Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto
What to listen for
Piano Concerto No. 3: 1st movement: solo piano music fully integrated with the orchestra vs episodes where the soloist is the main focus; 2nd mvt: lyrical, impassioned piano; 3rd mvt: fi ery virtuosity and a triumphant bravura conclusion.
Short Ride in a Fast Machine: propulsive repeated rhythms and phrases with unexpected syncopations; woodblock pulse; a growing sense of movement, speed, and excitement; wide range of orchestra timbres (colors)
Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks: Till’s theme, an impish French horn solo, which recurs several times; listen also for a clear narrative arc as the orchestra tells of Till’s adventures.
Other works by these composers
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2; Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Adams: The Chairman Dances; Chamber Symphony
Strauss: Don Juan; Also Sprach Zarathustra; Don Quixote
Sergei Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30
Composer: born April 1, 1873, Semyonovo, Starorusky District, Russia; died March 28, 1943, Beverly Hills, CA
Work composed: 1908-09. Dedicated to pianist Josef Hofmann.
World premiere: November 28, 1909, with Rachmaninoff at the piano, under the direction of Walter Damrosch and the New York Symphony.
Instrumentation: solo piano, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, snare drum, and strings
Estimated duration: 44 minutes
Sergei Rachmaninoff began working on the Third Piano Concerto in the summer of 1908 at his family’s estate at Oneg, and rushed to complete it in time for his first tour of North America, in the fall of 1909. On the voyage to the United States, Rachmaninoff had no access to a piano, so he took along a cardboard keyboard to practice and memorize the demanding solo part.
After the premiere, and a second performance in New York led by Gustav Mahler, Rachmaninoff arrived in Boston. He made such a magnificent impression that he was asked to assume the post of Music Director for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, an offer he declined. Despite his success, Rachmaninoff heartily disliked America. In a letter to his cousin Rachmaninoff wrote, “In this accursed country you’re surrounded by nothing but Americans and their ‘business,’ ‘business’ they are forever doing, clutching you from all sides and driving you on. Everyone is nice and kind to me, but I am horribly bored by the whole thing, and I feel that my character has been quite ruined here.” Lonely and homesick, Rachmaninoff returned to Russia in February 1910.
The extraordinary virtuosic and musical demands of the Third Concerto make it one of the most challenging works in the repertoire. The soloist plays almost constantly throughout, and must combine ear-popping virtuosity with a chamber musician’s collaborative ability to listen and blend into the orchestra.
When Rachmaninoff discussed the thematic origins of the Third Concerto, he denied any specific influences. “It is borrowed neither from folk song forms nor from church services. It simply ‘wrote itself,’” he stated about the primary melody, in which the pianist enters, subdued, underneath the orchestra. “If I had any plan in composing this theme, I was thinking only of sound. I wanted to ‘sing’ the melody on the piano, as a singer would sing it – and to find a suitable orchestral accompaniment, or rather one that would not muffle this singing.” Rachmaninoff sincerely believed the theme was his creation, but every composer’s music derives from a collection of influences assimilated, often unconsciously, over a lifetime. Regarding the melody in question, scholars have found strikingly similar music in monastic chants from the Russian Orthodox liturgy. which Rachmaninoff heard regularly as a child.
The Intermezzo and Finale are played without pause, an abrupt transition from the reflective melancholy of the second movement to the ferocious virtuosity of the Finale.
John Adams: Short Ride in a Fast Machine
Composer: born February 15, 1947, Worcester, MA
Work composed: 1985; composed for the Pittsburgh Symphony to perform at the inaugural concert of the Great Woods Center for the Performing Arts.
World premiere: Michael Tilson Thomas led the Pittsburgh Symphony on June 13, 1986, at Great Woods, in Mansfield, MA
Instrumentation: 2 flutes (both doubling piccolo), 2 oboes (1 doubling English horn), 4 clarinets, 3 bassoons (1 doubling contrabassoon), 4 horns, 4 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, woodblock, triangle, xylophone, crotales, glockenspiel, suspended cymbal, sizzle cymbal, snare drum, pedal bass drum, large bass drum, large tam-tam, tambourine, 2 synthesizers (optional), and strings
Estimated duration: 4 minutes
“The image that I had while composing this piece was a ride that I once took in a sports car,” John Adams said in an interview. “A relative of mine had bought a Ferrari, and he asked me late one night to take a ride in it and we went out onto the highway … it was an absolutely terrifying experience to be in a car driven by somebody who wasn’t really a skilled driver.” Later, looking back on that wild ride, Adams recalled, “I had not yet recovered … and it was somewhat still on my brain when I began to think about what kind of fanfare I would write [for the Pittsburgh Orchestra]. Short Ride is somewhat an evocation of that … which was both thrilling and also a kind of white-knuckle anxious experience.
