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NYT: Family Balks at Talk by Russia to Move Rachmaninoff's Remains
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Frank Forman
Sep 7, 2015, 1:34:34 PM9/7/15
to
I wonder whether Ayn Rand chose to buried in the cemetary where her
favorit composer was.
Family Balks at Talk by Russia to Move Rachmaninoff's Remains
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/07/nyregion/family-balks-at-talk-by-russia-to-move-rachmaninoffs-remains.html
VALHALLA, N.Y.--It was quiet beneath the mountain laurel shrubs
shielding the grave of the composer Sergei Rachmaninoff from the
late-summer sun. The furor is 4,500 miles away, in Russia, its
indelible voice in every melodic line he wrote--a different
Russia, a different sensibility, a different life, different time.
Resolutely nationalistic Russians want his body back. His
great-great-granddaughter, Susan Sophia Rachmaninoff Volkonskaya
Wanamaker, says "nyet." Or she might, if she spoke Russian, but
probably not. In a conversation about where his remains belong, she
repeatedly used words like "dignity" and "respect."
Rachmaninoff was buried here, in a town with a distinctly Wagnerian
name, about 25 miles outside New York City, after his death 72 years
ago. The plot is on a hillside in a cemetery with other notable
graves, including those of the peerless Yankees first baseman Lou
Gehrig, the actress Anne Bancroft, the bandleader Tommy Dorsey and
the author Ayn Rand. A three-bar Russian Orthodox cross stands
behind Rachmaninoff's tomb.
"To dig up and move his body would be an immense violation of the
privacy he so prized," Ms. Wanamaker said. "After fleeing from one
country to the next in life, as he did, is it too much to ask that
he be allowed to rest in peace with his family? I don't think so."
The dispute over his burial place started last month, when Russia's
culture minister, Vladimir Medinsky, said that Rachmaninoff's
remains should be exhumed and sent to Russia. "The composer dreamed
of being buried in Russia, that's why returning his remains to his
motherland would be a great deed," he said, according to a report on
the ministry's website.
Ms. Wanamaker said Rachmaninoff had no such dream. She also took
issue with biographical sketches that said he had wanted his final
resting place to be outside his villa in Switzerland, but that he
was buried in Kensico Cemetery here because his body could not be
delivered to Switzerland during World War II.
The villa was called Senar. Its name was a combination of the first
two letters of his first name; the first two letters of his wife's
first name, Natalie; and a final R, for Rachmaninoff.
"He held Senar in very high regard, but he never wished to be buried
there," she said.
And while he died in Beverly Hills, Calif., on March 28, 1943, "the
family's roots in New York were deeper than their roots in Beverly
Hills," Ms. Wanamaker said. Rachmaninoff, who left his homeland to
escape the Russian Revolution in 1917, had rented a house on
Riverside Drive when he arrived in Manhattan in the 1920s. He became
an American citizen eight weeks before he died.
Mr. Medinsky accused the United States of laying claim to
Rachmaninoff's legacy. "If you look at American sources, you'll see
that Sergei Rachmaninoff is a great American composer of Russian
descent," he said. "Americans are presumptuously privatizing the
name of Rachmaninoff."
That idea was echoed by Valery Poliansky, the president of the
Rachmaninov Society in Moscow (the group spells his last name with a
V). Mr. Poliansky told the Govorit Moskva radio station that "nobody
in America needs him," referring to Rachmaninoff, or his remains.
"America doesn't need anyone, except itself," he said.
Ms. Wanamaker disputed that. "It's not possible to privatize a name
that's well known," she said, also noting that her
great-great-grandfather "was always proud to be a Russian, even
while he was living in exile in America."
"There is no separating Sergei Rachmaninoff from Russia," Ms.
Wanamaker said. "His music is the embodiment of the Russian romantic
spirit. It's the embodiment of the Russian soul."
She added, "I believe the name Rachmaninoff, because it's recognized
and respected, gives Medinsky a platform to spout his nationalism."
She suggested that Mr. Medinsky was "trying to politicize a personal
choice"--Rachmaninoff's decision to leave Russia and never return.
