Dances for Two Pianos Music by Rachmaninov and Ravel

Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943) Rachmaninov was a true master musi- cian. Arguably the finest pianist of his day and renowned also as a conductor, he was, as a composer, one of the most prominent figures of Russian late Romanticism. Perhaps more than any other composer of his time, Rachmaninov’s creative life was directly affected by the tumultuous era in which he lived. As a student in Russia at the end of the 19th-century he was one of the most brilliant graduates of the Moscow Conservatory. Within a year of his graduation, his first opera was produced at the Bolshoi and by the age of 19 his Prelude in C sharp Minor made his name world famous. He played a leading role in the artistic ferment in Russia and Europe in the first decade of this century. He came to the United States in 1918, virtu- ally abandoned composing and conducting and for the remaining 25 years of his life pur- sued a career as a touring pianist and record- Sergei Rachmaninov ing artist. Rachmaninov composed four sympho- nies during his lifetime, though The Bells, a symphony for chorus and orchestra based on the poem by Edgar Allan Poe, bears no number. The First Symphony, written in 1895, had an unsuccessful performance in St. Petersburg. It brought rebuke from critics and friends alike, and César Cui, one of the famous Russian “Five”, remarked caustically that “if there was a Conservatory in Hell, Rachmaninov would gain the first prize for this

– 2 – symphony.” The composer was also dissatis- fied and discouraged. Rachmaninov had already won considerable renown as a pianist, and although Tchaikovsky had praised his opera Aleko, and then had arranged for its première, Rachmaninov, nev- ertheless, resolved to abandon composition entirely. A considerable amount of persua- sion by his friend Count Tolstoy, some lessons in self-assertion by a psychologist and his marriage to Natalie Satin helped the young man to overcome his inferiority com- plex. He returned to his musical life with renewed vigor and confidence. The resulting “come back” works were his Suite No.2 for Two Pianos, Opus 17 and the world famous, Piano Concerto No.2 in C Minor, Opus 18. By 1906, when he was thirty-three, Rachmaninov’s music and social activities had reached a high pitch. For the past year he had been conductor of the Imperial Grand Opera in Moscow, besides making frequent concert appearances as pianist. Sergei Rachmaninov Then, for the next two years, Rachmaninov, together with his wife and baby daughter, lived in virtual seclusion in Dresden, occupy- ing a little house with a garden. There he composed three important works: The Isle of the Dead, the Piano Sonata, Opus 28, and the Second Symphony. That same year, 1909, he composed his great Piano Concerto No.3 in D Minor, Opus 30. Although he wrote solo piano works intermittently during the next eight years, he did not write another orchestral work until 1926. His Symphony No.3 in A Minor, Opus 44 was completed in 1936 and revised two years later. In 1940 he wrote his last orchestral masterpiece — the Symphonic Dances, Opus 45. Sergei Rachmaninov’s two Suites for Two Pianos were both relatively early works. The – 3 – Suite No.1, Opus 5 dates from the summer of 1893, when the composer was only twen- ty. Whereas Suite No.2, Opus 17 was completed in 1901. A few years before composing his second suite, Rachmaninov suffered a nervous collapse which lasted an alarming number of months. His family persuaded him to seek treatment from a Dr. Nikolai Dahl. According to Rachmaninov, “My relatives had told Dr. Dahl that he must at all costs cure me of my apathetic condition and achieve such results that I would again begin to com- pose.” A hypnotic suggestion was repeated to Rachmaninov in Dr. Dahl’s study day after day — “You will begin to write your Concerto... You will work with great facility... The Concerto will be of an excellent quality...” By the succeeding autumn, two movements of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.2 and a sketch of the suite, Opus 17, were finished. The joy of creating also resulted in a cantata, a number of songs, piano preludes and the cello sonata. The second movement of the suite is a coruscating, irresistible, forward mov- ing Waltz with a Slavic accent. The impetuous, flying character of this music ends with closing bars that conjure up the jingle of bells on a troika galloping away. Rachmaninov began his Symphonic Dances early in the summer of 1940, while spending his vacation in Huntington, Long Island. He finished the score late the follow- ing October. He prepared a version for two pianos before completing the orchestral scor- ing. It was Rachmaninov’s first intention to call the three respective movements Midday, Twilight, and Midnight. He changed his mind when he began to fear that the titles might mislead listeners as to the mood and content of the pieces. The Philadelphia Orchestra, under the direction of Eugene Ormandy, performed the Symphonic Dances for the first time in New York, on January 7, 1941. Rachmaninov stated that the work “should have been called just dances, but I was afraid people would think I had written music for jazz orchestras.” Although no definite program seemed to manifest itself, some listeners and critics believed that the dances could possibly mirror a series of moods of nature. The first section has great rhythmic drive, with much of the energy derived from the opening march-like theme. The second movement is a concert waltz but with a strange atmos- phere, conjured up at the outset by somewhat sinister fanfare-like chords. In the third dance, a Russian Orthodox chant and the Dies Irae, enter to form a somber and menac- ing contrast with the vigorous and brilliant rhythms.

