Today, Rachmaninoff's most extensive 'live' performance, lost for decades, can now be heard by modern audiences thanks to the efforts of master recording engineer Ward Marston, who will discuss aspects of its background and creation at this year's Matthay Festival. As is well known, Rachmaninoff was so averse to recording his performances that he never even permitted live broadcasts, so this priceless document stands as a sui generis addition to his discography. Perhaps unaware that his rendering was being recorded, on that occasion he created a remarkable solo reduction of virtually the entire work, delivering a performance of extraordinary poetry and stunning virtuosity. On December 21, 1940, a few weeks before Eugene Ormandy was scheduled to premiere the composer's Symphonic Dances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Rachmaninoff sat at the piano to guide the conductor's understanding of the tempos and voicings he most desired. Matthay was not alone in his estimate, because for decades, connoisseurs and laymen alike have granted Rachmaninoff a unique status in the pantheon of great pianists. One evening after Sergei Rachmaninoff played a piano recital in London, Tobias Matthaywho well remembered the performances he had once heard from Liszt, Anton Rubinstein, and von Bülowremarked to his ward, Denise Lassimonne, that he thought it was some of the greatest playing he had ever heard. Because this year the Matthay Association is also honoring the legacy of one of the greatest pianists of the twentieth centuryas well as one of America's great pianist/teachersa number of special events have been planned.Ī Newly Discovered Live Recording by Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) Richmond, East Carolina University, King College, Union University, Western Carolina University, Texas Wesleyan University, the Eastman School of Music, and Arizona State University. University, the University of Kansas, Columbus State University, the University of State University, the University of South Carolina, Wittenberg Toronto, San Jose State University, Williams College, Pennsylvania University of Central Florida, the Royal Conservatory of Music in Including the Philips Academy at Andover, Massachusetts, the University of Maryland, the The year 2019 marks the sixty-second annual gathering, and this year's Festival will also include performances and masterclasses featuring the recipients of the 2019 Clara Wells Fellowship Awards.įestivals have taken place at many locations throughout North America, Include lectures, demonstrations, performances, and master classes, andĪ recital is heard each evening. The annual Matthay Festivals are designed to offer participants direct andĬoncentrated access to the Matthay teaching principles as they apply atĪll levels, including that of the performing artist. For nearly 50 years, he taught at London's Royal Academy of Music, and for over 40, at his own school, which became a magnet for countless numbers of pianists and teachers who established successful careers in countries the world overespecially America. Throughout the world, his revolutionary teaching principles were communicated to thousands more by his books, including The Act of Touch (1903), Musical Interpretation (1912), and The Visible and Invisible (1932). In his lifetime, Matthay trained scores of famous pianists, including Dame Myra Hess, Irene Scharrer, Dame Moura Lympany, Sir Clifford Curzon, York Bowen, and Harriet Cohen. The year 2019 marks the seventy-fourth anniversary of the death of Tobias Matthay, one of the greatest piano teachers of the twentieth century, and the foremost piano teacher Britain has produced. June 19-22, 2019 honoring 'Sergei Rachmaninoff and the Golden Age of Pianism'

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