Sergei Prokofiev: Concerto No. 3 for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 26
Sergei Prokofiev, one of the twentieth century’s leading composers was born in Sontsovka (Ukraine) on April 27, 1891, a date that fell near the end of the era of Tsarist rule. It is one of history’s greatest ironies that Prokofiev died on March 5, 1953, the same day as the Communist dictator, Joseph Stalin. His Third Piano Concerto was composed and received its first performance in Chicago on December 16, 1921 with the composer as soloist and Frederick Stock conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. It is scored for 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, percussion (bass drum, castanets, tambourine, and cymbals), and strings.
First performed in Chicago on December 16, 1921 with the composer as soloist and Frederick Stock conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto has emerged as one of the most popular works of its kind written in this century. The reasons for this popularity are evident enough to anyone who has heard the work and has admired its immense energy, brilliant virtuosity, wit, and sweeping lyricism. Of the five concertos for piano penned by the Russian master, this is the most frequently performed. Although it received its premiere in 1921, the Third Piano Concerto contains musical ideas that Prokofiev conceived as early as 1911. One of the motoric themes from the first movement’s Allegro comes from that year. The theme from the second movement was written in 1913, and two of its variations were composed in 1916-17. Two themes from Allegro ma non troppo finale come from a discarded Quartet dating from 1918. Despite its fragmented genesis, the Third Piano Concerto emerges as a wholly integrated work that manages successfully to retain certain thematic links among its three movements. The composer spent the better part of the summer of 1921 in Brittany forging the final version of the composition.
The first movement (Andante-Allegro) contains a wealth of melodic ideas—now lyrical, nowdriven as a perpetual motion. The general tonal cast is that of its home key of C major, in keeping with Prokofiev’s preference for writing in a clearly tonal idiom and eschewing the atonal tendencies of his contemporaries. The second movement is labeled Tema con variazioni. Its gently martial theme is followed by five variations with a coda that brings the theme back in a new orchestration with the soloist in an accompanying role. A striking formula punctuates the final cadence of the theme as well as each of its variations, giving the audience a clear signpost of the movement’s form. The finale is a whirling, waltz-like affair that balances the wealth of themes found in the opening movement with an impressive amalgamation of its own thematic ideas. Clarity of formal design, a hallmark of Prokofiev’s style, is everywhere apparent throughout this masterly work.
Notes by David B. Levy © 2008/2016
Sergei Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances, Op. 45
Sergei Vassilevich Rachmaninoff was born in Oneg, Novgorod on March 20/April 1, 1873 and died in Beverly Hills, CA on March 28, 1943*. Famed as both pianist and composer, Rachmaninoff left Russia after the Revolution of 1917, eventually taking up residence in the United States. His Symphonic Dances was written in 1940 and marks his final composition. It received its premiere on January 3, 1941 with Eugene Ormandy conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra. The work is dedicated to these musicians. The work is scored for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, alto saxophone, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, tambourine, side drum, cymbals, bass drum, tamtam, xylophone, glockenspiel, tubular bells, harp, piano, and strings. *NB: The variation of dates reflect the difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars.
The Russian-born pianist and composer Rachmaninoff falls into the tradition of the great performer-composers of the Romantic style that began with figures such as Niccolo Paganini and Franz Liszt. Like his great predecessors when at their best, his music avoids the self-indulgent kind of virtuosity-for-its-own-sake practiced by less gifted musicians. His music often is quite sentimental, but his melodic gifts were more than sufficient to prevent it from becoming maudlin. In his Symphonic Dances, however, the composer abandoned his earlier style in favor of a leaner, more angular (dare one say modern?) idiom. Had he lived longer, who knows where this new style might have led him?
Rachmaninoff composed the Symphonic Dances while living at the Honeyman Estate in Centerport (Long Island), New York. His original title for this three-movement suite was Fantastic Dances, with movement titles of “Noon”, “Twilight”, and “Midnight”. As the title of the work implies, the composer considered this music suitable for ballet. He hoped that thefamous choreographer Fokine would take an interest in it, as he had done with the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini for piano and orchestra, but the project came to naught. A simultaneously-composed version for two pianos also exists, having been performed by the composer andVladimir Horowitz at a private party in August, 1942. The orchestral version has become Rachmaninoff’s testament—a work that spans his entire life’s work.
An example of this lies in the energetic first dance, marked enigmatically Non allegro,where he quotes at the end the opening theme of his First Symphony (1897), which in turn wasderived from motifs characteristic of Russian church music. There is a double sense of nostalgia here as Rachmaninoff spent much of his time after 1918 away from his native Russia. Also, when first performed, his Symphony No. 1 was a flop. An interesting feature of this movement is his prominent writing for the saxophone, an instrument that rarely was to be found in a symphony orchestra (his compatriot, Sergei Prokofiev, also used the saxophone in some of his works). Encouragement to do so came from the composer/arranger Robert Russell Bennett. The movement is in three clearly delineated sections, the middle part being lyrical, and the last part returning to the theme and mood of the opening.
After its harsh opening in the brass, the second movement (Andante con moto. Tempo di valse) morphs into a curious waltz (in 6/8 time), whose material is a transformation of ideas from the first movement. Colorful writing for the winds punctuate the brass chords, followed by a melancholic tune sung by the English horn and strings that becomes more agitated as it moves toward its conclusion. The movement is peppered with sliding chromatic scales and chord progressions that give the music a restless feeling of unease. The listener would be forgiven if Maurice Ravel’s evocative choreographic poem, La valse, comes to mind.
The final dance is alternates between two tempi (Lento assai and Allegro vivace) and depicts a struggle between Death, represented by the Western Gregorian chant from the Mass for the Dead, the Dies Irae, and Resurrection represented by a quotation from the ninth movement of Rachmaninoff’s Russian Orthodox a cappella choral work of 1915, All-night Vigil. The latter citation is marked in the score with the word “Alliluya.” The Dies irae tune was used many times in the concert repertory, including Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, Liszt’s Totentanz, and other examples by Rachmaninoff himself (Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini). The text of the Russianchant reads “Blessed be the Lord” (Blagosloven yesi, Gospodi). By setting Western and Eastern chants in apposition and opposition, Rachmaninoff may be interpreted as translating the dual “citizenship” of his own career into musical terms. The composer is quoted as having statedsomewhat prophetically about his Symphonic Dances, “It must have been my last spark.” That the Russian Resurrection hymn proves triumphant may also be interpreted as Rachmaninoff’s personal wish that his legacy would be redeemed, as much as a hope for his own resurrection after his death. He needn’t have worried. His music plays on.
Program Note by David B. Levy, © 2017
