Rachmaninov Manuscript Goes To Auction
A rare manuscript of Sergey Rachmaninov’s second symphony, signed by the composer and containing his handwritten notes, is to be auctioned at Sotheby’s in London in May, with an expected price of £1m-1.5m.
According to Classical-music.com, the manuscript had been presumed lost since the 1917 revolution, when Rachmaninov fled St Petersburg with only a small suitcase of belongings.
Stephen Roe, worldwide head of books and manuscripts at Sotheby’s, said: ‘There is no substitute for looking at a composer’s autograph – you can see various layers of working on it and various layers of realisation of his ideas … Everything is here, the whole story, the whole great Russian novel that is the second symphony.’
