Sergey Rachmaninov  1873-1943

PIANO CONCERTO No.2 IN C MINOR, Op.18.                                     Sergey Rachmaninov

The premiere performance of Rachmaninov’s First Symphony took place in St. Petersburg in 1897. It was a dismal failure, in large part due to the shoddy conducting of Alexander Glazunov. The disappointment brought on a severe depression, and for three years Rachmaninov was unable to do any significant composing. Finally in 1900 he went for therapy and hypnosis to Dr. Nikolay Dahl. The result was one of the first well-known successes of modern psychotherapy, and the composer was able to return to creative work. Relapses into depression dogged Rachmaninov, however, for the rest of his life. And significantly, all his large instrumental compositions are in minor keys.

Rachmaninov expressed his thanks by dedicating the Second Piano Concerto to Dr. Dahl. The first performance took place in November 1901, with the composer at the piano, and was an instant success. It is Rachmaninov's most frequently performed and recorded orchestral work, and its popularity has never waned. It even found its way into Hollywood as background music to the W.W.II movie Brief Encounter, as well as the Broadway musical Anastasia, based on the mystery surrounding the death of the daughter of Tsar Nicholas II.

The first movement, moderato, opens with dark unaccompanied chords on the piano, which increase in intensity and are gradually joined by the orchestra, leading to the first theme. The effect is like the tolling of the giant low-pitched bells common in Russian churches. The piano introduces the sensuous second theme, one of the composer's signature themes.  About halfway through the movement as the development continues, a new rhythmic figure makes its appearance, first as a barely audible accompaniment figure in the flute, then taken up in the piano and timpani as an accompaniment to the second theme. Increasingly, it crops up all over the orchestra until the piano pounds it out, letting the rest of the orchestra carry the recapitulation of the main theme. A long rhapsodic coda concludes the movement with a final dramatic burst of energy.

The second movement opens with muted strings, following with hesitant piano arpeggios in left hand. As the piano remains in the background joined by the solo flute the clarinet finally brings out the theme in its entirety.  The middle section of this ABA form centers on a second theme, which is built on the first and belongs to the piano. Typically of the middle sections of slow movements, it is more intense and passionate than the A section. It builds in speed and energy in a brief cadenza, after which the gentle atmosphere of the beginning return with variations of the first theme.

The brilliant third movement is characterized by abrupt changes in mood, all based on two themes. It opens deceptively quietly in the lower range of the orchestra, breaking into a sudden sparkling, drivingly rhythmic piano cadenza and finally the main theme. The second theme, introduced by the violas and oboes, is intensely passionate, and another of the melodies that have made this Concerto so popular. To conform to this new romantic mood, Rachmaninov rhythmically transforms his first theme. Suddenly, the tempo increases to presto and we're in a whirlwind development of the first theme, including a little truncated fugue. Then it's back to romantic second theme, more mood swings until after a short cadenza the second romantic theme is taken up by the highest instruments in the orchestra, culminating in a glittering coda.

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky 1840 - 1893

SYMPHONY No.3 IN D MAJOR, Op.29, “POLISH”
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was an ardent nationalist whose great melodic gift enabled him to develop his own themes rather than use pre-existing melodies. Despite the many folk elements in most of his symphonies, he only occasionally used borrowed themes. Yet, he did not espouse the nationalist movement in music, symbolized by such composers as Mussorgsky, Borodin, Balakirev and Rimsky-Korsakov whose goal was to further the pan-Slavic movement and Russian nationalist music, but instead used his symphonies as a vehicle to express his personal anguishes and depressive moods.

Tchaikovsky composed Symphony No.3 during the summer of 1875 during one of his optimistic periods. He spent the summer as usual composing as a guest at country estates of family and friends in the heart of Russia, and the Symphony captures the bucolic atmosphere of its birthplace or, as one commentator put it, “a lavishly decorated peasant cottage of a piece.” The Symphony’s subtitle “Polish” stems from the finale’s designation as Tempo di Polacca, although it contains no Polish folk songs.
The Symphony, in fact, is the most Germanic of Tchaikovsky’s symphonies, and is modeled on Schumann’s Symphony No.3, the “Rhenish,” including the five-movement format. But Russia is never far below the surface. Even the second movement, marked alla Tedesca (in the German manner), sounds ethnically Russian. It also abounds with melodies, many of them bearing a close resemblance to themes from Swan Lake, which was premiered only two years later.

The first movement is complex with several interrelated themes and unusual division into sections at the beginning that gradually increase in tempo. The introduction, marked Tempo di marcia funebre (like a funeral march), gives a poor indication of the upbeat nature of the rest of the symphony. The halting rhythm, punctuates by orchestral sighs and accompanied by a steady timpani beat contains within it the material for the first theme of the Allegro. One of the odd aspects of this movement is how long it takes Tchaikovsky to launch his themes; the principal Allegro theme is preceded by a full minute of anticipatory buildup. When it finally takes off, we hear that it is constructed out of the little dotted rhythm of the funeral march – only at three times the tempo. The Allegro has an almost ceremonial quality, although there are dark moments, especially an oboe solo that sounds like the inspiration for the principal motive from Swan Lake. One of the features of this movement is that it is made up of several sections, each of which represents an increase in tempo. Tchaikovsky's closing theme for the exposition also requires a long runway.

The second movement is a lilting waltz, although the steady 3/4 beat of the pizzicato strings doesn't quite match the melody, creating a limping syncopation. Tchaikovsky was partial to waltzes and included one in his Fifth Symphony as well. However, the meter gets back on track during the second strain of the waltz. Like any dance movement, this one has a Trio, starting off in a more nervous manner with a staccato woodwind choir, punctuated by a long horn call. The repeat of the Waltz is followed by a long coda that peters out via a long series of brief woodwind solos based on the Waltz theme.

The third movement, marked Andante elegaico, comes closest to the intense emotional expressions of the later symphonies. It comprises two themes, one introduced by the flute in its lowest register,  the other, very Russian in sound, by the bassoon and horn. The movement is a variation of the standard ternary, or ABA, form for slow movements; Tchaikovsky expands the form into an ABAB plus a coda. The second (B) section introduces two new themes, the second of which is quintessential Tchaikovsky.     The profusion of themes is not unusual for Tchaikovsky, who was first and foremost a melodist rather than a musical architect. When he got a good theme, he tended to hang on to it, sharing it around the orchestra rather than developing or transforming it.

The light-hearted Scherzo contains some imaginative orchestration, especially for the woodwinds. While the first strain of the scherzo is made up of a rapid sweeping arpeggio figure in the flutes, the second strain contrasts it with staccato outbursts by the other high woodwinds. The Trio with fanfares and flourishes, is recycled from a 1872 cantata Tchaikovsky wrote to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Peter the Great’s birth.

The Finale, marked Tempo di Polacca, is a rondo in the rhythm of a stately polonaise, a dance rhythm that recurs regularly in Tchaikovsky’s operas and ballets. There are three episodes of new music between the rondo refrain, one of which reappears at the end of the Symphony in a formal patriotic guise, much like the Tsarist anthem at the end of the 1812 Overture.  

After the Third, Tchaikovsky’s symphonies became intensely personal and introspective, reflecting the composer’s bipolar emotional swings, luxuriant self-pity and fatalism.