RACHMANINOFF DER KLAVIERPOET - EINZIGARTIG UND MENTAL WIEDERERSTARKT

Sergei Rachmaninoff [1873-1943] Konzert für Klavier und Orchester Nr. 2 in c- Moll op. 18 Sergei Rachmaninoff, Klavier Philadelphia Orchestra Lepold Stokowski, Leitung 1924 ____________________________________________________ Dr. Dahl has been a friend of Grauermann’s at Moscow University, and had specialised in internal medicine. After graduation he became interested in the therapeutic values of hypnosis that were then being explored in France, and his first successes on the treatment made him devote his entire practice to this method... .. Rachmaninoff surprised his cousins by agreeing, without resistance, to see the doctor. He was desperate enough about his dark present and darker future to try anything suggested to him. Even his lack of money was no obstacle, for many of Dahl’s patients were treated without charge, and any embarrassment felt by Rachmaninoff on this score was overcome. Dr. Dahl’s apartment was only a few doors from the Satin’s and Rachmaninoff visited the doctor daily. These sessions in Dr. Dahl’s study, with Rachmaninoff seated in a deep comfortable armchair, were concentrated on helping him to sleep soundly and peacefully every night, to brighten his daytime mood, to improve his appetite, and above all, to reawaken his desire to compose. Actual hypnosis was supplemented by general conversation, and as Dahl was a cultured and musically intelligent man, these talks must have enhanced the salutary effects of the treatment... From this document, from our knowledge of Rachmaninoff’s method of composition, and our knowledge of hypnotherapy around the turn of the century it is not difficult to reconstruct a case that was less complex than some suppose. As is clear from the Bertensson & Leyda excerpt above as well as from the composer’s own, less accurate, description in ‘Rachmaninoff’s Recollections told to Oskar von Riesemann’, Dahl obviously chose the novel method of ‘Post-hypnotic Suggestion’ to cure his patient. Three essential remarks must be made before arriving at a reliable reconstruction of Rachmaninoff’s case: Post-hypnotic suggestion can cure minor ailments only. If Rachmaninoff’s inability to compose were a formidable problem, he would certainly not have been cured this way! Hypnosis cannot make a subject perform tasks he or she is incapable to perform. Dahl’s treatment was intense, but spanned a relatively short period. Regarding the patient, two observations must be made. Although Rachmaninoff had not finished larger works, he had been very active in the years following the fiasco of the First Symphony. He had started a successful career as a conductor and made a tour of England as a pianist. It seems that his creative problem nagged him mostly during the summer months, in periods when he was not active in other fields. Rachmaninoff produced a greater number of large-scale compositions in the years immediately following Dahl’s treatment than he had done before, or subsequently. From these remarks and observations a clear picture emerges: Rachmaninoff probably was not so much unable to compose – rather he felt uneasy about committing his music to paper. Dahl therefore aimed his treatment at disarming the negative thoughts that assailed Rachmaninoff whenever he had time to compose. In such cases ‘Post-hypnotic Suggestion’ is a perfect method to use. Elger Niels by berlinzerberus