– 4 – Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) In an interview published a few years before his death in 1937, Maurice Ravel spoke about himself: “I am not a ‘modern composer’ in the strictest sense of the term, because my music, far from being ‘revolu- tion,’ is rather ‘evolution.’ Although I have always been open-minded to new ideas in music I have never attempted in it to over- throw the accepted rules of harmony and composition. On the contrary, I have always drawn liberally from the masters for my inspiration (I have never ceased studying Mozart!), and my music, for the most part, is built upon the traditions of the past and is an outgrowth of it. I am not a ‘modern com- poser’ with a flair for writing radical har- monies and disjointed counterpoint because I have never been a slave to any one style of composition. Nor have I ever allied myself with any particular school of music. I have always felt that a composer should put on paper what he feels and how he feels it — Maurice Ravel irrespective of what the current style of com- position may be. Great music, I have always felt, must always come from the heart. Any music created by technique and brains alone is not worth the paper it is written on.” The composition of La Valse was prompted by a commission from Serge Diaghilev for his Ballets Russes. The famous impresario wished to stage a work using Ravel’s music, on a subject which had occurred to him in 1906, and which he had entitled Wien (“Vienna”). When in 1919 the score was presented to Diaghilev, he did not like it or understand the work. Diaghilev claimed that he was deceived by Ravel, complaining that Ravel provided an excessively simple plot, utilizing just a simple waltz, which would not be possible to expand choreographically, and despite a formal agreement between com- – 5 – poser and the impresario, Diaghilev refused to accept Ravel’s La Valse. Ravel was profoundly wounded, and broke all relations with Diaghilev. An attempt by Diaghilev at reconciliation, some years later, almost ended in a duel! Diaghilev had not understood how Ravel, while following in the path of Strauss and other Viennese composers of the 19th century, had nonetheless brought sonorities of exceptional depth and grandeur into this “waltz.” Ravel, some time later wrote of the work: “I conceived this work as a sort of apotheosis of the Viennese Waltz, in which the impression of a fantastic and fatal whirling went round in my head.” Indications at the beginning of the score (intended for the choreographer) amplify his personal visions of the piece: “At first the scene is dimmed by a kind of swirling mist, through which one discerns, vaguely and intermittently, the waltzing couples. Little by little the vapors disperse, the illumination grows brighter, revealing an immense ball-room filled with dancers; the blaze of the chandeliers comes to full splendor. An Imperial Court around 1855.” La Valse was premiered, in its orchestral version, for the first time in Paris at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Concerts Lamoureux, conducted by Camille Chevillard, on December 12, 1920. The score was published by Durand in 1921 and appeared in a solo piano version and two-piano version arranged by Ravel. A version for piano 4-hands was also made by Lucien Garban. Ravel played his two piano version at different occasions with pianists Alfredo Casella and Marcelle Meyer. La Valse is basically developed from a single rhyth- mic nucleus. It commences pianissimo with a broken seventh chord of F-A flat-C-D. It is one of the seven motives that he evolves, takes apart, spins out, and transforms. The con- cept of the piece is basically dynamic. A crescendo, at first hesitant, then interrupted just before the peak, enters again and this time more energetically and irresistibly. The climax is reached in a terrific whirlwind. When the work was finally choreographed by Bronislava Nijinska in 1928, the elegant couple dancing were Ida Rubinstein and Anatol Wilzak. In 1951, George Balanchine created another vision of La Valse and its “fatefully inescapable whirlpool.” — Marina and Victor Ledin ©1998

