Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor.
He was born on March 20 (April 1) of 1873, into a noble family at the Semyonovo Estate in the Novgorod Province. He graduated from the Moscow Conservatory with a Great Gold Medal as a pianist and a composer. During his studies at the Moscow Conservatory, Rachmaninoff was already the author of Piano Concerto No. 1, as well as a number of romances and pieces for pianoforte.
The composer's graduation work was his first opera, Aleko, based on poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin and staged at the Bolshoi Theater. In 1901, he finished his Piano Concerto No. 2. In a short time, he assumed the position of a conductor at the Bolshoi Theater, where he conducted the entire Russian opera repertoire for two seasons.
The most notable among his works of the 1890s are symphonic fantasy Utes (The Rock) (1893), Moments Musicaux for piano (1896), and a number of romances. In 1895, Rachmaninoff completed his Symphony No. 1. In 1897-1898, Rachmaninoff conducted performances at the Savva Mamontov's Moscow Private Russian Opera, and at the same time, his international performing career started. Rachmaninoff made his first foreign appearance in 1899 in London. In 1900, he visited Italy. In 1898-1900, he at various times performed in the ensemble with Fyodor Shalyapin.
By the early 1900s, he had composed Piano Concerto No. 2 (1901) and Cello Sonata (1901). The major instrumental pieces of the 1900s were Symphony No. 2 (1907) and Piano Concerto No. 3 (1909).
In December of 1917, Rachmaninoff went on tour to Scandinavia, from where he never returned to Russia. In 1918, he settled in the United States with his family.
In 1926, Rachmaninoff completed his Concerto No. 4 (which he began in Russia in the mid-1910s), which was followed by Three Russian Songs for choir and orchestra (1926), the Variations on a Theme of Corelli for pianoforte (1931), Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini for pianoforte with orchestra (1934), the Third Symphony (1935–1936) and Symphonic Dances for orchestra (1940).
The postage stamp provides a portrait of Sergei Rachmaninoff at the piano and musical notations of his compositions.
In addition to the issue of the postage stamp, JSC Marka produced First Day Covers and special cancels for Moscow, St. Petersburg, Veliky Novgorod, Kaliningrad and Tambov, as well as a maxi-card and an illustrated envelope with postage stamps, a label and a First Day Cover with a cancel for Moscow inside.
Artist: A. Sazhina; design artist: O. Savina.
Face value: 45 rubles.
Stamp size: 42×30 mm, sheet size: 146×176 mm.
Emission form: a sheet with formatted margins with 15 (3×5) stamps.
Quantity: 135 thousand stamps (9 thousand sheets).
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