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MASTERWORKS PROGRAM NOTES Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43 The piece is scored for solo piano, two flutes and piccolo, two oboes and English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, and strings. Duration is 24 minutes. Last performance by the Colorado Symphony was October 17 & 18, 2009 with Olga Kern as the soloist and Jeffrey Kahane conducting. Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) was Russian born. However, with the onset of Revolution, he departed for the West and never returned to his homeland. Therefore, some of his greatest works – including that on this program – had their premier performances far from his native land. As one of the greatest pianists of his – or any generation, Rachmaninoff frequently focused on this, his favorite instrument. His catalog includes four piano concerti by name; the work that concerns us at the moment would have been the fifth, had the composer not chosen instead a more colorful title. The Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, which was premiered by its composer in 1934 in Philadelphia, is a set of twenty-four variations upon a theme by that most gifted of violinists, Nicolo Paganini (1782-1840). Paganini’s theme is stated after a brief introduction to set the stage, and then set in ever new guises. It is not a concerto in the conventional sense, in that it comprises only one movement, rather than the usual three, but observant listeners will note that this single movement still follows the usual tempo pattern, beginning and ending briskly, with a contrasting center section at a slower pace. This middle portion builds toward the Rhapsody’s most famous variation, the lyrical 18th that uses a free inversion of the theme, that is, where the pitch formerly rose, it now falls, and where it fell, it now rises. Although the Paganini caprice serves as the Rhapsody’s foundation, a subsidiary melody is also featured at times, the plainchant Dies Irae from the Requiem Mass. This most familiar of all religious themes, conveying its whiff of fire and brimstone, has been used frequently by composers in various devilish contexts. Its appearance here may be a recollection of the old legend concerning Paganini’s fiendish skill deriving from a pact with the devil, or perhaps it is only due to the composer’s awareness that this theme and the caprice are similar in shape. Whatever his reason, Rachmaninoff’s use of these contrasting melodies brings an additional richness to the now much-beloved Rhapsody.
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PROGRAM 8 SOUNDINGS 2013/14 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG