03.02.2020
Rachmaninoff: Music for choir and orchestra
On 12 February, Alexander Vedernikov will conduct a concert of music by Rachmaninoff in the Grand Hall of the St. Petersburg Philharmonia. The Mikhailovsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra and Chorus will perform his cantata Spring, Three Russian Songs, and the symphonic poem The Bells.
“The programme is essentially an anthology of Rachmaninoff’s works in the genres of the cantata and oratorio,” says Alexander Vedernikov. “When I was planning this concert, I thought it would be interesting to put his three works for choir and orchestra together. As far as I know, these three compositions are rarely performed in the same programme. I did it once myself in Moscow ‘at the dawn of misty youth’. I hope that this concert will demonstrate how Rachmaninoff’s choral writing, orchestral style, and range of imagery changed with the passage of time.”
“The three works we are going to be performing were composed at different times,” notes Vedernikov. “The cantata Spring was written in 1902, immediately after Piano Concerto No. 2, when the composer was emerging from a creative crisis. I think it is fair to say that these pieces are the epitome of Rachmaninoff’s early style. The Bells was written about a decade after Spring. The composer used Konstantin Balmont’s translation of a poem by Edgar Allan Poe to create a powerful score: a fresco unified by a single idea running through it. Rachmaninoff shows how the ringing of bells accompanies a person throughout their lifetime. He begins with jingling bells reminiscent of a troika ride. After that are the bells rung during a church wedding. Then comes a tocsin, warning of fire and cataclysm, and finally we have funeral bells. Despite this less than life-affirming denouement, the work ends quite brightly. The Bells is scored for a large orchestra, featuring an organ, a piano, a celesta, a triple woodwind section, six horns, and three soloists, in addition to the choir.”
“It is a great pleasure for me to introduce our soloists,” continues Alexander Vedernikov. “Boris Pinkhasovich is, I believe, known and loved in St. Petersburg. A leading soloist at the Mikhailovsky Theatre (Kammersänger, to use the German term), he will sing the solo in Spring and the baritone part in The Bells. Anastasia Moskvina, a leading soloist at the Belarus Opera Theatre, will be singing in this concert and also our next, a performance of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony. And finally, we have the young tenor Giorgi Sturua, who also regularly appears in Mikhailovsky Theatre productions.”
“The third piece is from a later period, and is closer in time to the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and the Symphonic Dances,” adds the conductor. “The Three Russian Songs were inspired by the celebrated mezzo-soprano Nadezhda Plevitskaya. Her singing drew the admiration not only of Nicholas II, but also of Rachmaninoff. There is a surviving recording in which he accompanies her in the last of the three songs: ‘Quickly, quickly, from my cheeks the powder off’. These are authentic transcriptions of three Russian folk songs, but infused with the composer’s style — what might be called his later style. The Three Russian Songs will be performed by the Mikhailovsky Theatre Chorus and Orchestra.”
“The programme is essentially an anthology of Rachmaninoff’s works in the genres of the cantata and oratorio,” says Alexander Vedernikov. “When I was planning this concert, I thought it would be interesting to put his three works for choir and orchestra together. As far as I know, these three compositions are rarely performed in the same programme. I did it once myself in Moscow ‘at the dawn of misty youth’. I hope that this concert will demonstrate how Rachmaninoff’s choral writing, orchestral style, and range of imagery changed with the passage of time.”
“The three works we are going to be performing were composed at different times,” notes Vedernikov. “The cantata Spring was written in 1902, immediately after Piano Concerto No. 2, when the composer was emerging from a creative crisis. I think it is fair to say that these pieces are the epitome of Rachmaninoff’s early style. The Bells was written about a decade after Spring. The composer used Konstantin Balmont’s translation of a poem by Edgar Allan Poe to create a powerful score: a fresco unified by a single idea running through it. Rachmaninoff shows how the ringing of bells accompanies a person throughout their lifetime. He begins with jingling bells reminiscent of a troika ride. After that are the bells rung during a church wedding. Then comes a tocsin, warning of fire and cataclysm, and finally we have funeral bells. Despite this less than life-affirming denouement, the work ends quite brightly. The Bells is scored for a large orchestra, featuring an organ, a piano, a celesta, a triple woodwind section, six horns, and three soloists, in addition to the choir.”
“It is a great pleasure for me to introduce our soloists,” continues Alexander Vedernikov. “Boris Pinkhasovich is, I believe, known and loved in St. Petersburg. A leading soloist at the Mikhailovsky Theatre (Kammersänger, to use the German term), he will sing the solo in Spring and the baritone part in The Bells. Anastasia Moskvina, a leading soloist at the Belarus Opera Theatre, will be singing in this concert and also our next, a performance of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony. And finally, we have the young tenor Giorgi Sturua, who also regularly appears in Mikhailovsky Theatre productions.”
“The third piece is from a later period, and is closer in time to the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and the Symphonic Dances,” adds the conductor. “The Three Russian Songs were inspired by the celebrated mezzo-soprano Nadezhda Plevitskaya. Her singing drew the admiration not only of Nicholas II, but also of Rachmaninoff. There is a surviving recording in which he accompanies her in the last of the three songs: ‘Quickly, quickly, from my cheeks the powder off’. These are authentic transcriptions of three Russian folk songs, but infused with the composer’s style — what might be called his later style. The Three Russian Songs will be performed by the Mikhailovsky Theatre Chorus and Orchestra.”
