Bogoródyitse Dyévo (Ave Maria) Op.37-6
Composer: Sergey Rachmaninov (1873-1943), 1915
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Sergey |
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Rachmaninov |
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1873 |
1943 |
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1915 |
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Op.37/6 |
Vespers, Bogoroditse Devo (Ave Maria) |
SATB |
a cappella |
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Sergey |
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Rachmaninov |
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1873 |
1943 |
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1915 |
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Op.37/15 |
Vespers, To the Mother of God |
SATB |
a cappella |
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play/stop MIDI:
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| Lyrics: |
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Bogoródyitse Dyévo,
ráduisya,
Blagodátnaya Maríye,
Gospóď s Tobóyu.
Blagoslovyéna Ty v zhenákh,
i blagoslovyén Plod
chryéva Tvoyegó,
yáko Spása rodyilá
yesí dush náshikh. |
Rejoice,
O Virgin Mother Of God,
Mary full of grace,
the Lord is with You.
Blessed are You among women,
and blessed
is the Fruit of Your womb,
for You have borne
the Savior of our souls. |
| Recordings: |
Recording: Ave
Maria on website Nationskören UMEĹ |
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play/stop MP3 sample:
Vĺrkonserten i Stadskyrkan 11/5 2004 |
| Score: available on
www.cpdl.org and
IMSLP |
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| Internet
references, biography information. |
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Rachmaninoff
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Sergei Vasilievich
Rachmaninoff (Russian: Серге́й Васи́льевич Рахма́нинов;[1] Russian
pronunciation: [sʲɪrˈɡʲej rɐxˈmanʲɪnəf]; 1 April [O.S. 20 March] 1873 – 28
March 1943) was a Russian[2] composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff
is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a
composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian
classical music.[3] Early influences of Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and
other Russian composers gave way to a thoroughly personal idiom that
included a pronounced lyricism, expressive breadth, structural ingenuity,
and a tonal palette of rich, distinctive orchestral colors.[4] The piano is
featured prominently in Rachmaninoff's compositional output. He made a point
of using his own skills as a performer to explore fully the expressive
possibilities of the instrument. Even in his earliest works he revealed a
sure grasp of idiomatic piano writing and a striking gift for melody.
Life
Childhood and youth
Rachmaninoff at the piano, in the early 1900s, before he graduated from the
Moscow ConservatoryThe Rachmaninoff family was a part of an "old
aristocracy", where all of the attitude but none of the money remained. The
family, of Tatar descent, had been in the service of the Russian tsars since
the 16th century, and had strong musical and military leanings. The
composer's father, Vasily Arkadyevich (1841–1916), an amateur pianist and
army officer, married Lyubov Petrovna Butakova (1853–1929), gained five
estates as a dowry, and had three boys and three girls.[5] Sergei was born
on 1 April 1873 at the estate of Semyonovo, near Great Novgorod in
north-western Russia.[6] When he was four, his mother gave him casual piano
lessons,[7] but it was his paternal grandfather, Arkady Alexandrovich, who
brought Anna Ornatskaya, a teacher from Saint Petersburg, to teach Sergei in
1882. Ornatskaya remained for "two or three years", until Vasily had to
auction off their home due to his financial incompetence—the five estates
had been reduced to one; he was described as "a wastrel, a compulsive
gambler, a pathological liar, and a skirt chaser"[8][9]—and they moved to a
small flat in Saint Petersburg.[10]
Ornatskaya returned to her home, and arranged for Sergei to study at the
Saint Petersburg Conservatory, which he entered in 1883, at age ten. That
year his sister Sofia died of diphtheria, and his feckless father left the
family, with their approval, for Moscow.[5] Sergei's maternal grandmother
stepped in to help raise the children, especially focusing on their