“The piece starts with the rhythmic knocking of the woodblock, which creates a rhythmic gauntlet through which the orchestra has to pass,” Adams continued. “We hear typical fanfare figures in the brass but in a rat-a-tat staccato form … part of the fun of Short Ride is making these large instruments – tuba, double basses, contrabassoon, the entire brass section – move. They have to boogie through this very resolute and inflexible pulse set up by the woodblock.” Adams acknowledged Short Ride is a challenge for any orchestra; it’s “very difficult to play but quite a bit of fun.” Idiosyncratic tempo markings like the opening “delirando” (deliriously) indicate Adams’ concept of a headlong go-for-broke race to the finish.
Richard Strauss: Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche, Op. 28 (Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks)
Composer: born June 11, 1864, Munich; died September 8, 1949, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany
Work composed: Strauss initially conceived Till Eulenspiegel as an opera, but eventually recast his musical ideas into a symphonic tone poem. He finished it on May 6, 1895.
World premiere: Franz Wüllner conducted the premiere on November 5, 1895, in Cologne.
Instrumentation: piccolo, 3 flutes, 3 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, E-flat clarinet, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, ratchet, snare drum, triangle, and strings
Estimated duration: 16 minutes
In his tone poems Don Juan and Death and Transfiguration, Richard Strauss cemented his reputation as an innovator. Yet artistic pioneers often pay a price for their forward-looking vision. So it was with Strauss: conservative critics and audiences’ traditional notions of music clashed with his modern ideas. In Strauss’ efforts to justify himself in the eyes of his detractors, the composer saw the character of Till Eulenspiegel – a prankster who cheerfully thumbs his nose at all conventions – as his own alter ego.
The fictional character Till Eulenspiegel first appeared in a collection of humorous stories published in Germany in 1511. The tales describe Till’s escapades, as he hoodwinks various authority figures. As a result of his constant pranks, Till is always one step ahead of the law, until he is finally caught and executed for blasphemy. The name Eulenspiegel (pronounced OY-len-shpee-gle) literally means “owl’s mirror,” and refers to an old German proverb: “One sees one’s own faults no more clearly than an owl sees its own ugliness in a looking glass.” Both sly and clueless, Till is oblivious to his own failings, even as he simultaneously embodies humanity’s shortcomings.
Conductor Franz Wüllner, who led the premiere, asked Strauss to explain the underlying story. Strauss initially refused, saying, “I really cannot provide a program for Eulenspiegel. Any words into which I might put the thoughts that the several incidents suggested to me would hardly suffice; they might even offend. Let me leave it, therefore, to my listeners to crack the hard nut the Rogue has offered them. By way of helping them to a better understanding, it seems enough to point out the two Eulenspiegel motifs, which, in the most diverse disguises, moods, and situations, pervade the whole up to the catastrophe when, after being condemned to death, Till is strung up on the gibbet. For the rest, let them guess.”
Strauss eventually wrote a detailed outline of the music in a friend’s copy of the score; his comments begin with “Once upon a time there was a knavish fool …” over a graceful introductory melody for strings; Till’s signature tune for solo horn follows. Strauss goes on to detail Till’s adventures: he rides horseback through the marketplace, creating pandemonium, and escapes into a mouse-hole. Till then disguises himself as a priest, “oozing unction and morality,” and later flirts with a village maiden who rejects him. Stung, Till “vows revenge on the whole human race” (horns bleating angrily). He then encounters some Philistines, who expound on various deep theories (bassoons and bass clarinet). Till confounds them with his own ridiculous theories and hurries away, mocking them with a whistled tune. This faux sermonizing (derisive statements from the orchestra, punctuated by Till’s theme), leads to Till’s trial. The snare drum represents the inescapable force of law, which finds Till guilty. Despite his conviction, Till continues to scorn the proceedings until the noose chokes off his last breath (a shrill, derisive exclamation by solo clarinet). The music concludes with the return of the “once upon a time” theme. All is as it was – or is it? Till’s irrepressible spirit transcends death and remains alive and at large to this day.
© Elizabeth Schwartz