The Tass News Agency reported that Mr. Medinsky had said that
Rachmaninoff's grave was in unsatisfactory condition.
"Untrue," Judy Mitchell, a spokeswoman for the cemetery, said as she
stood near the grave, where the grass was green and healthy-looking.
So were the rhododendrons beneath the mountain laurel.
She said that Rachmaninoff's grave did not receive any special
attention from the 75 workers who tend the cemetery's grounds. "It's
in our interest to have the entire property look good," she said.
Ms. Wanamaker said she last visited the grave in July, and it was
"beautifully maintained." She called it "laughable" that his grave's
supposed condition had been used as an argument for moving his
remains. "Just simply not true," she said.
Rachmaninoff's is one of the cemetery's most-visited graves, perhaps
the most visited. Gehrig's final resting place is also popular.
"There is no way for us to do an actual count," Ms. Mitchell said.
"We go by little stuff left at the graves and the bus tours."
In the little-stuff category, there were two laminated photographs
by Rachmaninoff's grave. On the back of one was a handwritten
explanation: "We went to Novgorod, your hometown." On the back of
the other, another explanation: "Your statue."
As for bus tours, Ms. Mitchell mentioned a recent visit by a bus
that was either so tall it scraped the arch at one of the cemetery's
entrances (8 feet 9 inches, according to a sign) or so long it could
not make it around some of the turns. She did not know which.
But the people on that bus, like so many who visit Rachmaninoff's
grave, were passionate, Ms. Mitchell recalled. There have been a
cappella singing groups, and more.
"We had a foreign language professor from the Midwest who was
writing what she wanted to be the definitive biography of
Rachmaninoff," Ms. Mitchell said. "You'd think it was a member of
her family. She said, 'I need to be alone.' All right, I'll come
back and pick you up in an hour. It was very personal, not just an
academic exercise."
Ms. Mitchell said there had been rumblings about removing
Rachmaninoff's remains before, usually when an anniversary was
approaching--and, indeed, the 75th anniversary of his death is
three years away. "I can't think of a circumstance where there would
be a removal," Ms. Mitchell said. "The ultimate conversation would
have to be with the family."
And Ms. Wanamaker said that Rachmaninoff, great as he was, was not
the only one to think about.
"He rests next to his wife and his daughter," she said, "and there's
no mention of moving them. So they want to separate his family, one
that he fought to keep together through the Russian Revolution,
through World War II? It's simply unconscionable."
favorit composer was.
Family Balks at Talk by Russia to Move Rachmaninoff's Remains
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/07/nyregion/family-balks-at-talk-by-russia-to-move-rachmaninoffs-remains.html
VALHALLA, N.Y.--It was quiet beneath the mountain laurel shrubs
shielding the grave of the composer Sergei Rachmaninoff from the
late-summer sun. The furor is 4,500 miles away, in Russia, its
indelible voice in every melodic line he wrote--a different
Russia, a different sensibility, a different life, different time.
Resolutely nationalistic Russians want his body back. His
great-great-granddaughter, Susan Sophia Rachmaninoff Volkonskaya
Wanamaker, says "nyet." Or she might, if she spoke Russian, but
probably not. In a conversation about where his remains belong, she
repeatedly used words like "dignity" and "respect."
Rachmaninoff was buried here, in a town with a distinctly Wagnerian
name, about 25 miles outside New York City, after his death 72 years
ago. The plot is on a hillside in a cemetery with other notable
graves, including those of the peerless Yankees first baseman Lou
Gehrig, the actress Anne Bancroft, the bandleader Tommy Dorsey and
the author Ayn Rand. A three-bar Russian Orthodox cross stands
behind Rachmaninoff's tomb.
"To dig up and move his body would be an immense violation of the
privacy he so prized," Ms. Wanamaker said. "After fleeing from one
country to the next in life, as he did, is it too much to ask that
he be allowed to rest in peace with his family? I don't think so."
