Sergey Rachmaninov
(1873-1943)
Piano Concerto No. 2
in C minor, Op. 18
Piano Concerto No. 3
in D minor, Op. 30
Sergey Vasilyevich
Rachmaninov was among those Russian composers who chose exile rather than
remain in Russia after the Revolution of 1917, the consequent civil turmoil
and, as it turned out, the years of despotic oppression that followed. He was
born at Semyonovo in 1873 into a family of strong military traditions on his
mother's side and more remotely on his father's. A tendency to extravagance had
depleted his father's fortunes and made it necessary to sell off much of their
land and dissipating his wife's dowry. As a result of this, the childhood of
Rachmaninov was largely spent at the one remaining family estate at Oneg, near
Novgorod. The reduction in family circumstances had at least one happier
result: when it became necessary to sell this estate and move to St Petersburg,
the expense of educating the boy for the Imperial service proved too great.
Rachmaninov could make use, instead, of his musical gifts, entering St
Petersburg Conservatory at the age of nine with a scholarship.
Showing no particular
industry as a student and lacking the attention he needed at home, in 1885
Rachmaninov failed all his general subject examinations at the Conservatory and
there were threats that his scholarship would be withdrawn. His mother, now
separated from her husband and responsible for her son's welfare, arranged, on
the advice of the well known pianist Alexander Siloti, that he should move to
Moscow to study with Zverev, a teacher known to impose the strictest
discipline. In Zverev's house, however uncongenial the rigorous routine,
he acquired much of his phenomenal ability as a pianist, while broadening his
musical understanding by attending concerts in the city. At the age of fifteen
he became a pupil of Zverev's former student Siloti, a musician who had also
studied with Tchaikovsky, Nikolay Rubinstein and, thereafter, with Liszt.
Rachmaninov had lessons in harmony and counterpoint with Sergey Taneyev and
Arensky, and his growing interest in composition led to a quarrel with Zverev
and removal to the house of his relations, the Satins.
In 1891 Rachmaninov
completed his piano studies at the Conservatory and the composition of his Piano
Concerto 1. The following year he graduated from the composition class and
composed the notorious Prelude in C sharp minor, a piece that was to
haunt him by its excessive popularity. His early career brought initial success
as a composer, halted by the failure of his first symphony at its first
performance in 1897, when it was conducted badly by Glazunov, apparently drunk
at the time, and then reviewed in the cruellest terms by César Cui who
described it as a student attempt to depict in music the seven plagues of
Egypt. Rachmaninov busied himself as a conductor, accepting an engagement in
this capacity with Mamontov's Moscow Private Russian Opera Company. He was only
able to return to composition after a course of treatment with Dr Nikolay Dahl,
a believer in the efficacy of hypnotism. The immediate result was the second of
his four piano concertos, a work that has proved to be one of the most
immediately popular of all he wrote.
The years before the
Russian revolution brought continued successful activity as a composer and as a
conductor. In 1902 Rachmaninov married Natalya Satina and went on to pursue a
career that was bringing him increasing international fame. There were journeys
abroad and a busy professional life, from which summer holidays at the estate
of Ivanovka, which he finally acquired from the Satins in 1910, provided
respite. During the war, however depressing the circumstances, he continued his
concert engagements, not being required for military service, as he had
anticipated. All this was interrupted by the abdication of the Tsar in 1917 and
the beginning of the Revolution.
Rachmaninov left
Russia in 1917; from then until his death in Beverly Hills in 1943, he was
obliged to rely largely on performance for a living. Now there was, in
consequence, much less time for composition, as he undertook demanding
concert-tours, during which he dazzled audiences in Europe and America with his
remarkable powers as a pianist. His house at Ivanovka was destroyed in the
Russian civil war and in 1931, the year of his Variations on a Theme of
Corelli, his music was banned in Russia, to be permitted once again two
years later. He spent much time in America, where there were lucrative
concert-tours, but established a music publishing-house in Paris and built for
himself a villa near Lucerne, where he completed his Rhapsody on a Theme of
Paganini in 1934 and his Third Symphony a year later. In 1939 he
left Europe, to spend his final years in the United States.
Rachmaninov wrote his Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor in 1900 and
1901, dedicating it to Dr Nikolay Dahl, The second and third movements of this
most popular of all romantic concertos were completed in the summer of 1900 and
the first movement in the following year. In November 1901 it was performed in
Moscow under the direction of Siloti, with the composer as soloist, and was
received with the greatest enthusiasm. The work has retained its position in
concert repertoire, although it has at the same time had a Jess fortunate
influence on lesser works that have nothing of the innovative inspiration of
their model.
