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Donald Macleod explores Rachmaninov’s life in exile from Russia and attachment to the country estate he left behind: Ivanovka.

150 years ago this week, Sergei Rachmaninov was born: one of the finest pianists of his generation, touring the world in the 1920s and 30s as a musical megastar. Composing had been his real passion since childhood, and towards the end of his time in Russia before the Revolution, it was farming. Though St Petersburg and then Moscow was his base for much of his early life, it was Ivanovka – a country estate deep in the Russian countryside - that formed him. The house and the land surrounding it were a major source of his creative inspiration until his last visit in 1917. Donald Macleod explores how important Ivanovka was to Rachmaninov, and how he carried the precious memory of it with him when he left it behind for a life of exile.

Rachmaninov spent the final years of his life mixing with other emigres in Beverly Hills, while the war in Europe raged on. He played duets with his neighbour Vladimir Horowitz, visited the Disney studios, and spent as much time as he could in his garden - planting birches to remind him of his distant homeland. Three decades after his death in 1943, the house and gardens at Ivanovka in Russia would be restored as a memorial to the composer.

John Stafford Smith: The Star-Spangled Banner (transcription by Rachmaninov)
Sergei Rachmaninov, piano

Corelli Variations (Excerpt)
Daniil Trifonov, piano

Symphonic Dances (Mvt III)
Berliner Philharmoniker
Sir Simon Rattle, conductor

Suite No 2 for Two Pianos (Mvt III and IV)
Martha Argerich, piano
Gabriela Montero, piano

The Bells op.35 (Mvt IV)
Alexey Markov, bass
Bavarian Radio Chorus
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
Mariss Jansons, conductor