Rachmaninoff: The Last Concert - Knoxville, TN
Posted by: vhasler
N 35° 57.582 W 083° 55.427
17S E 236316 N 3983431
A statue of Rachmaninoff to remember his last concert played here at the University of Tennessee.
Waymark Code: WM7GRX
Location: Tennessee, United States
Date Posted: 10/24/2009
Views: 13
Statue plaque reads:
Rachmaninoff: The Last Concert
by Victor Bokarov, sculptor
In honor of Sergei Rachmaninoff's last concert performed in the Alumni Gymnasium on the campus of the University of Tennessee
February 17, 1943
Donated by
Victor Bokarov of Russia to the City of Knoxville
Erected, July 2003
Located on the Knoxville World's Fair site, the 12' bronze statue of the famous Russian born composer and pianist, Sergei Rachmaninoff, shows him as he appeared at what became his final public concert held here in Knoxville. Suffering from pains of not yet diagnosed terminal cancer, Rachmaninoff took his last bow and canceled the rest of his American tour. He died weeks later.
Fifty years later, a Russian sculptor in Moscow, created the large plaster statue. Stipulatiing that it be bronzed and placed in a public place, he donated the statue to the city of Knoxville, in honor of where Rachmaninoff played his final show. reference
Prophetically, this last concert featured Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2 in B flat Minor, which contains the famous Funeral March.