Rachmaninoff at Carnegie Hall

One hundred years ago today… Sergei Rachmaninoff, internationally known pianist/composer, a Russian refugee and a new New Yorker, played at Carnegie Hall, a benefit for Russian artists. (Note the involvement of future US president Herbert Hoover.)

The show raised $7,100 to help Russian musicians, writers, and other artists who were impoverished in Russia.

Note: we previously reported on events at Carnegie Hall including Toscanini’s debut there and a debate between Samuel Gompers and Henry Allen.

Rachmaninoff was a new New Yorker; he had relocated to NYC after fleeing Russia, settling in in a townhouse at 33 Riverside Drive at 75th Street. In Music in the Big Apple, Stephen Jablonsky writes: “In 1920 he signed a lucrative recording contract with the Victor Talking Machine Company (RCA) that added to his financial security. The following year he purchased an apartment at 33 Riverside Drive. It served as a center of Russian socializing and culture on the Upper West Side.”

One hundred years ago today, local department store Wannamaker’s was using Rachmaninoff’s fame to sell player pianos.

And his music was being played on the nascent communication technology of radio–not his own recording, but a reproduction of one.

– Jonathan Goldman, April 2, 2022

TAGS: classical music, charity, celebrity, concerts, Russia, radio