– 6 – Earl Wild Biography Earl Wild is a pianist in the grand Roman- tic tradition. His legendary career, so distin- guished and long, has continued for over 70 years. Born in 1915, in , Earl Wild’s technical accomplishments are often likened to what those of Liszt himself must have had. Born with absolute pitch he started playing the piano at three. Having studied with great pianists such as Egon Petri, his lineage can be traced back to Scharwenka, Busoni, Ravel, d’Albert and Liszt himself. Earl Wild’s career is dotted with musical legends. As a young pianist he was soloist with and the NBC Sym- phony. Since then he has performed with vir- tually every major conductor and symphony orchestra in the world. Rachmaninov was a friend and an important idol in his life. It’s Earl Wild photographed by Christian Steiner, 1971 been said of Earl Wild, “He’s the incarnation of Rachmaninov, Lehvinne and Rosenthal rolled into one!” In 1986, after hearing him play three sold-out Carnegie Hall concerts devoted to Liszt, honoring the centenary of that composer’s death, one critic said, “I find it impossible to believe that he played those millions of notes with 70-year-old fingers, so fresh-sounding and precise were they. Perhaps he has a worn-out set up in his attic, a la Oscar Wilde’s Picture of Dorian Gray.” He’s one of the few American pianists to have achieved international and domestic celebrity. He has performed for six Presidents of the United States, and in 1939, was the first classical pianist to give a recital on the new medium of Television. At fourteen he was performing in the Pittsburgh Symphony with Otto Klemperer as well as working at radio station KDKA playing major repertoire as well as his own compositions. As a virtuoso pianist, composer, transcriber, conductor, editor and teacher, Mr. Wild continues in the style of the legendary great artists of the past. – 7 – This eminent pianist has built an extensive repertoire over the years, which includes both the standard and modern literature. He has become world renown in particular for his brilliant performances of the virtuoso Romantic works. In the 1930’s while working at NBC in New York, Mr. Wild along with Joseph Kahn performed Carnival of the Animals with Toscanini and the NBC Symphony. In the early 1940’s, also with the NBC Symphony, he performed a concerto for two harpsichords and chorus with Yella Pessl. Today at 83, Mr. Wild continues to record and perform concerts throughout the world. In 1997, he won a Grammy® Award for his disc, “The Romantic Master” — thirteen piano transcriptions (nine of his own) on the Sony Classical label. When he was 79, he record- ed a well-received Beethoven disc which included the very difficult Hammerklavier Sonata, as well as a disc of the complete Rachmaninov Preludes. As an Ivory Classics™ artist, his immediate plans are to record three 20th century piano sonatas by well known composers as well as a sonata of his own.

Christian Steiner photographed by Earl Wild, 1968 Earl Wild photographed by Christian Steiner, 1968

