author
Oskar von Riesemann
1880–1934
A Baltic German music writer and translator, he is best remembered for shaping vivid books about Russian composers, including the 1934 volume based on Sergei Rachmaninoff’s recollections. His work helped bring Russian musical life to a wider European readership.
1 Audiobook
Rund um Süd-Amerika: Reisebriefe
by Oskar von Riesemann
About the author
Born in Reval in 1880, Oskar von Riesemann became a music writer whose career moved across several parts of Europe. Reliable reference entries identify him as a music author, give his lifespan as 1880–1934, and place his death near Lucerne.
He is closely associated with books on major Russian composers. His 1929 biography Moussorgsky and his 1934 Rachmaninoff's Recollections, presented as memories told to him by Sergei Rachmaninoff and translated from a German manuscript, are the works most clearly confirmed in available sources.
That combination of biography, criticism, and translation made him a useful bridge between Russian music and Western readers. He died in 1934 after a long heart illness, the same year Rachmaninoff's Recollections appeared in London.