Russian Rhapsody



Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
1840-1893

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Hamlet, Fantasy Overture, Op. 67

The plays of William Shakespeare were one of the major literary influences on the composers of the Romantic era, from Mendelssohn at its beginning, to Tchaikovsky at its end. The latter wrote fantasy overtures based on three of Shakespeare’s plays. The first, Romeo and Juliet, has become one of the most popular orchestral compositions in the classical repertory, while the other two, The Tempest and Hamlet, are infrequently heard today.

Tchaikovsky composed Hamlet in the summer of 1888, at the same time as the Fifth Symphony. He had already composed his two other fantasy overtures on Shakespeare over a decade earlier but had been toying with the idea of music to Hamlet during the same period. A request for incidental music for a performance in St. Petersburg that he failed to fulfill in time finally inspired him to write the overture.

Tchaikovsky did not attempt to narrate the story of Hamlet, but rather present atmospheric sketches and the emotional states of the main characters. There is no back story to the composition of the work as there is for Romeo and Juliet and its various revisions, and Tchaikovsky was not as accommodating as Dvorák, who supplied “cheat sheets” for his tone poems that specified the correspondences between musical themes and narrative elements. It is, therefore, impossible to identify even such important figures as the ghost of Hamlet’s father or even Claudius and Gertrude. But Ophelia emerges from all the Sturm und Drang, predictably, as a mournful oboe solo, and a love scene was de rigueur in the nineteenth century, despite the fact that in the play, Hamlet treats his beloved only with sarcasm and real, or feigned, manic disdain.

Like all such overtures of the period, Hamlet is written in sonata form. It opens with a long, mournful introduction with funereal timpani, marked Lento lugubre.

The Allegro is fraught with tension and frenetic anxiety, which could stand for anything from the Ghost to Hamlet’s erratic behavior to the general rotten state of Denmark under a usurper, etc.

The requisite contrasting second theme seems to represent a very Russian-sounding Ophelia.

There’s follows the probable love motive.

Suddenly a military march interrupts, obviously Fortinbras eager to set the shiftless kingdom to rights and incidentally snap up more real estate for Norway.

After an increasingly stormy development, Tchaikovsky returns to the narrative with a coda, the timpani now beating out a funeral march for Shakespeare’s antihero and the rest of the cast.



Sergey Rachmaninov
1873-1943

Sergey Rachmaninov
Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini

Sergey Rachmaninov grew up in a musical family, middle-class but under strained economic conditions. His gifts as a pianist were recognized early, but he had always wanted to compose and considered himself a composer first, pianist second. Already established as a performer, he gained instant fame as a composer at age 19 with his Prelude in C-sharp minor, a work that haunted him all his life because audiences always expected – and demanded – it as an encore to his concerts.

The premiere performance of Rachmaninov's First Symphony took place in St. Petersburg in 1897. It was a dismal failure, in large part due to the shoddy conducting of Alexander Glazunov, who was drunk. The disappointment brought on a severe depression, and for three years Rachmaninov was unable to do any significant composing. Finally in 1900 he went for therapy and hypnosis to Dr. Nikolay Dahl. The result was one of the first well-known successes of modern psychotherapy. In 1901 Rachmaninov was consequently able to return to creative work on his Second Piano Concerto, dedicated to Dahl. Relapses into depression dogged Rachmaninov, however, for the rest of his life. And significantly, all his large instrumental compositions, as well as most of the rest of his oeuvre, are in minor keys.

For nearly two decades Rachmaninov managed to divide his time comfortably among composing, conducting and performing, with composing having priority. But this idyllic life was changed drastically in 1917 by the Russian Revolution which, as a conservative and traditionalist, he viewed with horror. That year, Rachmaninov left the country with his family never to return, eventually settling in the United States. His sources of income having dried up, he became a full-time pianist for the rest of his life, leaving him little time to compose.

One of Rachmaninov’s late works was the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, composed in 1934, a set of variations based on the 24th Caprice from Niccoló Paganini’s Caprices for Violin Solo, Op. 1. This Caprice – itself a set of bravura variations – has also served such diverse composers as Chopin, Liszt, Schumann, Brahms, Schnittke and Lutoslawski.

Rachmaninov played the premiere with the Philadelphia Orchestra in Baltimore under the baton of Leopold Stokowski.

The piece opens with an introduction that hints at the theme to come,

followed by the first variation (which he labeled “precedente”), a skeletal version of the theme itself, using only the first note of each of Paganini’s measures

– Beethoven had used a similar device to open the set of variation in the Finale of the Symphony No. 3 (Eroica), a stunningly novel approach for the time. Only afterwards does Rachmaninoff present the theme in full, following it with 23 more variations and a mischievous two-measure coda. The Variations give the pianist the same kind of virtuosic workout as its model did for showman Paganini.

