Symphony No. 3 (Rachmaninoff)
Encyclopedia
Sergei Rachmaninoff
composed his Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 44 between 1935 and 1936. The Third Symphony is considered a transitional work in Rachmaninoff's output. In melodic outline and rhythm it is his most expressively Russian symphony, particularly in the dance rhythms of the finale. What was groundbreaking in this symphony was its greater economy of utterance compared to its two predecessors. This sparer style, first apparent in the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
, enhances the emotional power of the work.
The symphony was premiered on November 6, 1936, with Leopold Stokowski
conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra
. Critical opinion was divided and public opinion negative toward the work. Rachmaninoff remained convinced of the piece's worth, however, and conducted the Philadelphia Orchestra in the first recording of the work in 1939. Following the reevaluation of Rachmaninoff's work in the 1970s, the symphony has been viewed in a more favorable light and has been frequently played and recorded.
—a symphonic innovation for Rachmaninoff. The work employs cyclic form
, with the subtle use of a motto theme
combined, as usual with Rachmaninoff's works, with references to the plain-chant Dies irae
. Also like Rachmaninoff's motto themes—and thus differing from Tchaikovsky's—it is short and, by tending to assume various shapes, is easily workable for further symphonic development. The piece is approximately 40 minutes long.
. He arrived at his newly built Villa Senar
on Lake Lucerne
in Switzerland
in late April 1935 with the prospect of writing a symphony in mind. Satisfied with his new home and in good spirits, Rachmaninoff seemed definitely up to the task. On May 15 he informed Sofiya Satin that he had done “some work,” and during the following weeks was seriously at work with the composition. However, a three-week cure at Baden-Baden in July, along with a two-week hiatus in August, put Rachmaninoff behind. Five days before leaving Senar at the end of his summer holiday, Rachmaninov wrote to Satin with some dissatisfaction, "I have finished two-thirds in clean form but the last third of the work in rough. If you take into account that the first two-thirds took seventy days of intense work, for the last third – thirty-five days – there is not enough time. Travels begin and I must get down to playing the piano. So it looks as though my work will be put aside until next year."
Near the end of the 1935-36 concert season, recitals in Switzerland enabled Rachmaninoff to pay a brief visit to Senar. He evidently took the score of the symphony with him when he left, since he had it with him in Paris in February 1936 for Julius Conus to mark bowings in the string parts. Work on the last movement had to wait until the composer arrived at Senar on April 16 for the summer holiday. On June 30, the composer reported to Satin, “Yesterday morning I finished my work, of which you are the first to be informed. It is a symphony. Its first performance is promised to Stokowski—probably in November. With all my thoughts I thank God that I was able to do it!" Rachmaninoff arrived in America just in time for final rehearsals of the work’s premiere.
, the composer’s only new work to be successful with the public, had received a mixed reaction from the press upon its premiere. The day after the Third Symphony premiered, Edwin Schloss wrote for The Philadelphia Record
that he found the work "a disappointment," with "echoes ... of the composer’s lyric spaciousness of style" but largely sterile. Even Olin Downes
, normally a champion of the composer’s works, was not so sure about this piece. Oddly, he seemed to contradict himself, accusing Rachmaninoff of saying nothing new yet admitting a greater independence of style:
Samuel L. Laciar, reviewing the work for the Public Ledger, gave a more positive assessment. He called the symphony "a most excellent work in musical conception, composition and orchestration," adding that Rachmaninoff "has given us another example in this work that it is not necessary to write dissonant music in order to get the originality which is the greatest—and usually the single—demand of the ultra-moderns." W.J. Henderson of the Sun was perhaps most accurate in summing up both the work and the situation the critics faced in assessing it:
and Third Concerto
s, the Second Symphony
, The Isle of the Dead and, more recently, the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, came expecting a quite different work than the one they heard. As Barrie Martyn phrases it, "The public had doubtless been misled by the old-style romanticism of the eighteenth Paganini variation and were perplexed to find that Rachmaninoff had after all advanced beyond the 1900’s; the critics, on the other hand, condemned him just because they felt that he had not."
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...
composed his Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 44 between 1935 and 1936. The Third Symphony is considered a transitional work in Rachmaninoff's output. In melodic outline and rhythm it is his most expressively Russian symphony, particularly in the dance rhythms of the finale. What was groundbreaking in this symphony was its greater economy of utterance compared to its two predecessors. This sparer style, first apparent in the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
The Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in A minor, Op. 43 is a concertante work written by Sergei Rachmaninoff. It is written for solo piano and symphony orchestra, closely resembling a piano concerto. The work was written at Villa Senar, according to the score, from July 3 to August 18, 1934...
, enhances the emotional power of the work.
The symphony was premiered on November 6, 1936, with Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Anthony Stokowski was a British-born, naturalised American orchestral conductor, well known for his free-hand performing style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from many of the great orchestras he conducted.In America, Stokowski...
conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra
Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. One of the "Big Five" American orchestras, it was founded in 1900...
