lii~ RachmaninoffsLegacy

All during his life, and for many decadesafter his passing, was regardedas - at best - an anomaly, a throwback to the 19th century, as his music always expressed itself through an unabashedlyRomantic language: At times haunting,morose and foreboding;at others,gentle, passionate and con molte dolce. But always,all theseconflicting pathoswould recedeas the finales of his greatest works - suchas the SymphonyNo.2, the Rhapsodyon a ThemeofPaganini and the valedictory Symphonic Dances - would give way to beautiful resolutions of triumph.

If listening to Rachmaninoffseemed to somea futile exercisein depressionand an explorationof the depthsof sorrow, this was becauseof the complexity of the composerhimself. Almost all of Rachmaninoffsmajor works were undergirdedby the RomanCatholic Dies Irae. But that was only half of the story; for the listener will have found himself transportedfrom the inevitability of death,to rise abovethe despairand exalt in the life-affirming, powerful finales for which the composerwas so well-known. Only in Die Toteninsel(after Arnold Boecklin'spainting) is deaththe final arbiter.

To hear Rachmaninoffsmusic is to understandthe soul of the composerhimself. While composing,he literally pouredhimself into his compositions.After his SymphonyNo.1 had a disastrous premierein Moscow in 1897,Rachmaninoff was so severelydepressed, that he soughttreatment from hypnotist Dr. Nikolai Dahl. Dr. Dahl repeated,like a mantra,to the forlorn composer,"you will beganto write your concerto you will work with greatfacility the concertowill be of an excellentquality " The resultsof thesesessions with Dr. Dahl was the emergenceof the composerfrom the throesof depression,and also,perhaps, his most straightforwardand beautiful work, the SecondPiano Concertoin C-Minor, Op. 18. And yet, the second movement, Adagio sostenuto - although a tender, impassioned liebeslied - eloquently exhibits the composer's senseof wistfulness and melancholy he was never fully able to overcome.

Listen to any of Rachmaninoffsgreat works: At oncethey are transcendentand yet so personally private. Rachmaninoffs style of compositiongrew out of the Romanticperiod of the late-19thcentury, in the tradition begunby Mendelssohn,Schumann and Liszt, as carriedon by Brahms,Dvorak and Rachmaninoffsown teacherand mentor, Tchaikovsky. Like Tchaikovsky,Rachmaninoff wrote music that was thoroughly Russian,and thoroughly infusedwith so many of the emotionalconflicts and yearningsingrained in both composers.

The GreatWar and the Bolshevik Revolutionhad left Europeravaged, and during this period, Rachmaninoffwas one of the many musicianswho becamean expatriateof his own land, neverto return to the Russiahe had so loved. But somethingelse had happenedin the previousdecade: New musical idioms had come to the fore. Somecomposers, such as Sibelius,Vaughan Williams and Elgar, had transformedthe languageof Romanticmusic into the distinctly twentieth-century "neo-romantic"sound, which combinedtraditional musicalmodes of expressionwith experimentationin orchestrationand theme.In France,taking the lead of earlier Romanticsas Saint-Saens,Impressionists suchas Debussyand Ravel "paintedpictures in sound."The previousdecade had also seenthe increasing popularity of such "modernistic" composersas Stravinsky,Schoenberg and Bartok, who employeda new radicalism in sound,exploring the limits of atonality and polytonality. Most representativeof this new way of composingwas Stravinsky'sLe Sacredu Printemps,which - upon its Paris premierein 1913- starteda riot right in the concerthall.

Yet, againstthe changingtide, Rachmaninoffstood immobile. Not as a matter of principle, but becausehe knew his own direction and simply followed it. Certainly, no-onecould saythere was no "growth" or maturity betweenRachmaninoffs First Piano Concerto(1891) and his Fourth (1924),but the J~~ progressin Rachmaninoffsmusical expressionwas measured.Mind you, Rachmaninoffs 1st Concerto was the product of an 18 year-old alreadyaccomplished in the art of musical composition.Nevertheless, Rachmaninofflived to seehis music routinely sneeredat and pannedby the allegedrepresentatives of musical "taste,"the critics. He was smearedas a 19thcentury atavist, who composedinsignificant "virtuoso" piecesthat werejust fine for showingoff a pianist'stechnical skill, but were thematically "mechanistic,"and steepedin "shallow," "overemotional"bathos. In fact, in 1954,the so-called "authoritative"Grove's Dictionary of Music referredto Rachmaninoffscompositions as "severely limited...monotonousin texture" and "artificial and gushing." Amidst the all the smugcritique was found this most omniscientprognostication: "the enourmouspopular successsome of Rakhmaninov'sworks had in his lifetime is not likely to last, and musiciansnever regarded it [sic] with much favour."

Indeed,it is quite ironic that Rachmaninoff- a Russiannoble who admiredthe Czar and chose exile, rather than to live underthe Soviets- so hatedand ignoredby the critics, was a perennialfavourite of the public. Rachmaninoffsconcerts always sold out, andhis piecesalways brought performersand orchestraslarge audienceswhen programmed.

And we are fortunate,indeed, that we can still hearthe legacyRachmaninoff left, for he recorded extensivelyhis own works, and thoseof other composerssuch as Chopin, Beethovenand Liszt. His completerecordings - which alwayssold well in his own lifetime - are availablefrom RCA Victor as a 10-CD set (09026-61265-2).This set is a compilation of not only his RCA Red Sealrecordings, but his earlier Edisonrecordings as well.

SergeiRachmaninoff died in 1943in Beverly Hills, California. During his own lifetime, he was widely respectedand feted as one of the greatestconductors and concertpianists of all time. Yet, his secretdream - to be rememberedfor his compositions- seemed fleeting and futile. But, as is the cases with many geniuses,in the decadesafter his death,Rachmaninoffs reputation grew as an innovative composer,principally through the efforts of his admirers,such as EugeneOrmandy, , , Dimitri Mitropoulos, Artur Rubinstein,Ruth Laredo,Vladimir Ashkenazy,Martha Argerich, Jean-YvesThibaudet, Mariss Jansonsand Andre Previn, amongcountless others. Year after year, his recordingscarried to thosewho would just listen with their own earsthe fact that herewas not a hopelesslyobsolete second-rate throwback to the 19thcentury, but indeeda man aheadof his time, who communicatedhis deepest-heldemotions honestly, beautifully and forcefully, rather than sell out his soul to "keepup with the times."

If you havenever listenedto Rachmaninoff,then you are in for a feastfor the earsand the soul, when you do. I actually envy thosewho hearthe passionand geniusof SergeiVassilievitch Rachmaninoff for the first time.

- Robert L. Jones,San Antonio, Texas,31 January& 26 November 1998