Program Notes: Classical V – Rachmaninoff Turns 150
The Yakima Symphony honors the great composer Sergei Rachmaninoff’s 150th birthday. Standing the test of time as one of the most beautiful piano concertos, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini will feature the passionate performance of Russian-born pianist Daria Rabotkina. Then hear Rachmaninoff’s consummate expression of melancholy and affection, his Symphony No. 2.
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Sergei Rachmaninoff
(March 20/April 1, 1873-March 28, 1943)
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Rachmaninoff showed great promise as a child and entered the Moscow Conservatory at age twelve to study both piano and composition. Upon graduation, he achieved increasing success writing piano pieces, songs, and orchestral music, until a disastrous performance of his first symphony in 1897 put him into an emotional tailspin. This tailspin lasted several years and caused him eventually to seek medical help. One result of his recovery process was perhaps his best-known composition, his Second Piano Concerto. Through this piece and others in the early 1900s, he arrived at a personal style that stayed with him for the rest of his career as a composer—broad, lyrical melodies, full-bodied, large-scale orchestration clearly inspired by Tchaikovsky, and consistently melancholy and sentimental moods which brought him widespread appeal on both sides of the Atlantic. He left Russia during the Revolution and settled in New York in 1918. While he made most of his living as a pianist, he also achieved some fame as a conductor. After moving to America, he was so busy with performing and conducting that he had little time to compose, but he still did create some of his best-known works during this time, including his Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini, his Third Symphony, and his Symphonic Dances.
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Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini, Op. 43, for piano and orchestra
(1934) 
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As one would expect from a composer who was a virtuoso pianist, the Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini is simply that, a piece for a virtuoso. The melody for this set of variations was borrowed from the last of Paganini’s Caprices for solo violin ca. 1807. The original caprice (No. 24 in A minor) itself has 11 variations and is widely described as one of the most difficult pieces for solo violin ever written, with a wide range of advanced techniques, including fast scales and arpeggios, double and triple stops, left hand pizzicato, parallel octaves and tenths, rapid shifting, and string crossings. It has been used as the basis of other compositions by many composers, including Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms, Benny Goodman, and Andrew Lloyd Webber.
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Rachmaninoff’s adaptation resembles a concerto in one movement, and the 24 variations feature dazzling technique and ingenious harmonic twists. Composed in July and August of 1934 at his summer vacation home in Switzerland, the piece is firmly rooted in the 19th-century traditions of Liszt and Chopin, and it is clear that Rachmaninoff meant it first and foremost as a showpiece for the soloist. The composition is constructed in three large sections analogous to the standard three-movement concerto format. One unique characteristic is that the first clear solo statement of Paganini’s theme comes after a brief introduction and a first variation. Over the course of the work, the piece puts the soloist through an amazing number of notes, moods, and contrasts in style that cover the full range and resources of the piano. He even quotes the Dies irae chant from the Requiem mass in the context of manipulating Paganini’s theme to stylistic and expressive extremes. Though it clearly features the piano, the orchestra is an equal participant in the overall effect of the piece.
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Rachmaninoff himself performed the premiere on November 7 in Baltimore, Maryland, with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski. Ever since its premiere, the piece has been wildly popular and recorded numerous times. In addition to being borrowed for other compositions, excerpts of this piece, especially the famous 18th variation, have been used in television, movies, ballets and video games.
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Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 27
(1907)
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At the time Symphony No. 2 was composed, Rachmaninoff considered himself first and foremost a composer and felt that his increasing performance schedule was detracting from his time to compose. He moved his family to Dresden, Germany, to spend more time composing and also to escape the building political tensions in Russia. He was very unhappy with the first draft of his Second Symphony but after months of revision he finished the work and conducted the premiere in St. Petersburg in 1908, receiving great acclaim. He also conducted the first North American performance, with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1909. The piece is dedicated to Sergei Taneyev (1856-1915), a Russian composer, teacher, theorist, author, and student of Tchaikovsky.
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Throughout the symphony, one can hear the influence of Tchaikovsky. The first movement begins slowly, pensively, growing more restless as it unfolds. The first theme is urgent, the second theme calm, and the development of both themes ebbs and flows intuitively. In the recapitulation, the first theme seems more urgent, the second even more beautiful, and the ending is firm and resolved. The second movement begins optimistically, moves to a passionate, even melancholy contrasting theme, and then the two alternate, gradually exposing the basis for the movement, the Dies irae chant from the Requiem Mass. The movement gently subsides after a chorale in the brass.
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The third movement begins slowly and tenderly in the violins (playing a melody Eric Carmen used in his pop song “Never Gonna Fall in Love Again”), giving way to a lovely clarinet melody. The music has all the passion and yearning of Tchaikovsky in a slightly more complex setting, with more activity in the accompaniment and more complexity in the harmony. The finale also begins optimistically, as if issues have been resolved and it is time to go forward. Suddenly, the mood changes, becoming more guarded, as if realizing something could go wrong, or has been forgotten. These moods take turns and then the third movement melody returns briefly, cut off by faster music. A final explosion of the optimistic music brings the symphony to a triumphant close.
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After finishing this symphony, it was almost thirty years before Rachmaninoff began work on another. In his Second Symphony, Rachmaninoff proved himself a legitimate successor to Tchaikovsky—he uses a foundation of the same orchestration, forms, approaches to melody and harmony, and takes a step forward with more modern dissonance and complexity. Like Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff was never viewed as a nationalist even though he saw himself as a product of his country. He did feel, however, that music should always be personal, that “music must first and foremost be loved. It must come from and be directed by the heart. Otherwise, it cannot hope to be lasting, indestructible art.”