The first movement of the concerto opens with a series of dramatic
chords from the soloist, an introduction to the first theme, proposed by the
strings, accompanied by piano arpeggios. The second subject, quite properly in
E flat major, is introduced by a phrase on the viola, before its statement by
the soloist, rhapsodic in style, to be further developed in a central section,
before a great dynamic climax and the return of the first subject, now marked Maestoso.
Calm returns for the orchestra to return to the second subject, now with an
air of intense nostalgia, before the final coda. In the slow movement the
orchestra moves from C minor to the remoter key of E major, to be joined by the
soloist in music of characteristic figuration, with the principal theme
introduced by flute and clarinet before being taken up by the soloist. There is
a central section of greater animation and mounting tension, leading to a
powerful cadenza, followed by the return of the principal theme. With scarcely
a pause the orchestra embarks on the final Allegro scherzando, providing
the necessary modulation to the original key. A piano cadenza leads to the
first theme, while a second theme, marked Moderato, is announced by the
oboe and violas. Both are treated rhapsodically by the soloist, the second
theme offering a romantic contrast to the more energetic rhythm of the first.
In form the movement is a rondo, with the first theme largely keeping its
original key and the second providing harmonic variety in different keys, the
first making its second appearance in contrapuntal imitation. The concerto ends
with a grandiose apotheosis of the second theme in a triumphant C major.
Rachmaninov gave the first performance of his technically demanding Piano
Concerto No. 3 in D minor in New York on 28th November, 1909, having
apparently practised the solo part during the sea-crossing to America on a
dummy keyboard. He had written the work at Ivanovka during the summer and
towards the end of his life refused to play the work, which he preferred to
entrust to the younger pianists Vladimir Horowitz and Walter Gieseking,
surprising diffidence in a player of his distinction. The first performance
under Damrosch was followed by a Carnegie Hall performance in January 1910,
under Gustav Mahler, to be greeted with critical reservations about its length
and excessive difficulties. The composer has left an account of the rehearsal
with Mahler, who spared the orchestra nothing in his preparation of the work.
The rehearsal was called for ten o'clock, with Rachmaninov, as soloist, asked
to attend an hour later. Work on the concerto did not start until midday,
leaving only half an hour more available. Mahler, however, continued a further
three quarters of an hour, before announcing that they would now play again the
first movement. It was after an hour and a half of extra rehearsal time that
Mahler finished, even then insisting that no player should leave so long as he
was on the podium. Rachmaninov recalls with respect Mahler's necessary
strictness of discipline and his dedication and care.
The principal theme of the first movement is announced at the beginning
by the soloist with great simplicity, over a gentle orchestral accompaniment, a
melody which one writer has traced to the Russian Orthodox liturgy. This
opening theme is of considerable importance, since much that follows is derived
from it, in one way or another. There is an expressive second subject, derived
from a rhythmic figure heard in the preceding transition and heard as various
instruments join in duet with the soloist. The first subject provides the basis
of the central development. There is an extended cadenza, for the first part of
which the composer offered a marginally simpler and shorter version. This is
interrupted by a woodwind return to the first subject, to continue, finally
followed by a much abbreviated recapitulation. The Intermezzo, marked Adagio,
opens in A major with thematic material that bears a strong enough
resemblance to an element of the principal theme of the first movement. The
soloist makes more of this and at the centre of the movement, in a section in
the mood of a scherzo, provides an accompaniment to the first-movement
theme with changed note values, now allotted to clarinet and bassoon. There is
a cadenza, before the movement moves forward without a break to the
virtuoso Finale. Here the overall unity of the work is further ensured
by the reference, before the recapitulation, to the two first-movement themes
and a later reminiscence of the rhythm with which the concerto had opened,
implicit, in any case, in the first theme of the movement. Other thematic
material is introduced at the outset, the first of four themes to be introduced
rhythmically derived from the principal theme of the first movement and leading
to a brusquely ascending figure, to massive syncopated chords and to a romantic
fourth element, the second subject proper. The development of the material offers
further opportunities for great virtuosity and, as in the other movements,
there is a cadenza, after the return of the four thematic elements in
recapitulation, and a final coda that sets the seal on a romantic virtuoso
concerto that takes the form to its peak.
Keith Anderson