SERGEI RACHMANINOFF
The first complete scholarly-critical edition of the works of Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) was a pianist and composer of international stature and one of the towering figures of early 20th-century music. He left behind an œuvre consisting of some 170 works, many of which await discovery or are known only in forms far removed from the composer‘s intentions. Sergei Rachmaninoff: Critical Edition of the Complete Works (RCW), a project issued by Russian Music Publishing, is the first complete edition of Rachmaninoff‘s music prepared in accordance with scholarly criteria while meeting the demands of performers. It catalogues, explores, and annotates every available musical, literary, and iconographic source on Rachmaninoff‘s music.
The RCW is published under the scholarly auspices of Valentin Antipov. The editorial standards of the RCW satisfy the most discerning criteria and are safeguarded by an Editorial Board of internationally acknowledged authorities in Rachmaninoff scholarship. Alexandre Rachmaninoff, the composer‘s grandson, has been retained as a special advisor. The RCW is furthermore realized in close cooperation with the Glinka State Central Museum of Musical Culture, which houses one of the most extensive collections of Rachmaninoff autographs worldwide.
All sources are consulted for the first time and all compositions are presented in their authentic form with all existing versions from the composer.
The RCW will make Rachmaninoff‘s works available in their entirety, including early compositional essays, sketches, drafts, and arrangements and transcriptions of works by other composers. It will therefore provide the first fully rounded picture of Rachmaninoff‘s creative personality. Another section will include Rachmaninoff‘s writings in ten volumes: letters, memoirs, conversations and interviews. These volumes will be subject to the same high text-critical criteria as the music volumes.
Contents of the Volumes
- Editorial guidelines (Russian and English)
- Detailed historical and scholarly introduction by the editor (Russian and English)
- Large number of facsimile illustrations in four-color plates
- Critical edition of the music
(in Russian and English) will appear separately and include the following:
- Introduction to the work‘s genesis and historical surroundings
- Overview, description and evaluation of the sources
- Text-critical commentary
- Indexes