spiritual life. She regularly took Sergei to Russian Orthodox services,
where he was first exposed to the liturgical chants and the church bells of
the city, which would later permeate many of his compositions.[10] Another
important musical influence was his sister Yelena's involvement in the
Bolshoi Theater. She was just about to join the company, being offered
coaching and private lessons, but she fell ill and died of pernicious anemia
at the age of 18. As a respite from this tragedy, grandmother Butakova
brought him to a farm retreat on the Volkhov River, where he had a boat and
developed a love for rowing.[5] Having been spoiled in this way by his
grandmother, he became lazy and failed his general education classes,
altering his report cards, in what Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov would later call
a period of "purely Russian self-delusion and laziness."[11]
In 1885, back at the Conservatory, Sergei played at important events often
attended by Grand Duke Konstantin and other important people, but he failed
his spring academic examinations and Ornatskaya notified his mother that his
admission might be revoked.[5] Lyubov consulted with her nephew (by
marriage) Alexander Siloti, already an accomplished pianist studying under
Franz Liszt. After appraising his cousin's pianism and listening skills,
Siloti recommended that Sergei attend the Moscow Conservatory to study with
his own original teacher and disciplinarian, Nikolai Zverev.[12][13]
Graduation
While living with the Satins, Rachmaninoff (standing, second from left)
would vacation at Ivanovka, their summer house. He would marry his cousin
Natalia Satina (sitting, second from left).Neighboring families would come
to visit, and Rachmaninoff would find his first romance in the Skalon
family, with Vera, the youngest of three daughters. The mother would have
none of that, and he was forbidden to write to her, so he corresponded with
her older sister, Natalia, and from these letters much information about his
early compositions can be extracted.[12] In the spring of 1891, he took his
final piano examination at the Moscow Conservatory and passed with honors.
He moved to Ivanovka with Siloti, and composed some songs and began what
would become his Piano Concerto No. 1 (Op. 1). During his final studies at
the Conservatory he completed Youth Symphony, a one-movement symphonic
piece, Prince Rostislav, a symphonic poem, and The Rock (Op. 7), a fantasia
for orchestra.[5]
He gave his first independent concert on 11 February 1892, premiering his
Trio élégiaque No. 1, with violinist David Kreyn and cellist Anatoliy
Brandukov. He performed the first movement of his first piano concerto on 29
March 1892 in an over-long concert consisting of entire works of most of the
composition students at the Conservatory.[14]
His final composition for the Conservatory was Aleko, a one-act opera based
on the poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin, which Rachmaninoff completed
while staying with his father in Moscow.[15] It was first performed on 19
May 1892, and although he responded with a pessimistic, "the opera is sure
to fail," it was so successful, the Bolshoi Theater agreed to produce it,
starring Feodor Chaliapin.[12] It gained him the Great Gold Medal, awarded
only twice before (to Sergei Taneyev and Arseny Koreshchenko[16]), and has
since had many more productions than his later works, The Miserly Knight
(Op. 24, 1904) and Francesca da Rimini (Op. 25, 1905). The Conservatory
issued him a diploma on 29 May 1892, and now, at the age of 19, he could
officially style himself "Free Artist."[5]
Rachmaninoff continued to compose, publishing at this time his Six Songs
(Op. 4) and Two Pieces (Op. 2). He spent the summer of 1892 on the estate of
Ivan Konavalov, a rich landowner in the Kostroma Oblast, and moved back with
the Satins in the Arbat District.[5] His publisher was slow in paying, so
Rachmaninoff took an engagement at the Moscow Electrical Exhibition, where
he premiered his landmark Prelude in C-sharp minor (Op. 3, No. 2).[17] This
small piece, part of a set of five pieces called Morceaux de fantaisie, was
received well, and is one of his most enduring pieces.[18][19]
He spent the summer of 1893 in Lebedyn with some friends, where he composed
Fantaisie-Tableaux (Suite No. 1, Op. 5) and his Morceaux de salon (Op.