. Critical opinion was divided and public opinion negative toward the work. Rachmaninoff remained convinced of the piece's worth, however, and conducted the Philadelphia Orchestra in the first recording of the work in 1939. Following the reevaluation of Rachmaninoff's work in the 1970s, the symphony has been viewed in a more favorable light and has been frequently played and recorded.
Form
The symphony contains only three movements but its central one fulfills the dual role of slow movement and scherzoScherzo
A scherzo is a piece of music, often a movement from a larger piece such as a symphony or a sonata. The scherzo's precise definition has varied over the years, but it often refers to a movement which replaces the minuet as the third movement in a four-movement work, such as a symphony, sonata, or...
—a symphonic innovation for Rachmaninoff. The work employs cyclic form
Cyclic form
Cyclic form is a technique of musical construction, involving multiple sections or movements, in which a theme, melody, or thematic material occurs in more than one movement as a unifying device. Sometimes a theme may occur at the beginning and end Cyclic form is a technique of musical...
, with the subtle use of a motto theme
Leitmotif
A leitmotif , sometimes written leit-motif, is a musical term , referring to a recurring theme, associated with a particular person, place, or idea. It is closely related to the musical idea of idée fixe...
combined, as usual with Rachmaninoff's works, with references to the plain-chant Dies irae
Dies Irae
Dies Irae is a thirteenth century Latin hymn thought to be written by Thomas of Celano . It is a medieval Latin poem characterized by its accentual stress and its rhymed lines. The metre is trochaic...
. Also like Rachmaninoff's motto themes—and thus differing from Tchaikovsky's—it is short and, by tending to assume various shapes, is easily workable for further symphonic development. The piece is approximately 40 minutes long.
- Lento - Allegro moderato - Allegro
- Adagio ma non troppo - Allegro vivace
- Allegro - Allegro vivace - Allegro (Tempo primo) - Allegretto - Allegro vivace.
Composition
Rachmaninoff composed his Third Symphony after writing his Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and Variations on a Theme of CorelliVariations on a Theme of Corelli (Rachmaninoff)
Variations on a Theme of Corelli , Op. 42, is a group of 20 variations on Arcangelo Corelli's Sonata for violin, violone, and harpsichord , composed by Russian Sergei Rachmaninoff in 1931. Corelli's work was itself a set of variations on the Folia theme, which was popularly used as the basis for...
. He arrived at his newly built Villa Senar
Villa Senar
Villa Senar is an estate built in Switzerland by the Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff. He purchased the plot of land near Hertenstein near Lake Lucerne in 1932. The name of the estate originated from the names of Rachmaninoff and his wife: Sergei and Natalia, by combining the first two letters...
on Lake Lucerne
Lake Lucerne
Lake Lucerne is a lake in central Switzerland and the fourth largest in the country.The lake has a complicated shape, with bends and arms reaching from the city of Lucerne into the mountains. It has a total area of 114 km² , an elevation of 434 m , and a maximum depth of 214 m . Its volume is 11.8...
in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
in late April 1935 with the prospect of writing a symphony in mind. Satisfied with his new home and in good spirits, Rachmaninoff seemed definitely up to the task. On May 15 he informed Sofiya Satin that he had done “some work,” and during the following weeks was seriously at work with the composition. However, a three-week cure at Baden-Baden in July, along with a two-week hiatus in August, put Rachmaninoff behind. Five days before leaving Senar at the end of his summer holiday, Rachmaninov wrote to Satin with some dissatisfaction, "I have finished two-thirds in clean form but the last third of the work in rough. If you take into account that the first two-thirds took seventy days of intense work, for the last third – thirty-five days – there is not enough time. Travels begin and I must get down to playing the piano. So it looks as though my work will be put aside until next year."
Near the end of the 1935-36 concert season, recitals in Switzerland enabled Rachmaninoff to pay a brief visit to Senar. He evidently took the score of the symphony with him when he left, since he had it with him in Paris in February 1936 for Julius Conus to mark bowings in the string parts. Work on the last movement had to wait until the composer arrived at Senar on April 16 for the summer holiday. On June 30, the composer reported to Satin, “Yesterday morning I finished my work, of which you are the first to be informed. It is a symphony. Its first performance is promised to Stokowski—probably in November. With all my thoughts I thank God that I was able to do it!" Rachmaninoff arrived in America just in time for final rehearsals of the work’s premiere.
