Rachmaninoff practising slowly

Abram Chasins visited Rachmaninoff in Hollywood:

Arriving at the designated hour of twelve, I heard an occasional piano sound as I approached the cottage. I stood outside the door, unable to believe my ears, Rachmaninoff was practising Chopin’s étude in thirds [G sharp minor, Op. 25, No. 6], but at such a snail’s pace that it took me a while to recognise it because so much time elapsed between each finger stroke and the next. Fascinated, I clocked this remarkable exhibition; twenty seconds per bar was his pace for almost an hour while I waited riveted to the spot, quite unable to ring the bell. Perhaps this way of developing and maintaining an erring mechanism accounted for his bitter sarcasm towards colleagues who practised their programmes ‘once over lightly’ between concerts.

A. Chasins, Speaking of Pianists, New York, Alfred A. Knopf Inc, 1957, p.44 cited in B Martyn, Rachmaninoff: Composer, pianist, conductor, Aldershot, Ashgate, 1990, p. 399.

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