Spring CONCERT PROGRAM NOTES

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Serge Rachmaninoff (1873-1943), Symphony No. 2 in E Minor, Op. 27 (1908)

Rachmaninoff was one of the most brilliant pianists of his generation, a successful conductor, and a significant composer. He didn’t always find it easy to balance these three activities, often concentrating on touring as a pianist and conductor during the concert season while spending his summers composing at rural estates owned by family and friends. His musical abilities were discovered at an early age, and he began playing piano at age four. His composing career began during his years at the St. Petersburg and Moscow Conservatories. He graduated in composition from the latter institution with the Great Gold Medal for his opera Aleko, only the third person so honored. Despite the opera’s success when premiered at the prestigious Bolshoi Theater in 1893 (Tchaikovsky was an admirer), this promising start to a career in composition was derailed by the disastrous premiere of his First Symphony in an ill- prepared performance under Alexander Glazunov in 1897. Rachmaninoff was so shaken by this experience that he developed composer’s block, unable to create new works. Instead, he concentrated on developing his skills as a conductor, first at the Moscow Private Russian Opera and later in other venues, leading ultimately to an appointment at the Bolshoi Theater in 1904.

In spite of his success with conducting, Rachmaninoff's heart was in composing. To help him get over his writer's block, concerned friends set up a meeting with the great Russian author Leo Tolstoy, thinking a meeting of two genius minds could help Rachmaninoff out of his predicament. Tolstoy merely told the composer to get to work, then asked to hear some of his music, after which he said, “tell me, does anybody need music like that?”

Tolstoy’s question would soon be answered in the affirmative. Rachmaninoff would receive the help he needed from Dr. Nikolay Dahl. The extent to which the good doctor’s specialty in hypnosis played a role in his meetings with Rachmaninoff is debated, but whatever his methods, the musician soon found the will to compose again, producing acclaimed works that would make him famous, beginning with the Second Piano Concerto in 1901, which won a Glinka Prize and has remained one of his most popular pieces.

Rachmaninoff married Natalia Satina in 1902 and soon settled into a routine of touring widely in Russia, Western Europe and eventually the United States as a pianist and conductor during the concert season and spending summers on the Satina family estate Ivanovka, where he found the solitude he needed to compose. But the deteriorating political situation in Russia, leading to the so-called Russian Revolution of 1905, would soon affect this routine. The year began with a massacre of peaceful protesters outside the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg on 22 January, included a mutiny on the battleship Pontemkin in June, and numerous strikes and protests, including a general railway worker's strike in October. These were often put down violently, causing further destabilization. The instability, combined with what Rachmaninoff regarded as increasingly burdensome duties, prompted him to resign his post at the Bolshoi Theater and move his family to Dresden, Germany.

Dresden was a city Rachmaninoff had visited and loved. Its rich musical tradition included the Dresden Opera, ascendent during these years, that was well on its way to developing a special relationship with Richard Strauss with the world premieres of Feursnot in 1901 and Salome in 1905. Dresden also had excellent rail connections, allowing easy access to Leipzig and the famed Gewandhaus Orchestra as well as being a convenient base for touring. But Rachmaninoff's main concern was to find the tranquility he needed to compose, removed from the distractions of his life in Moscow. He soon began work on his second symphony, continuing to work on the score at Ivanovka during the summers. In 1907 his friend Alexander Siloti visited Rachmaninoff in Dresden and on his return to Russia let the press in on the existence of the work. Rachmaninoff was annoyed, not least because in composing a symphony he was directly confronting memories of the disastrous performance and reception of his First. His doubts were aired in a letter to another friend: "To hell with them! I don't know how to write symphonies, and what's more, I have no real desire to write them." Of the Second he said, "While planning the orchestration, the work became terribly boring and repulsive to me . . . I can tell you plainly that I am displeased by the piece." However accurately these statements may reflect Rachmaninoff's feelings at the time, he was to persevere and complete the symphony later that year. Moreover, he conducted the premiere in St. Petersburg on 26 January 1908, followed by performances in Moscow and Warsaw. This time the reception was enthusiastic and the symphony would earn the composer his second Glinka Prize. After the Moscow performance, the critic Yuli Engel hailed Rachmaninoff as "a worthy successor to Tchaikovsky" and while lamenting that its length might be a hinderance for audiences nevertheless concluded with "but how fresh, how beautiful it is." The Second Symphony has become one of Rachmaninoff's most popular pieces, full of the intense lyricism for which he is known. During much of the twentieth century the work was often performed with cuts, the uncut version taking a full hour in performance. While Rachmaninoff accepted many of these cuts, he always conducted the symphony without them, and in recent decades the uncut version has been favored, including for tonight's performance. Aside from length, the symphony poses no special challenges for the listener. The forms are conventional. The orchestration, while effective, lacks the kaleidoscopic color of Richard Strauss or the transparency of Gustav Mahler. But the intensity of the lyrical expression makes this one of the most beautiful symphonies of the Russian Romantic tradition.

The expansive first movement, nearly twenty minutes long, achieves its length by consequence of the composer's tendency, like Schubert and Bruckner, to think in complete melodic phrases rather than shorter motives. It begins with a brooding slow introduction that introduces the motto of the symphony on cellos and basses. This is immediately followed by wind chords and a noodling violin motive, both of which are derived from elements of the motto. Several themes of the symphony are derived from the motto and the motto and wind chords recur in recognizable form in later movements. An English horn solo bridges the slow introduction with the Allegro moderato in sonata form. The character of the movement is defined by its lyrical themes, with the principal contrasts provided by the agitated development section and the impassioned coda. The second movement is a scherzo and trio, beginning with theme in the horns whose pattern of descending thirds is reminiscent of the Dies Irae Gregorian chant (from the Mass for the Dead) that was something of an obsession with Rachmaninoff as it occurs in some form in several of his works. Here it doesn't seem to convey any sinister associations, as this section is full of colorful instrumental effects. The theme alternates with a slower, lyrical melody in the strings and the Trio, beginning with a moto perpetuo imitation in the strings which ultimately leads to a march-like theme based loosely on the opening horn motive.

The beautiful slow movement begins with a luscious string theme, which some may recognize as the source for the chorus in Eric Carmen's 1976 song "Never Gonna Fall in Love Again." Rachmaninoff's use of the tune is more hopeful. It actually introduces the main theme of the movement, first presented as an extended clarinet solo. But the movement keeps returning to those introductory motives, sometimes leading to an impressive climax, at other times as eloquent wind and violin solos, partially accompanying the restatement of the main theme. The finale is an exuberant romp in E major, but not without a few hints at the ground the symphony has traversed, such as the minor-key transitional theme based on the symphony's motto. Further contrast is provided by the lyrical second theme, another luscious string melody, reminiscent of Tchaikovsky with its triplet accompaniment, but which is actually related to the introductory theme of the slow movement, a relationship made clear by the quotation of that theme at the end of the section. The development picks up the pace, adding further quotations from the motto of the symphony and even working in the horn call motive from the scherzo. The recapitulation brings back the opening theme and leads ultimately to a climactic statement of the lyrical second theme before a boisterous coda brings the work to a close.