The dispute over his burial place started last month, when Russia's
culture minister, Vladimir Medinsky, said that Rachmaninoff's
remains should be exhumed and sent to Russia. "The composer dreamed
of being buried in Russia, that's why returning his remains to his
motherland would be a great deed," he said, according to a report on
the ministry's website.
Ms. Wanamaker said Rachmaninoff had no such dream. She also took
issue with biographical sketches that said he had wanted his final
resting place to be outside his villa in Switzerland, but that he
was buried in Kensico Cemetery here because his body could not be
delivered to Switzerland during World War II.
The villa was called Senar. Its name was a combination of the first
two letters of his first name; the first two letters of his wife's
first name, Natalie; and a final R, for Rachmaninoff.
"He held Senar in very high regard, but he never wished to be buried
there," she said.
And while he died in Beverly Hills, Calif., on March 28, 1943, "the
family's roots in New York were deeper than their roots in Beverly
Hills," Ms. Wanamaker said. Rachmaninoff, who left his homeland to
escape the Russian Revolution in 1917, had rented a house on
Riverside Drive when he arrived in Manhattan in the 1920s. He became
an American citizen eight weeks before he died.
Mr. Medinsky accused the United States of laying claim to
Rachmaninoff's legacy. "If you look at American sources, you'll see
that Sergei Rachmaninoff is a great American composer of Russian
descent," he said. "Americans are presumptuously privatizing the
name of Rachmaninoff."
That idea was echoed by Valery Poliansky, the president of the
Rachmaninov Society in Moscow (the group spells his last name with a
V). Mr. Poliansky told the Govorit Moskva radio station that "nobody
in America needs him," referring to Rachmaninoff, or his remains.
"America doesn't need anyone, except itself," he said.
Ms. Wanamaker disputed that. "It's not possible to privatize a name
that's well known," she said, also noting that her
great-great-grandfather "was always proud to be a Russian, even
while he was living in exile in America."
"There is no separating Sergei Rachmaninoff from Russia," Ms.
Wanamaker said. "His music is the embodiment of the Russian romantic
spirit. It's the embodiment of the Russian soul."
She added, "I believe the name Rachmaninoff, because it's recognized
and respected, gives Medinsky a platform to spout his nationalism."
She suggested that Mr. Medinsky was "trying to politicize a personal
choice"--Rachmaninoff's decision to leave Russia and never return.
The Tass News Agency reported that Mr. Medinsky had said that
Rachmaninoff's grave was in unsatisfactory condition.
"Untrue," Judy Mitchell, a spokeswoman for the cemetery, said as she
stood near the grave, where the grass was green and healthy-looking.
So were the rhododendrons beneath the mountain laurel.
She said that Rachmaninoff's grave did not receive any special
attention from the 75 workers who tend the cemetery's grounds. "It's
in our interest to have the entire property look good," she said.
Ms. Wanamaker said she last visited the grave in July, and it was
"beautifully maintained." She called it "laughable" that his grave's
supposed condition had been used as an argument for moving his
remains. "Just simply not true," she said.
Rachmaninoff's is one of the cemetery's most-visited graves, perhaps
the most visited. Gehrig's final resting place is also popular.
"There is no way for us to do an actual count," Ms. Mitchell said.
"We go by little stuff left at the graves and the bus tours."
In the little-stuff category, there were two laminated photographs
by Rachmaninoff's grave. On the back of one was a handwritten
explanation: "We went to Novgorod, your hometown." On the back of
the other, another explanation: "Your statue."
As for bus tours, Ms. Mitchell mentioned a recent visit by a bus
that was either so tall it scraped the arch at one of the cemetery's
entrances (8 feet 9 inches, according to a sign) or so long it could
not make it around some of the turns. She did not know which.
But the people on that bus, like so many who visit Rachmaninoff's
grave, were passionate, Ms. Mitchell recalled. There have been a
cappella singing groups, and more.
"We had a foreign language professor from the Midwest who was
writing what she wanted to be the definitive biography of
Rachmaninoff," Ms. Mitchell said. "You'd think it was a member of
her family. She said, 'I need to be alone.' All right, I'll come
back and pick you up in an hour. It was very personal, not just an
academic exercise."