Instrumentation
The Symphony is scored for Piccolo, 2 Flutes, 2 Oboes, English Horn, 2 Clarinets (B♭, A), Bass Clarinet (B♭, A), 2 Bassoons, Contrabassoon, 4 Horns (F), 2 Trumpets (B♭, A), Contralto Trumpet (F), 3 Trombones, Tuba, 3 Timpani, Xylophone, Triangle, Side Drum, Cymbals, Bass Drum, Tambourine, Tam Tam, Harp (or Celeste), Violins I, Violins II, Violas, Cellos, Double Basses.Critical
In retrospect, it is difficult to assume what the critics of the 1930s expected from Rachmaninoff. Even the Rhapsody on a Theme of PaganiniRhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
The Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in A minor, Op. 43 is a concertante work written by Sergei Rachmaninoff. It is written for solo piano and symphony orchestra, closely resembling a piano concerto. The work was written at Villa Senar, according to the score, from July 3 to August 18, 1934...
, the composer’s only new work to be successful with the public, had received a mixed reaction from the press upon its premiere. The day after the Third Symphony premiered, Edwin Schloss wrote for The Philadelphia Record
The Philadelphia Record
The Philadelphia Record was a daily newspaper published in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from 1877 until 1947. The Record was founded in 1877 as a one-cent daily newspaper...
that he found the work "a disappointment," with "echoes ... of the composer’s lyric spaciousness of style" but largely sterile. Even Olin Downes
Olin Downes
Olin Downes was an American music critic.He studied piano, music theory, and music criticism in New York and Boston, and it was in those two cities that he made his career as a music critic—first with the Boston Post and then with the New York Times...
, normally a champion of the composer’s works, was not so sure about this piece. Oddly, he seemed to contradict himself, accusing Rachmaninoff of saying nothing new yet admitting a greater independence of style:
The outward characteristics of Rachmaninoff’s style are evident in the work head on this occasion. It cannot be said, however, that in these pages Mr. Rachmaninoff says things which are new, even though his idiom is more his own than ever before, and free of the indebtedness it once had to Tchaikovsky. Nor is it easy to avoid the impression, at a first hearing of the work, of a certain diffuseness. There is a tendency to over-elaboration of detail, and to unnecessary extensions, so that the last movement, in particular, appears too long. Would not a pair of shears benefit the proportions of this work?
Samuel L. Laciar, reviewing the work for the Public Ledger, gave a more positive assessment. He called the symphony "a most excellent work in musical conception, composition and orchestration," adding that Rachmaninoff "has given us another example in this work that it is not necessary to write dissonant music in order to get the originality which is the greatest—and usually the single—demand of the ultra-moderns." W.J. Henderson of the Sun was perhaps most accurate in summing up both the work and the situation the critics faced in assessing it:
It is the creation of a genial mind laboring in a field well known and loved by it, but not seeking now to raise the fruit of heroic proportions.... The first movement is orthodox in its initial statement of two contrasting chief subjects. They are contrasted in the customary way, in temper and tonality. But the working out section pays only polite respect to tradition. The development of themes immediately follows their statement and this is Rachmaninoff’s method. The cantabile theme of the first movement is especially attractive in its lyric and plaintive character and the leading subject has virility and possibilities which are not neglected later. In fact, we suspect, after this insufficient first hearing, that there is more organic unity in this symphony through consanguinity of themes than is instantly discernable.
Public
The public was as confused as the critics. Listeners who enjoyed the SecondPiano Concerto No. 2 (Rachmaninoff)
The Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18, is a concerto for piano and orchestra composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff between the autumn of 1900 and April 1901. The second and third movements were first performed with the composer as soloist on 2 December 1900...
and Third Concerto
Piano Concerto No. 3 (Rachmaninoff)
The Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30, composed in 1909 by Sergei Rachmaninoff is famous for its technical and musical demands on the performer...
s, the Second Symphony
Symphony No. 2 (Rachmaninoff)
Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 27 is a music piece by Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, created in 1906–07. The premiere was conducted by the composer himself in St. Petersburg on 8 February 1908. Its duration is approximately 60 minutes when performed uncut; cut performances can be as...
, The Isle of the Dead and, more recently, the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, came expecting a quite different work than the one they heard. As Barrie Martyn phrases it, "The public had doubtless been misled by the old-style romanticism of the eighteenth Paganini variation and were perplexed to find that Rachmaninoff had after all advanced beyond the 1900’s; the critics, on the other hand, condemned him just because they felt that he had not."
Composer
Rachmaninoff, however, was convinced the Third Symphony was one of his best works, and the lukewarm reception it received both disappointed and puzzled him. He summed up the situation in a 1937 letter to Vladimir Wilshaw: "It was played in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, etc. At the first two performances I was present. It was played wonderfully. Its reception by both the public and critics was sour. One review sticks painfully in my mind: that I didn’t have a Third Symphony in me any more. Personally, I am firmly convinced that this is a good work. But——sometimes composers are mistaken too! Be that as it may, I am holding to my opinion so far."Notable Recordings
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External links
- Notes to a performance of the symphony by the Milwaukee Symphony
- Orga, Ates. Programme Note http://www.cadenza.org/library/atesorga.php