10).[20] At the summer's end, he moved back to Moscow, and at Sergei
Taneyev's house discussed with Tchaikovsky the possibility of his conducting
The Rock at its premiere. However, because it had to be premiered in Moscow,
not Europe, where Tchaikovsky was touring, Vasily Safonov conducted it
instead, and the two met soon after for Zverev's funeral. Rachmaninoff had a
short excursion to conduct Aleko in Kiev, and on his return, received the
news about Tchaikovsky's unexpected death on 6 November 1893. Almost
immediately, on the same day, he began work on his Trio élégiaque No. 2,
just as Tchaikovsky had quickly written his Trio in A minor after Nikolai
Rubinstein's death.
Setbacks and recovery
The sudden death of Tchaikovsky in 1893 was a great blow to young
Rachmaninoff; he immediately began writing a second Trio élégiaque in his
memory, revealing the depth and sincerity of his grief in the music's
overwhelming aura of gloom.[21] His First Symphony (Op. 13, 1896) was
premičred on 28 March 1897 in one of a long-running series of "Russian
Symphony Concerts", but was brutally panned by critic and nationalist
composer César Cui who likened it to a depiction of the ten plagues of
Egypt, suggesting it would be admired by the "inmates" of a music
conservatory in hell.[22] The deficiencies of the performance, conducted by
Alexander Glazunov, were not commented on.[21] Alexander Ossovsky in his
memoir about Rachmaninoff[23] tells, first hand, a story about this
event.[24] In Ossovsky's opinion, Glazunov made poor use of rehearsal time,
and the concert program itself, which contained two other premičres, was
also a factor. Natalia Satina, later Rachmaninoff's wife, and other
witnesses suggested that Glazunov, who was by all accounts an alcoholic, may
have been drunk, although this was never intimated by Rachmaninoff.[25][26]
The failure of Symphony No. 1 (1897) long bothered Rachmaninoff. After the
poor reception of his First Symphony, Rachmaninoff fell into a period of
deep depression that lasted three years, during which he wrote almost
nothing. One stroke of good fortune came from Savva Mamontov, a famous
Russian industrialist and patron of the arts, who two years earlier had
founded the Moscow Private Russian Opera Company. He offered Rachmaninoff
the post of assistant conductor for the 1897–8 season and the cash-strapped
composer accepted. The company included the great basso Feodor Chaliapin who
would become a lifelong friend.[27] During this period he became engaged to
fellow pianist Natalia Satina whom he had known since childhood and who was
his first cousin. The Russian Orthodox Church and the girl's parents both
opposed their marriage and this thwarting of their plans only deepened
Rachmaninoff's depression.
In January 1900, Rachmaninoff and Chaliapin were invited to Yasnaya Polyana,
the home of writer Leo Tolstoy, whom Rachmaninoff greatly admired. That
evening, Rachmaninoff played one of his compositions, then accompanied
Chaliapin in his song "Fate", one of the pieces he had written after his
First Symphony. At the end of the performance, Tolstoy took the composer
aside and asked: "Is such music needed by anyone? I must tell you how I
dislike it all. Beethoven is nonsense, Pushkin and Lermontov also". (The
song "Fate" is based on the two opening measures of Beethoven's Fifth
Symphony.) As his guests were leaving, Tolstoy said: "Forgive me if I've
hurt you by my comments"; and Rachmaninoff graciously replied: "How could I
be hurt on my own account, if I was not hurt on Beethoven's?"; but the
criticism of the great author stung nevertheless.
In the same year, Rachmaninoff began a course of autosuggestive therapy with
psychologist Nikolai Dahl, who was himself an excellent though amateur
musician. Rachmaninoff began to recover his confidence and eventually he was
able to overcome his writer's block. In 1901 he completed his Piano Concerto
No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18 and dedicated it to Dr. Dahl. The piece was
enthusiastically received at its premiere at which Rachmaninoff was soloist
and has since become one of the most popular and frequently played concertos
in the repertoire. Rachmaninoff's spirits were further bolstered when, after
three years of engagement, he was finally allowed to marry his beloved
fiancée, Natalia. They were wed in a suburb of Moscow by an army priest on
29 April 1902, using the family's military background to circumvent the
church. The marriage was a happy one, producing two daughters: Irina, later
Princess Wolkonsky (1903-1969) and Tatiana Conus (1907-1961). Although
Rachmaninoff had an affair with the 22-year-old singer Nina Koshetz in
1916,[28] his and Natalia's union lasted until the composer's death. Natalia
Rachmaninova died in 1951.
