence and composed a swan song to his Russian homeland. What happened in those final haunted years and how did he come to write his farewell masterpiece, the Symphonic Dances? Rachmaninoff left Petrograd in 1917 in the throes of the Russian Revolution. He was 44 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 so
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This compelling biography examines the final haunted years of Sergei Rachmaninoff's life in exile, tracing his journey from revolutionary Russia to his creative rebirth in America. Maddocks masterfully chronicles how the composer, having fled Petrograd in 1917 at the height of his powers, eventually broke his long creative silence to produce his farewell masterpiece, the Symphonic Dances, in 1940—a swan song to the homeland he could never return to.
The book's strength lies in its poignant exploration of artistic identity severed from its cultural roots, detailing how Rachmaninoff navigated elite Tsarist circles, managed his family estate from afar, and ultimately channeled his profound longing into his final composition. Readers fascinated by classical music history, the Russian diaspora, and the psychological toll of exile will find this portrait of a composer reconciling with his past deeply moving and resonant with contemporary themes of displacement and artistic legacy.
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