It was in Moscow that Rachmaninoff the musician was born.

It was a game-the duets which his

grandfather, the balalaika lessons with Anna Ornatskaya, his grandmother's rewards-all that was

past, and had little relation to the intense training that now filled every waking moment of his every

day.

His first three days in Moscow were spent with his aunt, Siloti's mother, but after she delivered him

into the care of his new master, Zverev, the boy saw little of her or of any other relatives living or

visiting in Moscow. Nikolai Zverev was known as an excellent but severe piano teacher, trained by

Dubuque and Henselt. He dictated his own terms to any pupil who wanted his lessons, and enough

rich pupils accepted his terms to afford him a handsome living. When a devoted pupil showed

unusual gifts, Zverev's generosity matched his severity. This year Rachmaninoff was one of three

pupils whom Zverev brought into his home, on the condition that he could supervise their lives and

interests while they took piano lessons with him at the Conservatory. Along with Leonid Maximov

(known as Lyolik or Lo) and Matvey Pressman (known as Matya or Mo), Sergei Rachmaninoff paid

Zverev nothing for his board and lodgings, in addition to which there was a steady stream of tickets

for concerts, operas, plays that Zverev demanded his boys attend for cultural background. In

exchange for all this the three boys had to obey his every command and recognize no other

authority. Separation from their families was, of course, essential. These conditions must have

seemed a fair price to pay for the color and richness that Nikolai Zverev attached to their lessons.

'Musory's musical life in the eighties was an emotional experience, and Zverev's 'sons,' in the midst

of this the normal atmosphere breathed by his three 'sons.' In 1885, four of the Mighty Five of the

Russian 'national' group were still alive and active; only Mussorgsky was gone-dead prematurely, in

1881. Balakirev, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Cui lived in St. Petersburg and saw little of Moscow;

Borodin, with...