Fiona Maddocks: Goodbye Russia - Rachmaninoff in Exile review - an affectionate biographical portrait
The Russian composer’s later years recounted with a delightful eye for walk-ons
In 1917, in the face of the Bolshevik revolution closing in on his country estate, Rachmaninoff fled Russia, never to return. He was 44, at his peak as composer, pianist and conductor, but spent the rest of his life in exile in the US and Switzerland, amassing a fortune and worldwide reputation as the biggest draw in classical music – but never reconciling himself to being separated from his homeland. As he lay dying, he insisted on a Russian nurse, his wife reading Pushkin to him.