Ms. Mitchell said there had been rumblings about removing
Rachmaninoff's remains before, usually when an anniversary was
approaching--and, indeed, the 75th anniversary of his death is
three years away. "I can't think of a circumstance where there would
be a removal," Ms. Mitchell said. "The ultimate conversation would
have to be with the family."
And Ms. Wanamaker said that Rachmaninoff, great as he was, was not
the only one to think about.
"He rests next to his wife and his daughter," she said, "and there's
no mention of moving them. So they want to separate his family, one
that he fought to keep together through the Russian Revolution,
through World War II? It's simply unconscionable."
Bob Harper
Sep 8, 2015, 12:52:42 AM9/8/15
to
Kremlin to shove this notion where the sun never shines.
Bob Harper
Joe Roberts
Sep 8, 2015, 10:03:01 AM9/8/15
to
"Frank Forman" <che...@panix.com> wrote in message
news:Pine.NEB.4.64.15...@panix3.panix.com...
>I wonder whether Ayn Rand chose to buried in the cemetary where her favorit
>composer was.
>
> Family Balks at Talk by Russia to Move Rachmaninoff's Remains
> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/07/nyregion/family-balks-at-talk-by-russia-to-move-rachmaninoffs-remains.html
>
> VALHALLA, N.Y.--It was quiet beneath the mountain laurel shrubs
> shielding the grave of the composer Sergei Rachmaninoff from the
> late-summer sun. The furor is 4,500 miles away, in Russia, its
> indelible voice in every melodic line he wrote--a different
> Russia, a different sensibility, a different life, different time.
>
(snip for brevity)
>composer was.
>
> Family Balks at Talk by Russia to Move Rachmaninoff's Remains
> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/07/nyregion/family-balks-at-talk-by-russia-to-move-rachmaninoffs-remains.html
>
> VALHALLA, N.Y.--It was quiet beneath the mountain laurel shrubs
> shielding the grave of the composer Sergei Rachmaninoff from the
> late-summer sun. The furor is 4,500 miles away, in Russia, its
> indelible voice in every melodic line he wrote--a different
> Russia, a different sensibility, a different life, different time.
>
His memorial is on Find A Grave:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=dfl&GSln=rachmaninoff&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSob=n&GRid=847&df=all&
Joe
Joe Roberts
Sep 8, 2015, 10:08:10 AM9/8/15
to
"Joe Roberts" wrote:
> His memorial is on Find A Grave:
>
>
> http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=dfl&GSln=rachmaninoff&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSob=n&GRid=847&df=all&
>
> Joe
>
Correction: the link above has viewers' responses.
> His memorial is on Find A Grave:
>
>
> http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=dfl&GSln=rachmaninoff&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSob=n&GRid=847&df=all&
>
> Joe
>
Here's his memorial page:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=847
Joe
Frank Berger
Sep 8, 2015, 10:22:18 AM9/8/15
to
Erica Morini,
Lou and Eleanor Gehrig
and Soupy Sales
Ricardo Jimenez
Sep 8, 2015, 10:26:46 AM9/8/15
to
On Mon, 7 Sep 2015 21:52:39 -0700, Bob Harper <bob.h...@comcast.net>
wrote:
>Let's hope the family sticks to its guns and tells the thugs in the
>Kremlin to shove this notion where the sun never shines.
>
>Bob Harper
I recall a documentary film about Bartok, whose remains were returned
from another NY cemetary to Hungary. In it, his son said the reason
they allowed it was to be sure the grave would be taken care of after
both he and his brother were dead.
wrote:
>Let's hope the family sticks to its guns and tells the thugs in the
>Kremlin to shove this notion where the sun never shines.
>
>Bob Harper
from another NY cemetary to Hungary. In it, his son said the reason
they allowed it was to be sure the grave would be taken care of after
both he and his brother were dead.
Bob Harper
Sep 8, 2015, 12:01:23 PM9/8/15
to
grave is very well tended. I see no reason to assume that standard of
care is going to decline any time soon.
Bob Harper
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