Symphonic Dances

To be born into a landed family on an idyllic country estate in rural Russia and to die in Beverley Hills with the glitterati of Hollywood as neighbours, implies an eventful life for Sergei Rachmaninov. Sergei's peaceful early years were brought to an end by the gross mismanagement of the family estate by his father, Vasily. The family were obliged to leave the countryside for a small flat in St. Petersburg where Rachmaninov and two of his four siblings contracted diphtheria from which his sister Sophia died. The strain on the marriage was too great with Vasily humiliated and eventually deserting his family. In spite of these tensions at home, Sergei was reported to be a high-spirited child playing truant from his classes at the St. Petersburg Conservatoire and eventually failing all of his courses. The threat of expulsion and the loss of a valuable scholarship needed nepotistic intervention provided by Rachmaninov's highly esteemed cousin, Alexander Siloti. The Director of the Conservatoire agreed to allow Sergei to continue only if he came under the authoritarian tutelage of Nikolai Sverev at the Moscow Conservatoire. Sergei was to be accompanied to Moscow by his seventeen year-old sister Elena. Sadly she died of anaemia so, with a hundred roubles sewn into his coat, twelve-year old Sergei took the train to Moscow to begin his lifetime of music.

Where most would be content to enter the musical arena with one outstanding talent, Rachmaninov was equally successful as a pianist, conductor and composer. Although he was highly regarded in Russia, Rachmaninov's future was bound up in the West. He set sail for America in 1909 where New World audiences were the grateful recipients of both his pianistic and compositional genius. By 1917, back in Russia, he found his life under threat as the revolution gathered momentum and, disturbed by the emerging aggression of the peasants at his country retreat, he accepted an invitation to give some concerts in Stockholm. Quickly gathering his family, visas and borrowed money, he left St. Petersburg on the 23rd December, arriving fatigued and distressed in Sweden with a few items of hand luggage and two thousand roubles. He lived in exile for the rest of his life. After a brief period in Scandinavia earning a precious income as a pianist, Rachmaninov returned to the USA. Although he was offered the directorships of the Cincinnati and Boston Orchestras, he was not inclined to spend his time overseeing the music of others. His compositions alone, however, could not support the family so, aided by such influential friends as Fritz Kreisler and Josef Hofmann, he embarked on a series of concerts and recitals amounting over the years to more than one thousand performances. Rachmaninov still found the inspiration to compose a third and fourth piano concerto, a third symphony, the "Paganini Variations" and, his final work, the "Symphonic Dances". His thoughts on composing give a deep insight. "Composing is as an essential part of my being as breathing or eating. My constant desire to compose music is actually the urge within me to give tonal expression to my thoughts. I am a Russian composer and the land of my birth has influenced my temperament and outlook. My music is the product of the temperament and so it is Russian music; I never consciously attempt to write Russian music, or any other kind of music. What I try to do, when writing down my music, is to say simply and directly that which is in my heart when I am composing. If there be love, or bitterness, or sadness, or religion, these moods become a part of my music". Very few listeners have not been touched by the emotional message of this great musician.

To those familiar only with the piano concertos, Rachmaninov's "Symphonic Variations" will prove an exhilarating introduction to the rest of his inspiring output. Cast in three colourfully orchestrated and contrasted movements, the music is an apt summary of his life's work. The original titles of "Noon", "Twilight" and "Midnight" were withdrawn by the composer "so as not to give too much away". The first movement has elements of a march surrounding a central episode in an almost Mahlerian "countryside" vein. After a short muted introduction from the brass, the second movement settles into an exhilarating waltz, full of seductive melodies and rhythms. The final movement nods more than briefly at a Spanish idiom with a lyrical middle section of pure Rachmaninov warmth and feeling.