After several successful appearances as a conductor, Rachmaninoff was
offered a job as conductor at the Bolshoi Theatre in 1904, although
political reasons led to his resignation in March 1906, after which he
stayed in Italy until July. He spent the following three winters in Dresden,
Germany, intensively composing, and returning to the family estate of
Ivanovka every summer.[29]
Rachmaninoff made his first tour of the United States as a pianist in 1909,
an event for which he composed the Piano Concerto No. 3 (Op. 30, 1909) as a
calling card. These successful concerts made him a popular figure in
America; however, he was unhappy on the tour and declined requests for
future American concerts until after he emigrated from Russia in 1917.[29]
This included an offer to become permanent conductor of the Boston Symphony
Orchestra.[30]
The early death in 1915 of Alexander Scriabin, who had been his good friend
and fellow student at the Moscow Conservatory, affected Rachmaninoff so
deeply that he went on a tour giving concerts entirely devoted to Scriabin's
music. When asked to play some of his own music, he would reply: "Only
Scriabin tonight".
Emigration and career in the West
The 1917 Russian Revolution meant the end of Russia as the composer had
known it. Being of the Russian bourgeoisie, from this change followed the
loss of his estate, his way of life, and his livelihood. On 22 December
1917, he left Petrograd for Helsinki with his wife and two daughters on an
open sled, having only a few notebooks with sketches of his own compositions
and two orchestral scores, his unfinished opera Monna Vanna and Nikolai
Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Golden Cockerel. He spent a year giving concerts
in Scandinavia while also laboring to widen his concert repertoire. Near the
end of 1918, he received three offers of lucrative American contracts.
Although he declined all three, he decided the United States might offer a
solution to his financial concerns. He departed Kristiania (Oslo) for New
York on 1 November 1918. Once there, Rachmaninoff quickly chose an agent,
Charles Ellis, and accepted the gift of a piano from Steinway before playing
40 concerts in a four-month period. At the end of the 1919–20 season, he
also signed a contract with the Victor Talking Machine Company. In 1921, the
Rachmaninoffs bought a house in the United States, where they consciously
recreated the atmosphere of Ivanovka, entertaining Russian guests, employing
Russian servants, and observing old Russian customs.[31]
Due to his busy concert career, Rachmaninoff's output as composer slowed
tremendously. Between 1918 and his death in 1943, while living in the U.S.
and Europe, he completed only six compositions. Aside from the need to spend
much time performing so as to support himself and his family, the main cause
was homesickness. It was during these years that he traveled the United
States as a touring pianist.[32] When he left Russia, it was as if he had
left behind his inspiration. His revival as a composer became possible only
after he had built himself a new home, Villa Senar on Lake Lucerne,
Switzerland, where he spent summers from 1932 to 1939. There, in the comfort
of his own villa, which reminded him of his old family estate, Rachmaninoff
composed the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, one of his best known works,
in 1934. He went on to compose his Symphony No. 3 (Op. 44, 1935–36) and the
Symphonic Dances (Op. 45, 1940), his last completed work. Eugene Ormandy and
the Philadelphia Orchestra premiered the Symphonic Dances in 1941 in the
Academy of Music.
In late 1940 or 1941 he was approached by the makers of the British film
Dangerous Moonlight to write a short concerto-like piece for use in the
film, but he declined. The job went to Richard Addinsell and the
orchestrator Roy Douglas, who came up with the Warsaw Concerto.[33]
Sergei Rachmaninoff was also on the Board of Directors for the Tolstoy
Foundation Center in Valley Cottage, New York.
