Joel Hill wondered:

>How come most records use the "off" ending, but most search engines don't
>work unless you use the "ov" ending? Maybe someone with a Russian
>background can explain.

No Russian background among my ancestors AFAIK, but I think what Joel
refers to is because of a combination of where you live and a matter of
preference.  I had a look through my Rachmaninov holdings and the only
ones with the -off ending were on US labels, ie, from my perspective, most
records use the -ov ending.  To confuse the issue further, Grove, Nimbus (I
think) and possibly other labels prefer Rakhmaninov.  Likewise, my old John
Browning RCA LPs are of the Prokofieff piano concertos, but most others end
his name -iev, although there's dispute about whether his first name was
Serge, Sergei or Sergey.  Then there are Tchaikovsky, Tschaikowsky and
other variants, but not, inconsistently, Tchaikoffsky.  I don't think we're
ever going to get standardised spellings, and it's just one of those minor
irritants we have to live with.

Richard Pennycuick
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