Is Rachmaninov up there as a great composer?
Just the bearer of news, so Rachmanomaniacs do not kill the messenger. Many Music Encyclopediae (Larousse, and similar from other western cultures) have similar thoughts about Sergei R. even though the various books have slight to really evident national bias – “local boy makes good.”) They acknowledge Rachmaninov as being, uh, popular. They often go on to evaluate him as shallow, or insipid, derivitave, or something equally damning, belittling or discounting but in a slightly more diplomatic wording. He is deemed of minor / inconsequential value as a composer who has contributed to or forwarded music or what music can do: this criterion is where the “Men” and “Women” are seperated from the “Boys” and “Girls”. Best, Petr B.