Friendship with Vladimir Horowitz
Vladimir Horowitz as he appeared at the time Rachmaninoff met himJust as the
Rachmaninoff household in the United States strove to reclaim the lost world
of pre-revolutionary Russia, Rachmaninoff also sought out the friendship and
company of some great Russian musical luminaries. In addition to Chaliapin,
he befriended pianist Vladimir Horowitz in 1928.
Arranged by Steinway artist representative Alexander Greiner, their meeting
took place in the basement of New York's Steinway Hall, on 8 January 1928,
four days prior to Horowitz's debut at Carnegie Hall playing the Tchaikovsky
First Piano Concerto. Referring to his own Third Piano Concerto,
Rachmaninoff said to Greiner he heard that "Mr. Horowitz plays my Concerto
very well. I would like to accompany him."[34]
For Horowitz, it was a dream come true to meet Rachmaninoff, to whom he
referred as "the musical God of my youth ... To think that this great man
should accompany me in his own Third Concerto ... This was the most
unforgettable impression of my life! This was my real debut!" Rachmaninoff
was impressed by his younger colleague. Speaking of Horowitz's
interpretation to Abram Chasins, he said "He swallowed it whole ... he had
the courage, the intensity, the daring."[34]
The meeting between composer and interpreter marked the beginning of a
friendship that continued until Rachmaninoff's death. The two were quite
supportive of each other's careers and greatly admired each other's work.
Horowitz stipulated to his manager that "If I am out of town when
Rachmaninoff plays in New York, you must telegraph me, and you must let me
come back, no matter where I am or what engagement I have." Likewise
Rachmaninoff was always present at Horowitz's New York concerts and was
"always the last to leave the hall."[35]
A Library of Congress photo of RachmaninoffNotably, the composer was present
at Carnegie Hall for Horowitz's American debut on 12 January 1928.
Recognizing the great pianistic ability, Rachmaninoff offered his friendship
and advice to Horowitz, telling him in a letter that "You play very well,
but you went through the Tchaikovsky Concerto too rapidly, especially the
cadenza."[35] Horowitz never agreed with the criticism of his tempo, and
retained his interpretation in future performances of the work.[35]
Rachmaninoff and Horowitz frequently performed two-piano recitals at the
composer's home in Beverly Hills. None of these performances, which included
the Second Suite and the two-piano reduction of the Symphonic Dances, were
recorded.
Rachmaninoff's faith in Horowitz's performances was such that, in 1940, with
the composer's consent, Horowitz created a fusion of the 1913 original and
1931 revised versions of his Second Piano Sonata.[36]
For Rachmaninoff, Horowitz was a champion of both his solo works and his
Third Concerto, about which Rachmaninoff remarked publicly after the 7
August 1942 Hollywood Bowl performance that "This is the way I always
dreamed my concerto should be played, but I never expected to hear it that
way on Earth."[35]
Illness and death
Rachmaninoff fell ill during a concert tour in late 1942 and was
subsequently diagnosed with advanced melanoma. His family was informed, but
he was not. On 1 February 1943 he and his wife became American citizens.[37]
His last recital, given on 17 February 1943 at the Alumni Gymnasium of the
University of Tennessee in Knoxville, included Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2,
which contains the famous Marche funčbre (Funeral March). A statue called
"Rachmaninoff: The Last Concert", designed and sculpted by Victor Bokarev,
now stands in World Fair Park in Knoxville as a permanent tribute to
Rachmaninoff. He became so ill after this recital that he had to return to
his home in Los Angeles.[38]
Rachmaninoff died of melanoma on 28 March 1943, in Beverly Hills,
California, just four days before his 70th birthday. A choir sang his All
Night Vigil at his funeral. He had wanted to be buried at the Villa Senar,
his estate in Switzerland, but the conditions of World War II made
fulfilling this request impossible.[39] He was therefore interred on 1 June
in Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.[5]
Works
The cadenza of Piano Concerto No. 3 is famous for its large chords.Main
article: List of compositions by Sergei Rachmaninoff
Rachmaninoff wrote five works for piano and orchestra—four concertos plus
the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Of the concertos, the Second and Third
are the most popular.[40] He also wrote three symphonies, and his other
orchestral works include The Rock (Op. 7), Caprice bohémien (Op. 12), The
Isle of the Dead (Op. 29), and the Symphonic Dances (Op. 45).