In the Rhapsody, Rachmaninov reveals an inventiveness – and even an uncharacteristic sense of humor – that rendered it an instant success with audiences and pianists alike. While the Paganini Variations concentrate on virtuosic pyrotechnics, Rachmaninov imbues the little tune with a wide array of eccentric rhythms

(Var. 2), clever harmonizations

(Var. 15) and changing moods.

(Var. 8) Yet however much a variation appears to stray from the theme, the underlying harmonic structure remains constant.

Rachmaninov provides two surprises that save the work from unrelenting repetitiveness so common with long sets of variations. One is in Variation 7 with the appearance of a second theme, the Dies irae chant from the Catholic Mass for the Dead that reminds mourners of the terrors of the Day of Judgment. It is a theme that recurs frequently in Rachmaninov’s music, usually in the most somber contexts, but here it has a decidedly tongue-in-cheek flavor: while the piano plays the Dies irae, the orchestra continues to play the Paganini theme, with which it conveniently harmonizes perfectly

. The Dies irae recurs in later variations, but always balanced by the main theme and never imposing its lugubrious atmosphere on the composition.

The second highlight occurs in Variation 18. Nearly all of Rachmaninov’s music is in minor keys. Yet, “compelled” by tradition to compose at least one variation in the opposite mode, he accentuated the contrast by not only composing Variation 18 in the major mode, but inverting the theme as well.

Listeners often think of this variation as a totally new theme. And indeed, it bears a striking similarity to the composer's romantic second themes in his symphonies and piano concerti.

Sergey Rachmaninov
Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18

By 1895 Rachmaninov felt confident enough to compose a symphony. The premiere took place in St. Petersburg in 1897 but was a dismal failure, in large part because to the shoddy conducting of Alexander Glazunov who was under “the influence.” Whereas earlier defeats had produced in the young composer creative defiance, this disappointment brought on a severe depression. For three years he was unable to do any significant composing. After consulting numerous physicians and advisors, even asking old Leo Tolstoy for help, he finally went for therapy and hypnosis in 1900 to Dr. Nikolay Dahl, an internist who studied hypnosis and rudimentary psychotherapy in Paris. The result was one of the first well-known successes of modern psychotherapy. Although the composer was able to return to creative work, relapses into depression dogged him for the rest of his life. Significantly, all his large instrumental compositions are in minor keys, and one of the melodic themes recurring in many of his compositions is theDies irae chant from the Catholic mass for the dead that reminds mourners of the terrors of the day of judgment.

Rachmaninov expressed his gratitude to Dr. Dahl by dedicating the Second Piano Concerto to him. The first performance of the complete work took place in November 1901 with the composer at the piano and was an instant success. It is Rachmaninov's most frequently performed and recorded orchestral work and its popularity has never waned. It even found its way into Hollywood as background music to the World War II movie Brief Encounter.

The first movement, moderato, opens with dark unaccompanied chords on the piano, which increase in intensity and are gradually joined by the orchestra, leading to the first theme. The effect is like the tolling of the giant low-pitched bells common in Russian churches.

The piano introduces the sensuous second theme, one of the composer's signature melodies.

About halfway through the movement as the development continues, a new rhythmic figure makes its appearance

, first as a barely audible accompaniment figure in the flute, then taken up in the piano and timpani as an accompaniment to the second theme.

Increasingly, it crops up all over the orchestra until the piano pounds it out, letting the rest of the orchestra carry the recapitulation of the main theme.

A long rhapsodic coda concludes the movement with a final dramatic burst of energy.

The second movement opens with muted strings, following with hesitant piano arpeggios in left hand.

As the piano remains in the background joined by a solo flute the clarinet finally brings out the theme in its entirety.

The middle section of this ABA form centers on a second theme, which is built on the first and belongs to the piano.

Typically of the middle sections of slow movements, it is more intense and passionate than the A section. It builds in speed and energy in a brief cadenza, after which the gentle atmosphere of the beginning return with variations of the first theme.

The brilliant third movement is characterized by abrupt changes in mood, all based on two themes. It opens deceptively quietly in the lower range of the orchestra, breaking into a sudden sparkling, drivingly rhythmic piano cadenza and finally the main theme.

The second theme, introduced by the violas and oboes, is intensely passionate, and another of the melodies that have made this Concerto so popular.

To conform to this new romantic mood, Rachmaninov rhythmically transforms his first theme.

Suddenly, the tempo increases to presto and we're in a whirlwind development of the first theme, including a little truncated fugue.

Then it's back to romantic second theme, more mood swings until after a short cadenza the second romantic theme is taken up by the highest instruments in the orchestra, culminating in a glittering climax.