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Program Notes October 12, 2019 Rimsky-Korsakov Said of His Conducting: “Slow By Program Notes October 12, 2019 Rimsky-Korsakov said of his conducting: “Slow by Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 18, C Minor* nature, maladroit and clumsy of movement, the maestro, SERGEI RACHMANINOFF (1873 - 1943) speaking slowly and in a low voice, manifestly displayed little ability either for conducting rehearsals or for hile the incidence of depression among composers swaying the orchestra during concert performances.” Wis probably statistically no greater than for A description of the premiere by Rachmaninoff’s the population as a whole, we tend to think of it as friend, the conductor Alexander Khessin, sums up pervading the lives of many Romantic composers. the performance succinctly: “The Symphony was Robert Schumann’s descent from melancholy into insufficiently rehearsed, the orchestra was ragged, madness (including his attempt to drown himself basic stability in tempos was lacking, many errors in in the Rhine) is well-documented, as is the mental the orchestral parts were uncorrected; but the chief breakdown of Hugo Wolf, who spent the last three thing that ruined the work was the lifeless, superficial, years of his life in an asylum. We know Gustav Mahler bland performance, with no flashes of animation, was well aware of the increasingly frequent turmoil enthusiasm or brilliance of orchestral sound.” The of his mental state, as witnessed by his meeting with performance was so bad that Rachmaninoff fled the Sigmund Freud in Leyden in the Netherlands in concert hall before the conclusion of the work, unable 1910. With the hindsight of psychoanalysis, similar to bear the thought of being brought on stage to tendencies were manifest in the lives of Gesualdo, acknowledge the audience’s response. Rachmaninoff, Handel, Berlioz and many others. too, laid the blame for the failure at the feet of While one could debate at length the causes of these Glazunov: “How could so great a musician as conditions in all of these composers, one particular Glazunov conduct so badly? It is not even a question case of depression and mental block resulted in a of his conducting technique, poor as that is, but of happy ending, completely reversing the fortunes of his musicianship; he beats time as if he had no the sufferer, and creating one of the most famous feeling for music at all.” piano concertos in the literature, Rachmaninoff’s Piano The aftermath of the concert was even worse for Concerto No. 2. Yet the genesis of that concerto begins the young composer. The audience reaction was with a symphony and the “perfect storm” of bad luck tepid at best, a combination of apathy, confusion that befell its premiere. and hostility. The critics in attendance were equally If ever a symphony were jinxed at its first antagonistic, unsparing in the vitriol they heaped performance, it would be Rachmaninoff’s Symphony upon Rachmaninoff’s new work. Even Cesar Cui, No. 1. The circumstances surrounding the 1897 the composer and critic who ardently championed premiere read like every composer’s worst nightmare. new Russian music throughout his career, seemed The symphony received insufficient rehearsal time, to dip his pen in a special blend of poison to savage largely due to the incompetence of conductor Alexander Rachamaninoff’s symphony: Glazunov, the Director of the Moscow Conservatory. If there were a conservatory in Hell, and While Glazunov was a musician of considerable gifts, if one of its talented students were to he was at best a mediocre conductor, and at worst a compose a programme symphony based fatal hindrance to any ensemble he directed. Nikolai theFSO.org | 2019 – 20 13 Program Notes October 12, 2019 on the story of the Ten Plagues of Egypt, three years, Rachmaninoff began composing again, and if he were to compose a symphony like producing his Second Piano Concerto within the Mr. Rachmaninoff’s, then he would have space of several months. fulfilled his task brilliantly and would Rachmaninoff regained his confidence as a performer delight the inhabitants of Hell. as well as a composer, appearing as soloist in the final two movements of the work in December of The psychological trauma of the symphony’s 1900 and in the world premiere of the entire concerto premiere flung Rachmaninoff into a deep depression. in November 1901 in Moscow, with the orchestra He battled the demons of self-doubt on a daily basis, conducted by his friend and cousin, Alexander Siloti. usually with the aid of alcohol, and in the subsequent The work bears a dedication to Dr. Dahl in deep three years barely a note of music left his pen. The appreciation for bringing Rachmaninoff back to life sketches for another symphony were abandoned and both personally and professionally. later destroyed. He stopped working on his opera Part of the change in Rachmaninoff’s psyche can Francesca da Rimini and waited nearly nine years perhaps be seen in the unconventional opening of the before resuming work on