Works for piano solo include 24 Preludes traversing all 24 major and minor
keys: Prelude in C-sharp minor (Op. 3, No. 2) from Morceaux de fantaisie
(Op. 3); ten preludes in Op. 23; and thirteen in Op. 32. Especially
difficult are the two sets of Études-Tableaux, Op. 33 and 39, which are very
demanding study pictures. Stylistically, Op. 33 hearkens back to the
preludes, while Op. 39 shows the influences of Scriabin and Prokofiev. There
are also the Six moments musicaux (Op. 16), the Variations on a Theme of
Chopin (Op. 22), and the Variations on a Theme of Corelli (Op. 42). He wrote
two piano sonatas, both of which are large scale and virtuosic in their
technical demands. Rachmaninoff also composed works for two pianos, four
hands, including two Suites (the first subtitled Fantasie-Tableaux), a
version of the Symphonic Dances (Op. 45), and an arrangement of the C-sharp
minor Prelude, as well as a Russian Rhapsody, and he arranged his First
Symphony (below) for piano four-hands. Both these works were published
posthumously.
Rachmaninoff wrote two major a cappella choral works—the Liturgy of St. John
Chrysostom and the All-Night Vigil (also known as the Vespers). It was the
fifth movement of All-Night Vigil that Rachmaninoff requested to have sung
at his funeral. Other choral works include a choral symphony, The Bells, the
cantata Spring, the Three Russian Songs and an early Concerto for Choir (a
cappella).
He completed three operas, all short: Aleko (1892), The Miserly Knight
(1903), and Francesca da Rimini (1904). He started three others, notably
Monna Vanna, based on a work by Maurice Maeterlinck; copyright in this had
been extended to the composer Février, and, though the restriction did not
pertain to Russia, Rachmaninoff dropped the project after completing Act I
in piano vocal score in 1908; this act was orchestrated in 1984 by Igor
Buketoff and performed in the U.S. Aleko is regularly performed and has been
recorded complete at least eight times, and filmed. The Miserly Knight
adheres to Pushkin's "little tragedy". Francesca da Rimini exists somewhat
in the shadow of the familiar, though entirely different, Zandonai opera of
that name.
His chamber music includes two piano trios, both which are named Trio
Elégiaque (the second of which is a memorial tribute to Tchaikovsky), and a
Cello Sonata. In his chamber music, the piano tends to be perceived by some
to dominate the ensemble. He also composed many songs for voice and piano,
to texts by A. N. Tolstoy, Pushkin, Goethe, Shelley, Hugo and Chekhov, among
others. Among his most popular songs is the wordless Vocalise.