– 8 – Christian Steiner Biography Christian Steiner is not only bilingual (in fluent German and English) but truly biprofes- sional as well, known throughout the music world as both portrait photographer and pianist — “an astonishingly good pianist,” according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Robert Finn, “with a deeply personal involve- ment,” and, in the words of the New York Times, “today’s premiere photographer of divas and conductors,” who flock to his New York studio for publicity shots and CD covers. He comes of a musical family in Berlin, Germany. His paternal grandfather insisted on musical careers for each of his twelve chil- dren, and his father was actually born in a church where the family lived rent-free in exchange for ringing the tower bells. This same father grew up to be principal violist with the Berlin Opera Orchestra, and both Christian Steiner, self portrait, 1998 Christian’s older brothers found lifelong careers in the string section of the Berlin Philharmonic, while among his aunts and uncles are numbered a professor of cello, an opera impresario, a conductor, a concertmaster and several piano teachers. Christian himself at age 4 began to study the cello and then at four and a half the vio- lin. Finally “at the ripe old age of five I was taken to the piano,” he says. “That stuck.” His daily practice was, he swears, overseen by his pet parakeet, Tristan, who used to peck his fingers at every wrong note. In his teens Steiner won several piano competitions in his native Germany, including one that promised study in a foreign country. By that time he had attracted the attention of the celebrated Chilean pianist Claudio Arrau, at whose urging he applied for and won a scholarship which entailed study with Frank Sheridan at the Mannes College in New York City. Here he made his formal debut, playing the Brahms D minor Piano Concerto. – 9 – In his years as a pianist Steiner had always maintained a passionate interest in portrait photography as well, and a friend suggested he combine his enthusiasm for both, with the result that he is now among the world’s best-known photographers of musicians. Some of his clients have been Earl Wild, of course, as well as , Maria Callas, , Luciano Pavarotti, Itzhak Perlman, Plácido Domingo, Alicia de Larrocha and Herbert von Karajan, not to mention the actress Lauren Bacall and the pop stylist Lena Horne. In 1982 Vendôme published a book of his photographs, Opera People, and the same year he had his first one-man show in New York City. These days he must sandwich his recital and concerto appearances between photog- raphy sessions. Among the former are recent dates in Berkeley, California, and Flint, Michigan, where he played Mozart concerti under Kent Nagano, and more Mozart in México City under Enrique Diemecke His chamber music has lately been heard in Zurich with members of the Berlin Philharmonic performing Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet, and in Berlin with his cellist brother Peter playing duo concerts. Assuming a growing importance in his life is the musical directorship of a very suc- cessful summer series of chamber music called the Tannery Pond Concerts, all them per- formed in a Shaker school in New Lebanon, New York, in the Berkshire Mountains near where he maintains a summer home. Here he not only engages artists and plans programs but occasionally appears with performers on the series, among them Jessye Norman and Carol Vaness. — Clair W. Van Ausdall

– 10 – Credits

Recorded in London, April, 1968. All tracks under license from Reader's Digest Music, A Division of the Reader's Digest Association, Inc.

Remastering Producer: Michael Rolland Davis High Resolution Digital Remastering: Ed Thompson and Glenn Meadows at Masterfonics, Nashville ® encoding provided by Doug Beard and Tom Jenny of Data CD, Inc. Special thanks to Michael D. Palm Foundation

Liner Notes: Marina and Victor Ledin Design: Communication Graphics Inside Tray Photos: Ravel, 1933 and Rachmaninov, 1941

To be included on mailing list, or receive information on Ivory Classics™, contact: Ivory Classics™ P.O. Box 341068 • Columbus, Ohio 43234-1068 Phone: 1-888-40-IVORY • Fax: 614-761-9799 [email protected] • Website: http://www.IvoryClassics.com

– 11 – DANCES FOR TWO PIANOS EARL WILD & CHRISTIAN STEINER Music by Rachmaninov and Ravel

Sergei Rachmaninov: Waltz, from Suite No.2, Opus 17 1 Presto 6:56 Sergei Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances, Opus 45 33:09 2 I. Non allegro 10:50 3 II. Andante con moto (tempo di Valse) 9:17 4 III. Lento assai – Allegro vivace 13:02 Maurice Ravel: La Valse – poème choréographique 5 Mouvement de Valse viennoise 11:59

Remastering Producer: Michael Rolland Davis High Resolution Digital Remastering: Ed Thompson & Glenn Meadows, Masterfonics, Nashville All tracks under license from Reader’s Digest Music, A Division of The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc.

1998 Ivory Classics™ • All Rights Reserved. 64405-70803 Ivory Classics™ • P.O. Box 341068 STEREO Columbus, Ohio 43234-1068 U.S.A.

Phone: 1-888-40-IVORY • Fax: 614-761-9799 ® [email protected] • Website: www.IvoryClassics.com