it. Much later he recalled: concerto: the piano begins alone, not by pronouncing “The despair that filled my soul would not leave me. a main theme, but with a sequence of sonorous chords, My dreams of a brilliant career lay shattered. My like the tolling of Russian church bells. Strings and hopes and confidence were destroyed.” clarinet enter with the yearning first theme, supported Rachmaninoff’s career and possibly his life were by rolling cascades of arpeggios from the soloist. While saved by what we would now call an intervention. maintaining the outlines of a conventional concerto A group of his friends recommended that he visit the movement, Rachmaninoff’s first movement gives the psychologist Dr. Nikolai Dahl, an internist and avid impression of an improvised dialogue between piano amateur musician who successfully treated patients orchestra, which builds to a massive climax that ushers through hypnosis and psychotherapy. After a great in a grand restatement of the opening theme, again led deal of hesitation and continued pressure from his by the orchestra and accompanied by the piano. closest friends, Rachmaninoff scheduled a session The slow movement begins much like the first, with with Dahl in January of 1900. Dahl worked closely the piano accompanying the solo flute and clarinet, the with Rachmaninoff to restore his health by establishing latter singing an achingly poignant melody to which regular patterns of sleeping and nourishment. He the piano responds and eventually takes over. By worked to help Rachmaninoff restore his skills as turns wistful, melancholy, unsettled and impassioned, a musician through hypnotic and conversational the movement builds to an impassioned climax before suggestions that Rachmaninoff would soon write a settling back into the serenity of the opening, and successful piano concerto. Over the next four months, closing as it began, with the piano spinning quiet Dahl instilled Rachmaninoff with affirmations of his arpeggios beneath a final nostalgic appearance of forthcoming success: ““You will begin your concerto . the principal theme in the violins. you will work with great facility . the concerto The finale opens with a vigorous march in the will be of excellent quality . .” Dahl’s treatments orchestra, which the piano interrupts in brilliant succeeded to perfection: after a dry spell of nearly cascades of arpeggios. The piano kicks off main 14 theFSO.org | 2019 – 20 Program Notes October 12, 2019 part of the movement with the muscular main theme, Handful (Moguchaya kuchka)” to describe the five which is contrasted with one of Rachmaninoff’s Russian composers who best evoked the nationalist most famous outpourings of passionate lyricism. Russian spirit in their music: Mili Balakirev, Alexander The piano and orchestra battle through the stormy Borodin, Cesar Cui, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and march music throughout the movement, but it is the Mussorgsky. Hartmann’s own work mirrored that great beautiful tune which carries the day in a final of the five composers in his use of distinctly Russian presentation in full Hollywood technicolor (though, to themes and symbols in his art. Despite his favorable be fair, it was Hollywood who imitated Rachmaninoff, reputation and prolific output, his position in the and not vice-versa), leading to the final exuberant history of Russian painting and architecture has surge to the finish.▪ remained a minor one at best. Hartmann’s premature death from an aneurysm Pictures at an Exhibition in 1873 at the age of 39 came as a shock to the St. (Ravel orchestration) Petersburg art world, and to his musical companions. Mussorgsky was stupefied by the sudden passing of MODEST MUSSORGSKY (1839 - 1881) his close friend. “Why should a dog, a horse, a rat have life, and creatures like Hartmann must die?” very composer expresses grief in their music in he said, echoing Shakespeare’s King Lear. their own fashion. Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem E The city’s cultural leaders responded immediately was not only an expression of personal sorrow at the in presenting tributes to his memory. Stassov quickly death of a friend and mentor, but an expression of organized a retrospective exhibition of Hartmann’s the public sorrow of a nation over the loss of one of paintings, drawings and sketches, assembling a its literary and political guiding lights, the poet and collection of over 400 works to be displayed at the novelist Alessandro Manzoni. Alban Berg’s Violin Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg through the Concerto, dedicated to “the memory of an angel,” auspices of the St. Petersburg Society of Architects. is an anguished and heartbreaking homage to Manon When Mussorgsky strolled through the exhibit, he Gropius, the 18-yr. old actress who was the daughter realized that the best memorial for his friend would of the architect Walter Gropius and Alma Mahler, be musical sketches of some of Hartmann’s paintings Gustav Mahler’s widow.
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