Compositional style
Rachmaninoff with a piano scoreRachmaninoff's style showed initially the
influence of Tchaikovsky. Beginning in the mid-1890s, his compositions began
showing a more individual tone. His First Symphony has many original
features. Its brutal gestures and uncompromising power of expression were
unprecedented in Russian music at the time. Its flexible rhythms, sweeping
lyricism and stringent economy of thematic material were all features he
kept and refined in subsequent works. After the three fallow years following
the poor reception of the symphony, Rachmaninoff's style began developing
significantly. He started leaning towards sumptuous harmonies and broadly
lyrical, often passionate melodies. His orchestration became subtler and
more varied, with textures carefully contrasted, and his writing on the
whole became more concise.[41]
Especially important is Rachmaninoff's use of unusually widely spaced chords
for bell-like sounds: this occurs in many pieces, most notably in the choral
symphony The Bells, the Second Piano Concerto, the E flat major Étude-Tableaux
(Op. 33, No. 7), and the B-minor Prelude (Op. 32, No. 10). "It is not enough
to say that the church bells of Novgorod, St Petersburg and Moscow
influenced Rachmaninov and feature prominently in his music. This much is
self-evident. What is extraordinary is the variety of bell sounds and
breadth of structural and other functions they fulfil."[42] He was also fond
of Russian Orthodox chants. He uses them most perceptibly in his Vespers,
but many of his melodies found their origins in these chants. The opening
melody of the First Symphony is derived from chants. (The opening melody of
the Third Piano Concerto, on the other hand, is not derived from chants;
when asked, Rachmaninoff said that "it had written itself".)[43]
Rachmaninoff's frequently used motifs include the Dies Irae, often just the
fragments of the first phrase. Rachmaninoff had great command of
counterpoint and fugal writing, thanks to his studies with Taneyev. The
above-mentioned occurrence of the Dies Irae in the Second Symphony is but a
small example of this. Very characteristic of his writing is chromatic
counterpoint. This talent was paired with a confidence in writing in both
large- and small-scale forms. The Third Piano Concerto especially shows a
structural ingenuity, while each of the preludes grows from a tiny melodic
or rhythmic fragment into a taut, powerfully evocative miniature,
crystallizing a particular mood or sentiment while employing a complexity of
texture, rhythmic flexibility and a pungent chromatic harmony.[44]
A monument to Rachmaninoff in MoscowHis compositional style had already
begun changing before the October Revolution deprived him of his homeland.
The harmonic writing in The Bells (composed in 1913 but not published until
1920[45][46]) became as advanced as in any of the works Rachmaninoff would
write in Russia, partly because the melodic material has a harmonic aspect
which arises from its chromatic ornamentation.[47] Further changes are
apparent in the revised First Piano Concerto, which he finished just before
leaving Russia, as well as in the Op. 38 songs and Op. 39 Études-Tableaux.
In both these sets Rachmaninoff was less concerned with pure melody than
with coloring. His near-Impressionist style perfectly matched the texts by
symbolist poets.[48] The Op. 39 Études-Tableaux are among the most demanding
pieces he wrote for any medium, both technically and in the sense that the
player must see beyond any technical challenges to a considerable array of
emotions, then unify all these aspects[49]
The composer's friend, Vladimir Wilshaw, noticed this compositional change
continuing in the early 1930s, with a difference between the sometimes very
extroverted Op. 39 Études-Tableaux (the composer had broken a string on the
piano at one performance) and the Variations on a Theme of Corelli (Op. 42,
1931). The variations show an even greater textural clarity than in the Op.
38 songs, combined with a more abrasive use of chromatic harmony and a new
rhythmic incisiveness. This would be characteristic of all his later works —
the Piano Concerto No. 4 (Op. 40, 1926) is composed in a more emotionally
introverted style, with a greater clarity of texture. Nevertheless, some of
his most beautiful (nostalgic and melancholy) melodies occur in the Third
Symphony, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, and Symphonic Dances.[48]
Fluctuating reputation
Rachmaninoff monument, NovgorodHis reputation as a composer generated a
variety of opinions before his music gained steady recognition across the
world. The 1954 edition of the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
notoriously dismissed Rachmaninoff's music as "monotonous in texture ...
consist[ing] mainly of artificial and gushing tunes" and predicted that his
popular success was "not likely to last".[50] To this, Harold C. Schonberg,
in his Lives of the Great Composers, responded, "It is one of the most
outrageously snobbish and even stupid statements ever to be found in a work
that is supposed to be an objective reference."[50]
The Conservatoire Rachmaninoff in Paris, as well as streets in Veliky
Novgorod (which is close to his birthplace) and Tambov, are named after the
composer. In 1986, Moscow Conservatory dedicated a concert hall on its
premises to Rachmaninoff, designating the 252-seat auditorium Rachmaninoff
Hall. A monument to Rachmaninoff was unveiled in Veliky Novgorod, near his
birthplace, as recently as 14 June 2009.
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